Louis van Gaal was enjoying happy days in Portugal and had put football aside for five years. For real. The Dutchman had even sworn to his wife, including live on television. The fight against prostate cancer occupied his daily life. Van Gaal knows the enemy intimately: his first wife died of illness at age 39 in 1994.
Why dive back? Maybe because the tall man (1.87m) thinks highly of Dutch football and himself. Saturday December 3, against the United States, the septuagenarian must lead Oranje in lack of flavor when he returns, in August 2021, for a third term (after 2000-2001 and 2012-2014) at the head of the selection From the Netherlands.
When his federation asks him for help to take over the team eliminated in the round of 16 of Euro 2021 and badly embarked on its qualifying group for the 2022 World Cup, van Gaal “don’t hesitate for a second”. The pensioner hears “save Dutch football”because, he will say during his presentation, “there were no coaches available, or certainly not of my quality”.
“The problem with him is not that he takes himself for God, but for the father of God”, once summed up his former president at Bayern, Uli Hoeness. His XXL ego does not rest on sand, however. The Batavian led the best clubs, won titles everywhere (Champions League 1995 with Ajax Amsterdam, double champion of Spain with Barcelona, German champion with Bayern, FA Cup with Manchester United).
Unknown when he becomes the head coach of Ajax, he congratulates his leaders for their choice: “Bravo, you have signed the best coach in the world! » No wonder according to David Endt, his teammate in the various youth teams of the Amsterdam club in the early 1970s. “At the time, already, the know-it-all side of Louis could arouse the irritation of some”confides the one who will later become the manager of Ajax.
But this former gymnastics teacher would obviously be wrong to keep his thoughts to himself. “Everyone says it, and I have seen it myself: van Gaal is very often right, whether in football or not”assures the director Geertjan Lassche, who shared the daily life of the native of Amsterdam for three years, during the filming of Louis, a documentary released in April.
A Golden Ball on the bench
Right or wrong, there are ways of saying it, and van Gaal tends to ignore them. “It wasn’t the easiest job in the world when I was Ajax’s press secretarylaughs David Endt. Everyone remembers his famous reply to a journalist at a press conference: “Am I very smart or are you very stupid?” I then suggested to him to put a little water in his wine. Answer: “I could do it. But I don’t want to betray who I am.” It then became a bit of a game for the media, to push him as far as possible until he pulled the pin. »
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