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Louis van Gaal is a warmblooded human being

December 27th, 2008 | By: Jan | 22 Comments »

We all know Louis van Gaal. The elegant playmaker. In his youth, destined to follow up Johan Cruyff if he ever left Ajax (which he did, but Louis never made it in Amsterdam as a player). He moved to Antwerp and later to Sparta to become one of Holland’s most intelligent and probably slowest midfielder. He started his coaching career at AZ, as assistant. Moved to Ajax, where he succeeded Beenhakker when he went “home to Madrid” . He won cups, titles and prizes in Amsterdam. As he did in Barcelona, although he never lived up to his promise in Catalunia.

His stint with Oranje was a failure. His technical management at Ajax a disaster as well. But as a coach at AZ Alkmaar, he again proves what a pro he is. A perfectionist. Passionate. Emotional. And hardheaded.

Just check YouTube for the many many hilarious and embarassing interviews and press conferences.

But one person knows Van Gaal inside out. His wife (his second wife; his first wife died of cancer) Truus. They married this year.

I’m not sure if I would be happy with my wife giving interviews like this… I’m not sure if I would want this lady to be my wife, actually

Truus: “I wanted to get married in De Kuip (Feyenoord’s stadium), but Louis said: please suggest something normal next time….”

“The wedding was wonderful. It was important to me, not so important for him. He always regarded me as his wife, but the media kept referring to me as “Louis’ girlfriend”… I didn’t like that.”

“We got married late (after a 14 year long relationship) and mainly because I wanted to get hitched and get married in Vegas, just the two of us. Louis wanted a big celebration. He said: if you have something to celebrate, celebrate!”

“And he hadn’t asked me yet. He did last year. Just before Christmas. He couldn’t go down on his knee because he’d just broken his leg with that stupid re-enactment of his karate kick of 1995. I think a secret marriage would have been wrong. Louis daughters from his first marriage belonged there as well. Their mum died and then their dad would marry secretly…no….”

“I’m a Feyenoord fan and I wanted to get married on the pitch in De Kuip. He didn’t get that. But I said, hey…I’m the bride, ok? It’s my city.”

“But we got married in Portugal instead, where we have a home. We flew our friends in, you know. 80 guests. I was nervous, more than thrilled. All the details, the flowers, the table setting, all that stuff.”

“Louis is very emotional and can be very serious. If he does anything, it needs to be done well. He’s also very honest and naive. That I sometimes find hard. Almost a bad trait, you know. People always take advantage of him. Almost no one is as honest as him. I was event-manager, so I had to be nice to people I didn’t think were nice. Louis didn’t get that. He thought it was the toughest thing in the world. But, it came with the job, you know…”

“Louis expects that everyone is like him. Last year at AZ there were a couple of lazy players, who would turn up late for training regularly. Louis didn’t get that. If you can make your money playing football, how can you behave like that, you know?”

“He was ready to quit. I never thought he’d change his mind. We’d go to some foreign country. There were wonderful clubs, waiting for his signature. But then Schaars and Mendes Da Silva called him. He’d say: “These lads play at AZ for me. I can’t let them down. They want me to stay.” And he stayed.”

“And believe me, there’s still a number of clubs courting him. But he won’t go, he is loyal to AZ. I told him: “wake up, Louis. Do it! If these loyal players are confronted with a huge paycheck, they’ll leave as well.” But he says they won’t. I’m afraid he will be disappointed again.”

“Before I knew him, I thought he was a grumpy arrogant guy like the rest of Holland. But he isn’t. Most of the stuff he shows on telly is not that good, I agree. He can be so agitated and all. I would do that differently. And he does have a funny side. But his work is his life and he takes that serious. Very much so. And Louis thinks people attack him all the time. He needs to laugh more, he looks better when he laughs.”

