Louis van Gaal

Van Gaal was brought up catholic. His first wife died in 1994 and he remarried in 2008. In 2022, he revealed that he was undergoing treatment for prostate cancer and that it was successful.

He played his youth career with RKSV de Meer.

Playing Career

Van Gaal began his playing career at a small club but moved to Ajax at the age of 20. Only managing to make the second team, Louis van Gaal never broke into the first team at the famous Dutch giants.

In a team that had the likes of Johan Cruijff and Johan Neeskens, it was unlikely that van Gaal would make the grade.

Throughout his career, van Gaal was just an average player and even though he signed for Royal Antwerp, Telstar, and Sparta Rotterdam, he was known more for his understanding of the game than his playing skills.

Most of his playing days were spent at Rotterdam where van Gaal slowly got into the mold of a coach, and out of that of a player.

Coaching Career

In 1986, van Gaal became Leo Beenhakker’s assistant coach at AZ Alkmaar. In 1991, as Beenhakker left the club, van Gaal took over. At the end of the 1991 season, van Gaal began his actual coaching stint, with Ajax.

In 1991, after ending a year at AZ Alkmaar, Louis van Gaal moved to Ajax to begin the first of his many successful seasons as a top-flight coach.

From 1991 to 1997, van Gaal stayed at the helm of Ajax football club and in 1994, 1995, and 1996, won three consecutive Eredivisie titles in a row. This came at the back of a UEFA Cup triumph in 1992 and the KNVB Cup title in 1993.

Van Gaal also won the Johan Cruijff Sheild for three consecutive seasons, starting in 1993, through to 1995.

In 1995, Ajax also beat defending champions AC Milan in the finals of the 1995 UEFA Champions League. Later in the same year, they went on to win the Intercontinental Cup/Toyota Cup, by beating Gremio to the title.

In 1996, Ajax again went to the finals of the Champions League, only to lose to Juventus on penalties.

Van Gaal had built the entire Ajax team primarily from youth squad members. The team was so good that the entire Dutch national team had around 9 players, in the first eleven, from Ajax’s first eleven.

At the end of his Ajax contract, van Gaal was awarded the Order of the Orange-Nassau, the Dutch equivalent of a knighthood.

The Blaugrana & Oranje Years

Between 1997 and 2000, Van Gaal continued the long-standing tradition of Dutch coaches at FC Barcelona. He had his tiffs with the media and players, especially with Rivaldo Ferreira who van Gaal wanted to play on the wing.

The player, however, was adamant about his central position. Along with this, van Gaal had numerous other run-ins with the media regarding his coaching philosophies.

Despite everything, van Gaal did manage to win two league titles, in 1997-98 and 1998-99, along with a Spanish Cup as well.

The Dutch turned to Van Gaal for the National Team job, hoping to get a good result. However, the Dutch failed to qualify for the 2002 FIFA World Cup under Van Gaal’s leadership.

Van Gaal returned to Barcelona but for just half a year.

Back Home

In 2004, van Gaal decided to return home and joined Ajax as their technical director. However, a year later, he was on his way out primarily due to an internal conflict with the board members. Then it was decided that in 2005, he would replace Co Adriaanse as the manager at AZ Alkmaar.

In 2006-07, van Gaal took the club to third place in the Eredivisie, just three points behind the league winners PSV Eindhoven.

In 2008-09, van Gaal stayed on with AZ to prove that the players had a chance to prove themselves at the highest level. The season began with two losses to NAC Breda and ADO Den Haag.

Then they began an unbeaten run that saw them go until 18th April 2009, without losing a game. They had the best defensive record in the league and the second-highest goal-scoring record thanks to Mounir El Hamdaoui and Ari.

A day later, AZ was crowned champions despite their unexpected loss to Vitesse a day earlier. This was primarily because Ajax, who still had a mathematical chance of beating them, lost to PSV Eindhoven (2-6) on the same day.

Bayern Munchen

At the end of the season, van Gaal was asked to join Bayern Munich to stem the rot that had brought the club to some of its poorest results in history.

Van Gaal referred to it as his dream job and went about making things right. The start of the season was hardly ideal. Van Gaal’s Bayern won just one of the 4 games at the start, mounting speculation on his capabilities.

Van Gaal stuck to the theory that his form of training requires time and that Bayern would come around. He brought in Arjen Robben from Real Madrid, while a feud with Luca Toni saw the striker being loaned out to AS Roma.

With numerous in-fighting rumors coming out and with Bayern on the verge of being thrown out of the Champions League group stage, it all came down to the final group stage game against Juventus, in Turin. A loss would mean elimination from the tournament and possibly the exit of van Gaal as well.

However, Bayern came alive that night and lit Turin up with a 4-1 win over the Italian giants.

Van Gaal kept his job and Bayern swiftly moved into the semi-finals of the German Cup as well. In March, Bayern went to the top of the league table, ahead of Bayer Leverkusen.

In the same month, they qualified for the finals of the German Cup, beating Schalke.

Less than two months later, Bayern Munich was crowned champions of Germany in the League and a week later, won the German Cup.

Van Gaal’s team also reached the finals of the UEFA Champions League, meeting Jose Mourinho, a former assistant coach, in the finals.

Inter Milan beat Bayern by 2 goals to nil, denying van Gaal the treble while getting one themselves, in the process.

Van Gaal won the 2010 Manager of the Year award in Germany to become the first non-German to do so.

From 2014 to 2016, he worked with Manchester United.

He announced his retirement in 2016 but continues to come back to manage the Netherlands National Team.

Honors

Individual Honors

• 1995 - World Soccer Manager of theYear
• 1995 - Onze d’Or Coach of the Year
• 1995 - European Coach of theYear—Sepp Herberger Award
• 1995 - El País Manager of the Year
• 1994–95 - European Coach of theSeason
• 2007, 2009 - Rinus Michels Award
• 2009, 2014 - Dutch Sports Coach ofthe Year
• 2009 - Die Sprachwahrer des Jahres(3rd place)
• 2010 - Football Manager of the Year(Germany)
• 2015 - Anton Geesink Award
• 2017 - Dutch Lifetime AchievementAward
• 2019 - France Football 18thGreatest Manager of All Time
• 1997 - Knight of the Order ofOrange-Nassau

Managerial career

• 1986–1987 - AZ (assistant)
• 1988–1990 - Ajax (youth)
• 1989–1991 - Ajax (assistant)
• 1991–1997 - Ajax
• 1997–2000 - Barcelona
• 2000–2001 - Netherlands
• 2001 - Netherlands U20
• 2002–2003 - Barcelona
• 2004 - Ajax (technical director)
• 2005–2009 - AZ
• 2009–2011 - Bayern Munich
• 2012–2014 - Netherlands
• 2014–2016 - Manchester United
• 2021–2022 - Netherlands