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Louis van Gaal Factbox Posted: Monday January 27, 2003 6:26 PMBARCELONA (Reuters) -- Factbox on Louis van Gaal, who was on the brink of losing his position as Barcelona coach on Monday after the club's decision to seek his departure by mutual consent. 1951: Born August 8, Amsterdam. As a player, had spells at Ajax Amsterdam, mainly in the reserves, FC Antwerp in Belgium, Telstar, Sparta Rotterdam and AZ Alkmaar. In 1986/87 also coach at Alkmaar. 1988: Joined Ajax as assistant coach, taking responsibility for the youth squad and helping develop players such as Marc Overmars, Frank and Ronald de Boer and Patrick Kluivert. 1991: Took over as Ajax head coach from Leo Beenhakker in September. 1992: Won UEFA Cup at the end of first season in charge of Ajax. 1993: Won Dutch Cup. 1994: Won first of three Dutch first division titles, plus Dutch Super Cup. 1995: Guided Ajax to their first European Cup final win for 22 years, beating AC Milan 1-0. Victory in Vienna capped a season which also saw a young Ajax side retain the Dutch league title -- the 25th in the club's history -- and Supercup. In November won World Club Championship against Gremio of Brazil. 1996: Lost European Cup final to Juventus on penalties after the match ended 1-1, but won European Supercup and Dutch league title. 1997: Announced at start of season he would leave Ajax. Lost European Cup semi-final to Juventus, 6-2 on aggregate. Ajax trophy-less for the first time in his tenure, finishing fourth in the league. Replaced Bobby Robson as Barcelona coach. Made disappointing start, losing Spanish Supercup final over two legs to arch-rivals Real Madrid. Side also went out of Champions League at group stage, finishing bottom of group. 1998: Barcelona won Spanish league and King's Cup double for the first time in 39 years. European Supercup also secured with victory over Borussia Dortmund of Germany. 1998-99: Lost Spanish Supercup to Real Mallorca and suffered a second successive exit at first stage of Champions League. Job was under threat after a run of four subsequent league defeats but went on to retain the title, finishing the season 11 points ahead of Real Madrid. 1999-2000: Season started with another Supercup defeat but side started to play brilliant football, particularly in Europe. Hopes of European Cup win dashed by defeat to Valencia in the semifinals. Lost out on league title to Deportivo Coruna on last day of season and resigned on May 20. 2000: Appointed Dutch national coach, July 7. 2001: Failed to win qualification for the World Cup and resigned after 14 international matches in November. 2002, May 17: Presented as Barcelona's new coach for 2002-03 season. Team won 10 successive Champions League games to equal record of AC Milan but domestic form was poor, with an early exit from the King's Cup and failure to keep up with league leaders. 2003: A 2-0 defeat at Celta Vigo on January 26 left the side in 12th place in the league, 20 points behind leaders Real Sociedad and just three points clear of the relegation zone. Barcelona's board met the following day and decided to seek the coach's departure by mutual consent.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. |
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