“Louis says I’m right, but he doesn’t want to change. He feels the others need to change. I just stopped watching his interviews. Last year, I was ready to call these presenters and reporters and tell them my opinion, but I can’t of course…”

“And there’s lots of people who don’t like Louis. This season, AZ lost their first two games. Well well, you can than see how retarted the football world is. The era Van Gaal is over, were the headlines. All the vain reporters were in Alkmaar when AZ played PSV, ready to bury Louis. And when AZ won, I can’t help myself and yell “Too bad of your Saturday night eh? Came all the way for nothing.” I shouldn’t though, because they pick on Louis even more because of that…”

“Louis can’t help himself. He believes in himself and his methods. I told him last: we have a nice house here, a nice house in Portugal. Why do you still want to do it? Stop. Go and do motivationals or analyse on tv. Make good money and don’t carry any responsibilities. Two years back, the English tv offered him a job. I liked it. Good money, interesting lifestyle. But he refused. I’d thank the Lord if he quit.”

“I know what we’d do. Louis would probably take on a study, like psychology. He golfs, we play tennis… Although tennis isn’t that good for us. We play doubles and he keeps on yelling… “Run”, “hit the ball!”… Just play tennis, I tell him.”

“Louis is a homebody. Doesn’t want to go to the movies. And he doesn’t get it either. If we watch a dvd he’ll go: what a silly story. And I tell him, it’s just a movie! He can be so serious. Louis likes basic Dutch food. I light a candle, glass of wine. He doesn’t do a thing in the house, he doesn’t even know how to make coffee. He likes me to spoil him and I like to do just that.”

“He does think I spend too much money. How many coats do you need, he tells me? I tell him to move to Spain or Italy because the money is so good there, but he doesn’t get that. He doesn’t care about money. When he turned 50, I gave him an expensive watch. He didn’t get it. “I already have a good watch”… That’s typical Louis.”

“We never fight. We do debate. Now with that mayor Aboutaleb in Rotterdam… I think: why not select a guy from Rotterdam? Louis thinks I’m stupid in thinking that, while I think he’s stupid with his reasons.”

“We never fight or bicker about domestic stuff. Our life is great. I’m good with his daughters and I play grandma for Louis grandchildren. I love it. I also have a picture of Fernanda (Louis’ first wife) in the room. Why not? She’s grandma too. I never pushed myself as the new mum. Kids can only have one mother. I bought the two grandsons a little AZ jersey. You should have seen Louis’ face. Proud and emotional. Louis is a warmblooded human being. It’s sad that not a lot of people know this.”

This clip shows another side of Louis. He’s interviewed after AZ – Ajax. AZ saw a goal disallowed by the ref for a so-called foul. Louis first demonstrates what his player did and then imitates Heitinga. The poor reporter is the guinea pig

Tags: Ajax, Ari, AZ, Beenhakker, Blind, De Boer, Dembele, Group C, Schaars, van Gaal

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Comments

By shan | December 27th, 2008 at 11:19 am

I like her. She likes to spoil her man. And she is an interesting character.

Posted from United States

By Mario | December 27th, 2008 at 12:02 pm

Guys:

What did van Gaal said in the video???. And what the hell what he was doing dancing and hugind the journalist??? hahaha, can somebody explain me please?

By goose | December 27th, 2008 at 12:26 pm

@Mario ; hes telling the reporter that he is angry that the referee disallowed a goal AZ made and than he showed the reporter what Steinson (the AZ player did and after that showed him what Heitinga )Ajax) did

vGaal is prob. the best “building” manager in the history of dutch football, i rate him even higher than Michels

Posted from Netherlands

By finnster01 | December 27th, 2008 at 12:53 pm

Off topic: Real Madris may have crapped on the CL in a big way. They said they would only bring in new players who could play in the CL. Fine. They are allowed to make 3 changes after the group play to the knock-out stages anyway. Fine.

However,by signing both Diarra from Pompey (Portsmouth) and Hunter they have a major problem. That is because the new rules states that if one player has played in the UEFA cup he is still legible to play in CL. However it does not state plural i.e. what happens if they have 2 players that played UEFA…since both players played, they may have to pick just one. They have evidently applied for a dispensation, but that is no gimmie to pass.

Could be a very costly mistake Real style…LOL

By Mario | December 27th, 2008 at 1:25 pm

Oh my!, finnster01, is Mijatovic retarded or something?. I mean, Lassana Diarra isn´t a great player and besides they made that mistake.

With the money that Madrid has they could have bought a better defensive midfielder. Anyway, hopefully that guy can grow at Real but I am really looking forward to see Huntelaar scoring many goals at Madrid.

