 Van Gaal in 2014 | |||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Aloysius Paulus Maria van Gaal[1] | ||||||||||||||||
| Date of birth | 8 August 1951[2] | ||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Amsterdam, Netherlands | ||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)[3] | ||||||||||||||||
| Position(s) | Midfielder | ||||||||||||||||
| Team information | |||||||||||||||||
Current team | Ajax (advisor) | ||||||||||||||||
| Youth career | |||||||||||||||||
| RKSV de Meer | |||||||||||||||||
| Senior career* | |||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) | ||||||||||||||
| RKSV de Meer | |||||||||||||||||
| 1972–1973 | Ajax | 0 | (0) | ||||||||||||||
| 1973–1977 | Royal Antwerp | 41 | (7) | ||||||||||||||
| 1977–1978 | Telstar | 25 | (1) | ||||||||||||||
| 1978–1986 | Sparta Rotterdam | 248 | (26) | ||||||||||||||
| 1986–1987 | AZ | 17 | (0) | ||||||||||||||
| Total | 331 | (34) | |||||||||||||||
| Managerial career | |||||||||||||||||
| 1988–1990 | Ajax (youth) | ||||||||||||||||
| 1991–1997 | Ajax | ||||||||||||||||
| 1997–2000 | Barcelona | ||||||||||||||||
| 2000–2001 | Netherlands | ||||||||||||||||
| 2001 | Netherlands U20 | ||||||||||||||||
| 2002–2003 | Barcelona | ||||||||||||||||
| 2005–2009 | AZ | ||||||||||||||||
| 2009–2011 | Bayern Munich | ||||||||||||||||
| 2012–2014 | Netherlands | ||||||||||||||||
| 2014–2016 | Manchester United | ||||||||||||||||
| 2021–2022 | Netherlands | ||||||||||||||||
Medal record
| |||||||||||||||||
| *Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||||||||||||||||
Aloysius Paulus Maria "Louis" van Gaal (Dutch pronunciation: [luˈʋi vɑŋ ˈɣaːl] ;[a] born 8 August 1951) is a Dutch former football player and former manager who currently serves as an advisor for Ajax. At club level, he served as manager of Ajax, Barcelona, AZ Alkmaar, Bayern Munich and Manchester United, as well as having three spells in charge of the Netherlands national team. Van Gaal is one of the most decorated managers in the history of the game, having won 20 major honours in his managerial career at club level, contrasting with his mediocre results coaching the Dutch national team.[4][5] He is sometimes nicknamed the "Iron Tulip".[6][7][8]
Before his career as a coach, Van Gaal played as a midfielder for Royal Antwerp, Telstar, Sparta Rotterdam, Ajax and AZ Alkmaar. He is also a qualified physical education teacher, and worked at high schools during his career as a semi-professional footballer.[9] After a brief spell as an assistant coach at AZ, Van Gaal served as an assistant under Leo Beenhakker at Ajax, and eventually took over as head coach in 1991. Under his lead, the club won three Eredivisie titles, the UEFA Cup and the UEFA Champions League. He moved to Barcelona in 1997 and won two league titles and one Copa del Rey, but left after disagreements with the club's hierarchy.
Van Gaal was then appointed at the Netherlands, but failed to qualify for the 2002 FIFA World Cup. This preceded another brief spell at Barcelona, before he returned to AZ, where he won an Eredivisie title, the club's second ever in its history. He moved to Bayern Munich in 2009, and in Germany won the Bundesliga, the DFB-Pokal and reached the final of the UEFA Champions League. He returned to manage the Netherlands for a second time, where he led the nation to a third-place finish at the 2014 FIFA World Cup. He was hired by Manchester United later that summer, where he won the FA Cup, before being dismissed in 2016. Despite announcing his retirement due to family reasons in 2019, Van Gaal returned to management in August 2021, when he was appointed as head coach of the Netherlands for a third time.[10] He retired from management after the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
- ^ "Squad List: FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022: Netherlands (NED)" (PDF). FIFA. 15 November 2022. p. 20. Archived (PDF) from the original on 30 November 2022. Retrieved 16 November 2022.
- ^ "Van Gaal: Louis van Gaal: Manager". BDFutbol. Archived from the original on 8 December 2022. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
- ^ Ronay, Barney (19 May 2014). "Louis van Gaal: an aristocrat of the game". Irish Times. Archived from the original on 7 November 2022. Retrieved 20 May 2014.
- ^ Perrin, Charles (19 May 2014). "WATCH Manchester United boss Louis Van Gaal's career factfile". Sunday Express. Archived from the original on 21 November 2022. Retrieved 6 September 2015.
- ^ "Former Man Utd boss Louis van Gaal retires for family reasons". Sky Sports. 17 January 2017. Archived from the original on 8 December 2022. Retrieved 19 February 2017.
- ^ Bew, John (26 February 2015). "The life and times of the Iron Tulip: Who is Louis van Gaal?". New Statesman. Archived from the original on 13 May 2021. Retrieved 21 September 2019.
- ^ Jackson, Jamie (23 May 2016). "Louis van Gaal: from Iron Tulip to muddled thinker at Manchester United". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 19 November 2022. Retrieved 21 September 2019.
- ^ Lui, Max (24 August 2014). "Biography: King Louis van Gaal is the Iron Tulip". Irish Independent. Archived from the original on 8 December 2022. Retrieved 21 September 2019.
- ^ Van der Kaaij, Meindert (1997). Louis van Gaal (in Dutch). Utrecht: Kwadrat, cop. p. 43 onw. ISBN 90-6481-277-2.
- ^ "Louis van Gaal named as Netherlands manager for third time". The Guardian. 4 August 2021. Archived from the original on 2 September 2021. Retrieved 6 August 2021.
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