Martin Jol
Personal information
Full name	Maarten Cornelis Jol
Date of birth	16 January 1956 (1956-01-16) (age 53)
Place of birth	The Hague, Netherlands
Playing position	Midfielder
Club information
Current club	Ajax (manager)
Youth career
	Berg I.L.
Senior career1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1973–1978 1978–1979 1979–1982 1982–1984 1984–1985 1985–1989	ADO Den Haag Bayern Munich FC Twente West Bromwich Albion Coventry City ADO Den Haag Total	132 0(9) 009 0(0) 071 0(9) 063 0(4) 015 0(0) 135 0(6) 425 (28)
National team
1980–1981	Netherlands	003 0(0)[1]
Teams managed
1991–1995 1995–1996 1996–1998 1998–2004 2004–2007 2008–2009 2009–	ADO Den Haag (amateurs) Scheveningen (amateurs) Roda JC RKC Waalwijk Tottenham Hotspur Hamburger SV Ajax
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Maarten Cornelis "Martin" Jol (born 16 January 1956) is a Dutch football manager and former midfielder. He is currently the manager of the Dutch football club, AFC Ajax. Prior to joining Ajax he managed German club Hamburger SV and English Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur. Jol played over 400 games during his career which included spells in the Netherlands, Germany, and England, as well as earning three caps with the Dutch national team.^[1]

[edit] Playing career

Jol was born in The Hague. He started his playing career with an amateur team before joining the local professional side ADO Den Haag. He turned professional with Den Haag in 1973.^[2] He won the 1975 Dutch Cup with the team defeating FC Twente. He would play in the Bundesliga for the 1978-79 season with Bayern Munich before returning to the Dutch Eredivisie to play for FC Twente in 1979. While with FC Twente, he won his first cap for the Netherlands national football team in October 1980. Jol moved to England in 1982, joining West Bromwich Albion. He appeared in the semi-finals of both domestic cup competitions in 1981-82. He signed for Coventry City in 1984. Jol returned to Den Haag in 1985, and won the 1985 Dutch Footballer of the Year award in the Eerste Divisie league.

At international level, Jol won 10 schoolboy caps, 20 'B' caps, 12 Under-21 caps and 12 Under-23 caps.^[2] He also made three appearances for the senior team, all of which came in the 1980 Mundialito held in Uruguay in the summer of 1980.^[2]

[edit] Coaching career

[edit] Early career in the Netherlands

Jol's coaching career began in 1991 when he took over at the amateur side ADO Den Haag and took them to the highest local amateur division. Jol then moved to the leading local amateur side Scheveningen for one season where he won the national non-league championship. Jol then spent two years as manager at the professional Eredivisie side Roda JC of Kerkrade, Netherlands, during which time he won the Dutch cup (Roda's first trophy for 30 years). Between 1998 and 2004 Jol managed the Dutch professional team RKC Waalwijk where he saved them from relegation and was honoured as the Dutch Football Writers Coach of the Year in 2001 and Dutch Players and Coaches Coach of the Year in 2002. Manchester United spoke to Jol about becoming their assistant manager in 2003.^[3]

[edit] Tottenham Hotspur

Jol during his period as Tottenham manager.

RKC Waalwijk denied reports in June 2004 that Jol was about to become assistant manager of Tottenham Hotspur.^[4] However, several days later, Jol was given the job under Tottenham's new coach Jacques Santini.^[5] Santini resigned from the manager's job after just thirteen games, and on 8 November 2004 Jol was confirmed as his replacement.^[6] In his first season in charge Jol improved their league fortunes and scrapped the defensive nature of play that Santini had instilled. After winning 5 league games in a row, Tottenham's best run of form since the 1992-1993 season, he won the FA Manager of the Month award in December 2004 and was strongly linked in the press with the then vacant managerial job at Ajax of Amsterdam, however Jol ruled out moving clubs early. Jol led Tottenham to the verge of European qualification but the season ended with a 9th place finish in the Premier League after a final day draw at home to Blackburn Rovers. This meant Spurs missed out on the UEFA Cup spot by two points. In August 2005 he signed a new three-year contract with Tottenham.^[7]