By ferenc | December 27th, 2008 at 2:42 pm

seems strange,but diarra would be more logical in the cl than huntelaar. they have only one holding midfielder,gago. if he got suspended or injured they have to take the next game without holding midfielder. it would be absurd. for hunter’s position they have higuain,raul,saviola,bueno. this is sad for huntelaar but logical from ramos’pow. anyway,liverpool will eliminate them,so the problem will resolve soon.

Posted from Hungary

By Miguel Rosado | December 27th, 2008 at 3:03 pm

Van Gaal is the best coach. His Ajax team of the 90’s is the best team I have ever watched they were a machine of beautiful football. Barcelona has played great too but that Ajax was far better.

He failed in the national team but there was the Davids-De Boer drug ban, in the 1rst leg against Portugal and Ireland we didn’t have anyone all the players were injured and many played for the 1rst time for the national team, that killed us. I wonder if Van Basten or any other coach would have been capable of qualifying under that circumstances, my guess is that they wouldn’t.

I do hope Louis takes the national team again some day because he can take us to the top. We lack a winning mentality and he has that.

By ferenc | December 27th, 2008 at 3:20 pm

i don’t think that van gaal was so great. he was in his ajax days but he failed at barcelona. barca lost in 2000 in the semi final against valencia 1-4,2-1. barca was far better than this very great valencia side,and it was a shock for all barca fans. there is no excuse for the non-qualificaton of oranje for the wc 2002. even without davids and fdb we had one of the best squad of the world,3times better than ireland and better than portugal as well. he made horrible tactical mistakes at the portugal game in lisbon. with barca he should have won at least one cl,with oranje he should have won the world championship (we had the squad for that). my expectations were such high and obviously my deception was so,so deep,that i never forgive him. sure,he’s doing great things with az,but i cannot forget all these tragedies. i have never had any doubt about michels – he’s the best coach of football history who deeply revolutionized the whole game. in football there is a before michels and an after michels period.

Posted from Hungary

By telliesblokeenstein | December 27th, 2008 at 4:21 pm

Ajax

Real Madrid

AC Milan

Liverpool

The most classic teams ever

Posted from United States

By Carlos | December 27th, 2008 at 6:13 pm

For the first time in my life I was allotted 2 tickets to EVERY Holland game for the 2002 WC finals, mainly due to them being held in this part of the world. Then guess what happened ?? Thanks Louis ! I do like his wife’s side of the story though – Great article Jan.

Posted from Singapore

By Miguel Rosado | December 27th, 2008 at 7:03 pm

I don’t think Van Gaal failed at Barcelona, in fact after Van Gaal left Barcelona they didn’t win a trophy for years!!!. Everyone was expecting Barcelona to play the way Ajax did but it simply didn’t happen. I think Louis’ error was to be too outspoken with the media, all the press hated him and they criticized him very much.

I don’t get to watch AZ’s games because they barely broadcast them and I’ve been watching some videos on youtube. I’ve to say that I’m very impressed with:
-Schaars, he is a very good player and I can see him playing in the national team already.
-Maartens, he seems to be growing as a player. Might be a good option even if we have many great wingers. He could get a chance.
-De Zeeuw, he is a great player. He never played like that under Van Basten because he didn’t get the freedom he’s getting and Schaars is helping with that because he’s always on his back.
-Da Silva, didn’t get to see much of him but he seems to be a good prospect.

By Felipe | December 27th, 2008 at 8:07 pm

Cool to read Truus’ report about who’s this guy called Louis (in truth, called Alloysius…). She’s sort of saying “well, he has some strange things, but, anyway, he’s a kindful guy”. Touching, in a way.

BTW: I know Goose is the YouTube meister of the blog, but I’d like to collaborate, mainly with those who doesn’t watch Eredivisie a lot. There’s a wonderful soul who started, last week, a channel called “SoccerNL”. Yes, every goal at Eredivisie, from last week on. And also some adventures of Dutch guys abroad. Well, here it is: http://br.youtube.com/user/SoccerNL

Have fun, while Eredivisie Live don’t cut it!

