He had also been traded as a national coach, now Louis van Gaal (72) has another job: The Dutchman returns to Ajax Amsterdam – but not as a coach.
As Ajax Amsterdam announced on Tuesday evening, van Gaal will become an advisor to the Dutch top club. He will advise the supervisory board “on football-related matters”, according to the club’s website. Van Gaal thus also replaces interim club boss Jan van Halst, who is retiring from the supervisory board.
“I want to help Ajax,” the 72-year-old is quoted as saying in the club’s statement. He is “willing to make my football knowledge available to the supervisory board”. In return, however, van Gaal will not move his centre of life to the Netherlands, but will remain resident in Portugal, where “most of my life takes place”, according to van Gaal, who lives in the Algarve. “It’s easy to reconcile that with this role as an external adviser.” Ajax must find its way “back to the top and we can and must all contribute to that. “
Ajax is currently in a difficult sporting situation. In the league, the capital club is only in tenth place after a disastrous start to the season, the worst in 60 years. Most recently, the match against Feyenoord Rotterdam had to be abandoned due to rioting by Ajax fans. This was compounded by the dismissal of technical director Sven Mislintat, who had pushed through the transfer of Borna Sosa from Stuttgart to Amsterdam despite a conflict of interest.
Van Gaal had already worked as a coach for Ajax from 1991 to 1997 and won the Champions League with the club in 1995. Most recently, he worked as the Dutch national coach until the World Cup in Qatar. He had ruled out a comeback as coach for health reasons, as he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer last year. Most recently, van Gaal, who coached FC Bayern from 2009 to 2011, was also considered as Hansi Flick’s successor as German national coach.