Tottenham warmed up for the 2005-2006 season by winning the pre-season tournament the Peace Cup which featured PSV Eindhoven, Lyon, Boca Juniors and others with Tottenham defeating Lyon in the final. Although Tottenham went out of both cup competitions at the first hurdle, they never once dropped out of the top 6 places in the league, and for much of the season as Tottenham sat in 4th place it looked as though Jol could lead Tottenham into the Champions League. However on the final day of the season, Tottenham's squad was struck down by illness and Spurs were defeated by West Ham, meaning they missed out on Champions League qualification and finished 5th. Nevertheless, Jol had led Tottenham to their highest league finish since 1990, which meant they had qualified for the UEFA Cup via the league for the first time since the ban on English clubs playing in Europe was lifted in 1990. The season saw Tottenham concede just 38 league goals, the fewest the club has conceded since 1971.

The 2006–07 season saw Jol end Tottenham's lengthy hoodoo against Chelsea with a win, the first against them in the league since 1990. Tottenham's form was often inconsistent however, and in mid-February there were murmurs of discontent regarding Jol's management, with the team in the bottom half of the table and having been recently knocked out of the Carling Cup by bitter rivals Arsenal. However, a 4-0 FA Cup win away to Fulham kickstarted a run of form which saw Tottenham take 27 points from their final 12 league games, losing just once. This run saw Spurs surge into 5th place, securing UEFA Cup qualification on the final day of the season, making Jol the first Spurs manager since Keith Burkinshaw to qualify for European football in successive seasons. Tottenham also reached the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup and the FA Cup, losing to the eventual winners in both.

In the summer of 2007, Tottenham signed a number of expensive players spending around £40 million. It has been reported that some of these players were signed on the request of director of football Damien Comolli and that Jol was not allowed to select players he wanted to buy, such as Martin Petrov. When the suggestion of selling star striker Dimitar Berbatov arose, Jol claimed "I'd rather die."^[8]

Because of the large amount of money that had been spent, Spurs were expected to challenge for a top 4 place in the 2007–08 season. However, after Tottenham lost their opening two games, their club secretary John Alexander and director Paul Kemsley were photographed in a Spanish hotel with Sevilla manager Juande Ramos, who then claimed that Tottenham had made him a "dizzying offer" to become their manager, though this was denied by Tottenham's chairman Daniel Levy.^[9] This undermined Jol's position, and he was eventually sacked by the Tottenham board on 25 October 2007 during their 2–1 loss to Getafe in the UEFA Cup.^[10] Jol confessed that he first became aware of the decision when his nephew told him of a text message he received saying Jol was to leave the job.

Jol rejected an approach from Birmingham City to discuss their managerial vacancy in November 2007^[11], but was reported at the time as interested in returning to Premiership football to manage one of the clubs outside the 'top four'.^[12]

[edit] Hamburg

From the 2008–09 season he began coaching Bundesliga club Hamburger SV. For the first time since the 1999–2000 season Hamburg was at the top of the league standings and finally finished 5th place qualifying for the Europa League next season. Hamburg also reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup and the German Cup which were both lost against Werder Bremen.

[edit] Ajax

On 26 May 2009 it was announced that Jol will be the new Head Coach of AFC Ajax.^[13] Jol said he will enjoy returning back to his home country^[14] and on 28 May 2009 he officially signed his 3 year contract.^[15]

On 27 June 2009 AFC Ajax claimed a first victory under Martin Jol against an amateur club D.W.V. Amsterdam. A selection of other matches is set in order to prepare the team for the coming season which starts on 31 July 2009. An Amsterdam Tournament will also take place on 24 and 26 July. AFC Ajax will face Atletico Madrid and Benfica Lisbon.

[edit] Managerial stats

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				G	W	D	L	Win %
AFC Ajax		1 July 2009	Present	-	-	-	-	-
Hamburger SV		1 July 2008	30 June 2009	53	32	6	15	60.38
Tottenham Hotspur		5 November 2004	25 October 2007	148	67	38	43	45.27
RKC Waalwijk		1998	2004	-	-	-	-	-
Roda JC		1996	1998	-	-	-	-	-

^{* stats correct as of last update (28 June 2009).}

[edit] Honours

[edit] As a Manager

[edit] Cups

• 1996–97: KNVB Cup Winner - Roda JC

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Martin Jol

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Martin Jol

• Martin Jol management career stats at Soccerbase
• Dutch national team profile (Dutch)
• Cv Martin Jol (Dutch)
• FussballDaten statistics (German)