I believe he’ll put the goals on some days…

By Jan | December 27th, 2008 at 9:13 pm

I actually think that guy is Goose!!

By Felipe | December 27th, 2008 at 9:57 pm

No. You’re kidding!

By Mario | December 28th, 2008 at 2:13 am

I agree with Miguel…van Gaal has suffered a lot because of his greatness at Ajax. He did made a team of youngsters the best team in the world and van Basten did that on his own. Of course he had Blind and Rijkaard but when Frank retired Ajax continued playing even better and they would have won the Champions League again vs. Juventus but I remember Kluivert playing injured, de Boer had to leave the pitch due to an injury and a Reiziger and specially Overmars were missed because they didn´t play because they were injured in that game…those things count.

And I disagree with some of you guys who say that he had to make Holland World Champions and Barcelona at least a Champions League winner. At first we have to remember that Holland has never won a World Cup even with Michels and Cruyff and that Barcelona had only won once the CL at the time Van Gaal was their coach because as we all know they won it again under Rijkaard.

Most of the media and the fans are cruel because I remember at Ajax everybody loved his notebook and after he failed at Holland he was severely punished and most commentators and analysts laughed about his notebook saying he looked stupid taking notes in a game. Life is tought but I do remember like Miguel said that our first two games during the road for WC 2002 were held in the Netherlands and those two games were against Ireland and then Portugal. I wish some of you guys can take the time to analyse the players that played in those games and check that some of them were making their debut in the national because as Miguel says many starters were injured or had just retired from the national team. I remember that in those two games we didn´t have Bergkamp anymore and his natural replacement in the team was going to be van Nistelrooy who was injured too….in those games if my memory is working well I remember that Davids, Zenden, Overmars and Stam didn´t play and were van Gaal´s first games and held in Holland and we tied the first and lost the second and with that we were almost out.

But he as a coach is great and I forgive him for that because I know the talent he has and what he did with Ajax and Az is great. And with Barcelona he won two leagues in a row and a Spanish Cup in his first year. Wenger hasn´t won a Champions League with Arsenal and everybody talks he is the man…Van Gaal has won it and created the last team to dominate World football in such a manner that I haven´t been able to see anymore. I´ve seen good periods of Madrid, Milan or Manchester but never those teams were a killing machine feared by all like the Ajax of van Gaal was.

Hopefully he will win the league this year because I am a big fan of him and for all of you who say he doesn´t have any excuse for failing to qualify Holland to WC 02 check the lineups of the games played during the whole qualifying campaign and you will see that in so many games we didn´t have available our best man at that moment and I don´t think I am being easy on van Gaal. I really hated what happened in 2001 when we were eliminated but as a person you have to analyse the whole situation and you will see van Gaal did what he could with what he had at the moment so guys, check the lineups in those games…I don´t have a page where they have those lineups but I will search them on the web.

Anyway, as you can see I am a big fan of him because the last big tournaments won by a Dutch soccer team were won by his Ajax and he created a super generation a Dutch players that we can still enjoy today like van der Sar and Seedorf and some spanish players that not all of us know this but Xavi, Puyol and Iniesta were van Gaal´s discoveries. Can we forgive him? I already have and he will still be making headlines for his great eye for this beautiful game.

By Mario | December 28th, 2008 at 2:15 am

In the first paragraph I wanted to say van Gaal did that on his own, not van Basten who hopefully he can emulate that. =). I am drunk????hahaha.

Just kidding friends.

By Jan | December 28th, 2008 at 2:55 am

Mario, I like your pro Van Gaal rant. I’m a fan too .

I do feel he didn’t do that bad in the qualifications overall, but he dropped the ball against Portugal twice. The away blunder was too much for me.

He also annoyed the hell out of the players. Even big fans like De Boer Bros said so. He treated them as if they were youngsters at Ajax. As national coach you have to treat the players differently. So, I think it’s safe to say that he is a great club coach, but not equipped as team manager.

