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Louis van Gaal

Personal information
Full name	Aloysius Paulus Maria van Gaal
Date of birth	8 August 1951 (1951-08-08) (age 58)
Place of birth	Amsterdam, Netherlands
Playing position	Midfielder
Club information
Current club	Bayern Munich (manager)
Youth career
	RKSV de Meer
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps (Gls)†
1972–1973	Ajax	000 0(0)
1973–1977	Royal Antwerp	043 0(7)
1977–1978	Telstar	025 0(1)
1978–1986	Sparta Rotterdam	248 (26)
1986–1987	AZ	017 0(0)
Total		333 (34)
Teams managed
1991–1997	Ajax
1997–2000	Barcelona
2000–2002	Netherlands
2002–2003	Barcelona
2005–2009	AZ
2009–	Bayern Munich
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals).

Aloysius Paulus Maria "Louis" van Gaal (born 8 August 1951 in Amsterdam) is a Dutch football manager currently in charge of the German club Bayern Munich.

[edit] Career

After a career as a football player for Royal Antwerp, Sparta Rotterdam, and AZ, he became an assistant-coach in 1986. After a short career at AZ, he went to Ajax to become Leo Beenhakker's assistant. When Beenhakker left in 1991, van Gaal took over as manager.

[edit] Ajax

He was Ajax manager from 1991 until 1997 and had a very successful tenure. Under van Gaal, Ajax became the Eredivisie champion three times, in 1994, 1995 and 1996. He also led Ajax to the KNVB Cup in 1993 and the Johan Cruijff Shield from 1993 to 1995. On the European scene, Ajax captured the UEFA Cup in 1992 and the UEFA Champions League in 1995 after beating AC Milan in the final. Late in 1995, Ajax beat Brazilian side Grêmio on penalties to win the Toyota Cup (formerly Intercontinental Cup). Ajax were the European Cup runners-up in 1996 after losing to Juventus on penalties.

Ajax was so successful under Van Gaal's leadership that during the 1990s, the Dutch national team was dominated by Ajax players such as Patrick Kluivert, Marc Overmars, Frank and Ronald de Boer, Edgar Davids, Winston Bogarde, Michael Reiziger, and Edwin van der Sar.

[edit] Barcelona

In 1997, he moved to Barcelona and helped the team win two league championships. Despite this success, he came under criticism and quit the job three seasons later. He returned to the Netherlands to manage the Dutch national team in preparation for the 2002 FIFA World Cup. They failed to reach the final tournament, after losing to Ireland in Dublin.

[edit] Netherlands and return to Barcelona

The Dutch national team failed to qualify for the World Cup Finals, and subsequently van Gaal was replaced by Dick Advocaat. He returned to Barcelona for a short spell, but left the job after half a year to be replaced by Radomir Antić.

[edit] Return to Ajax

In 2004, he returned to Ajax as a technical director, but resigned later that year due to an internal conflict.

[edit] AZ

Van Gaal with AZ.

In 2005, he replaced Co Adriaanse as AZ manager. AZ finished the 2006-2007 season in 3rd place in the Eredivisie, 3 points behind champions PSV and runners-up Ajax. Van Gaal also led AZ to a runners-up finish in the 2007 KNVB Cup. AZ failed to reach the UEFA Champions League after losing to Ajax 4-2 on aggregate.

Louis van Gaal initially announced he would leave AZ at the end of the 2007/2008 season due to disappointing results.^[1] However, when several players of the AZ squad pointed out that they would like Van Gaal to stay with AZ for the 2008-2009 season, van Gaal said he would give the players a chance to prove themselves.

[edit] 2008-09 season: Eredivisie champions

AZ started the 2008–09 season with two losses: 2-1 to NAC Breda and 0-3 to ADO Den Haag, but after that the Alkmaar-based club remained unbeaten until 18 April, topping the League ahead of FC Twente and Ajax for the entire season. AZ had the best defensive record in the Eredivisie and the second-best goalscoring record, thanks to its offensive duo of league topscorer Mounir El Hamdaoui and Brazilian Ari. They were crowned league champions on 19 April, one day after AZ suffered an unexpected loss at home to Vitesse, which ended a string of 28 unbeaten games. That same day Ajax, the only opponent still technically able to reach them, lost 6–2 to PSV.^[2][3]

[edit] Bayern Munich

On 1 July 2009, van Gaal took over as coach of Bayern Munich.^[4][5] Van Gaal referred to his new employer as a "dream club".^[6]

[edit] Career statistics

[edit] Manager

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				G	W	D	L	Win %
Ajax		1991	1997	?	?	?	?	?
Barcelona		1997	2000	114	66	19	29	57.89
Netherlands		2000	2002	14	8	4	2	57.14
Barcelona		2002	2003	19	6	5	8	31.58
AZ		2005	June 30, 2009	132	80	26	26	61.36
Bayern Munich		July 1, 2009		24	15	7	4	57.69

[edit] Honours

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Louis van Gaal

• 1 x Champions League: 1994-95 (with Ajax)
• 1 x Intercontinental Cup: 1995 (with Ajax)
• 1 x UEFA Cup: 1991-92 (with Ajax)
• 2 x UEFA Super Cup: 1995 (with Ajax), 1997-98 (with Barcelona)
• 4 x Dutch Eredivisie: 1993-94, 1994-95, 1995-96 (with Ajax), 2008-09 (with AZ)
• 1 x KNVB Cup: 1992-93 (with Ajax)
• 3 x Johan Cruijff Shield: 1993-94, 1994-95, 1995-96 (with Ajax)
• 2 x Spanish League: 1997-98, 1998-99 (with Barcelona)
• 1 x Copa del Rey: 1997-98 (with Barcelona)
• 2 x Rinus Michels Award (2007, 2009)
• 1 x Audi Cup (2009)

[edit] See also

• List of European Cup and UEFA Champions League winning managers
• List of UEFA Cup winning managers

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Louis Van Gaal Official Website
• Profile and stats
• Louis van Gaal management career stats at Soccerbase
• CV Louis van Gaal
• Van Gaal: My football philosophy, from FIFA.com