As for the Dutch club winning the last European cup, thatis actually Feyenoord in 2002 under Van Marwijk

By Mario | December 28th, 2008 at 3:30 am

I agree with you Jan and many have said that van Gaal behaved as a club coach…I am sure that was stupid of him because he lost control of the situation and I think he will never coach Holland again but football is crazy and you never know and life offers him one more chance at a national team for sure he will be wiser. But if he ever takes again the Dutch post the pressure on him would be very strong so I think he is better at a club like you say. Can he prove us wrong? =)

And of course I knew that Feyenoord won the Uefa Cup in 2002 but for me big victories in football are Champions League, European Championships and of course World Cups. Although I have to recognize that Feyenoord´s victory was impressive and they played excellent with van Marwijk…van Hooijdonks free kicks in that season were extremely accurate and the Uefa Cup is still good but the level as not so high like the Champions.

I also want to make clear that I am saying that Madrid, Manchester, Barcelona, Milan or even Liverpool have had great periods after Ajax of the mid 90´s but in my opinion those teams didn´t dominate World soccer like van Gaal´s Ajax did…perhaps Juve with Zidane came close or even equal for some experts…But my best team of all times for me would have to be between Sacchi´s Milan or Ajax of the seventies…those teams played great football and of course Pele´s Brazilian team which I think is almost unreachable and for me has been the best team of all specially the one that won the World Cup in 1970 in my country, México.

By Mario | December 28th, 2008 at 3:34 am

I forfot to say this: in life there are people that you can´t have mixed feelings about them. Either you love them of you hate them…van Gaal is one those persons who can represent that perfectly. =).

By finnster01 | December 28th, 2008 at 8:59 am

@mario: Good post. I have a different question for you. How secure is Eriksson in Mexico? He is one of many now being linked with the Norway position in the papers over there. Probably nothing to it, but just curious. Any info would be great. Hope you had a great Christmas.

The other people being tossed about for that job is coach Sollied of Heerenveen, still they think Hiddink is in the mix (wishful thinking) and the latest and fastest riser is Carlos Alberto (Captain of the Brazil 1970 team. Not sure why on earth he wants to coach Norway as we have as many technically gifted players as there are sober Irish priests).

By Mario | December 29th, 2008 at 12:23 am

Finnster, thanks and my best wishes for you too. Let me tell you that here in México the pressure on Eriksson is intense and he was going to get fired because the only reason México made it to the next qualifying round is becuase we had better goal average than Jamaica and that is why my country could get to next round if not México would have been eliminated from the WC and that is something the fans and the press can´t tolerate because we played really bad and we have one of the strongest squads that México has ever had with a few players doing a good job in Europe.

What experts and the press can´t stand anymore is that it is clear he doesn´t know anything about Mexican players and he doesn´t know anything about Concacaf´s adversaries and the first game that México will play in the next round will be against USA in USA and if Eriksoon losses he might probably get fired because for Mexicans that game is like a Real Madrid-Barcelona just to ilustrate you how important that game is. Mexican Federation just kept him in the job because if he was axed the Federation would have had to hire a new coach and the next qualifying round starts in Febraury so the next coach will not be able to gel a squad but the main concern in my country is that in the past round we had easier rivals and now we will have tougher ones and Eriksson just got one point when México was as visitor so everybody doubts he will do a good job. I think that if he doesn´t win vs. USA or next game he will be fired. He is a good coach but I think at his age he is more into money than soccer because here they pay him pretty well, he lives in the most expensive area of the country and the apartment he rents is so expensive to just millionaries live in those kind of buildings in México…so if he is to take Norway spot some day you know why he´ll do it my friend.

By Alex | December 29th, 2008 at 6:23 am

I think V.Gaal could win the UEFA cup(CL would be a bit to high I’m afraid) with AZ if he manages to keep his team intact for the most part. BTW, Graziano Pelle has finally scored a goal for AZ The best thing of V.Gaal is that he believes in strategy and management, and he has always said that Dutch clubs like AZ and Ajax could win european titles despite having a lot less money to spend then say Real Madrid, and I agree. I think with a good youth department, good scouting, clever managing and a good trainer it is still possible.
About Schaars, Martens , De Zeeuw and Mendes da Silva, you’re right, they are some of the more consistent players at AZ, so i’d like to see Mendes try one or two games as right-back for Oranje. In that case V.Marwijk could put Heitinga and Boulahrouz in centre, i’d like to see how they hold up together.

Posted from Netherlands

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