Masters of Sport: Ronald Koeman

He started as a player, then felt more like a coach than a trainer and is now developing as a manager as well. On January 1, Ronald Koeman will pick up the thread as coach of the Dutch national team, which he guided to the final round of the European Championship in 2020. On the eve of the World Cup in Qatar, he is waiting to see what legacy his predecessor Louis van Gaal will leave behind. In conversation with Jaap de Groot, Ronald Koeman does not only elaborate on that, but also on his own development and that of top soccer.

We'll start at the beginning. As a player, were you more of a trainer or more of a coach?

"More coach. Actually from a young age. I was always thinking about tactical moves on the field. As I got older that has only intensified. I have always had a clear idea about how soccer should be played and it was clear as day that I would continue as a coach after my career. At FC Groningen I started quietly. I was the very youngest in the dressing room, yet I thought it was the most normal thing in the world that I took the penalties. I didn't think that was cheeky, because I knew I was good at it and that's why I wanted to take them right away. Then, in the beginning at Ajax, I was a bit of a peasant from Groningen, but because I played in the 4-position, I experienced an important growth in Amsterdam as a player and as a person. I remember well the first confrontations with Johan Cruijff, who had just started as a coach. On the one hand for me very refreshing, on the other hand there was also struggle. Especially about the way I had to position myself in front of the defense. Then again he thought I was too early, then again I was too late. Not always nice, I didn't always agree either, but it did trigger me. In the end, that eye for detail did shape me. When I went to PSV, under Hans Kraay and later Guus Hiddink I was even more concerned with the team than just my own game. With Hiddink, that went further and further, and eventually, with Sören Lerby, Wim Kieft, Hans van Breukelen and Erik Gerets, I also brought ideas together. Later the same happened with Rinus Michels at the Dutch national team. So I became more and more the extension of the coach and that has only grown. Your own soccer life has a lot of influence on that, of course. I played in a position where you had a lot of overview of the team and the field. A striker like Marco van Basten was much less concerned with that. Attackers want to have the ball in order to score goals. As a defender, you have to think more about the tactics of the team, also because you don't want to get into trouble yourself. Because of that, I thought pretty much as a coach. So not as a trainer. That is something essentially different."

After your playing career, how did you experience the KNVB coaching course?

"Well good. I had Jan Rab and Bert van Lingen as teachers and went once a week to see Foppe de Haan, who was coach at Heerenveen at the time. Although I had been a good soccer player who had played abroad at a high level, I had gained a lot of experience in coaching, but less as a trainer. In that respect, I did go off the deep end during the course. Through the course you mainly get an insight into things you need to learn. Things you have not mastered. Then it's not a question of whether you know soccer, but how you translate that knowledge into training. That's why I found the training science part so interesting. How do you train physically and preferably with a ball? Someone like Foppe de Haan was very good at that. I also found that interesting because I hadn't learned that as a player. Or rather, I had not studied it as a player. When I passed that accelerated pro course, I was included in his staff for the 1998 World Cup by Guus Hiddink with Frank Rijkaard, who had also passed his diploma. Together with Johan Neeskens, we became his assistants. Hiddink killed two birds with one stone. As rookie coaches, we immediately gained unique experiences and he had people who knew a lot about soccer, whom he could trust and who also contributed their ideas. That is why I look back on this period with great pleasure. It was not only quite intense, but also a lot of fun. A beautiful and interesting beginning of a new chapter in top soccer."

But did the trainer course deliver you as a coach or a trainer? 

"More as a coach. Because I stayed close to myself. I think that is also an essential condition. Stay close to yourself and stick to your own ideas. Of course you have to look well around you to pick things up, but the vision that you yourself have developed for decades as a player in top soccer is and remains leading. That is why I am not in favor of former players, with a certain status, spending years working at the highest level. Especially for them it is about the common denominator and not everything needs to be taught during the course. As happened with Frank Rijkaard and me and worked well afterwards."

After training in Zeist and the internship under national coach Guus Hiddink, how has your development progressed? 

"After the World Cup, I was included in Louis van Gaal's staff at Barcelona. At least, in my first season I was placed as an assistant at Barcelona B, which played in the Second Division. With talents like Xavi, Gabri and Puyol, who were all seventeen and eighteen years old. That first season was actually a bit of everything. Completely with the second team and occasionally I was involved with the first. Then Van Gaal showed me games of the first team and he wanted to know what I thought of them.I was also sometimes called by his assistant Frans Hoek during games, while I was sitting at home in front of the tube watching. They wanted to know what I thought or what I would change. Later, when I became a permanent member of the first team, we regularly went through the training sessions and Van Gaal involved me in the debriefing with the group. With his other assistants as well, such as José Mourinho and Gerard van der Lem, he always gauged opinions. Van Gaal always used his assistants very functionally. Only I only worked with the first for a few months. In December I signed a contract at Vitesse, which was then managed by Karel Aalbers. The new stadium had just opened and huge ambitions were expressed. Very interesting everything. Moreover, I noticed that the then Barcelona president Josep Lluís Núnez increasingly saw me as Louis van Gaal's successor. You can explain something like that both positively and negatively. In any case, I did not really have a good feeling about it and thought it better to seek my salvation elsewhere first."

After now a long career as a coach, you have now become more of a manager. 

"I've been working for years in top organizations, where there are specialists for everything. As someone who lives from training, while I am someone who lives from the matches. With the Dutch national team, I grew more and more from coach to manager. This allows you to recognize the specific qualities needed for a good organization, not only in the players, but also in your coaching. With specialists who master some things better than me. That vision was only strengthened after I started having problems with my health. Fortunately, my heart is now functioning fine again, but it has taught me to make choices. By no longer being directly concerned with how a player takes on a ball, but with how I can make the best players function best with each other. That's the essence now."

That's clear. But now that you are rejoining the KNVB, to what extent are you also a sounding board for the federation, for example, on the interpretation of the trainers' course? Pensionado Louis van Gaal ultimately had to be called upon because other Dutch coaches were not deemed good enough.  

"Up front, the national team is something for an older coach. For someone with more experience. I didn't start this profession with the idea of becoming a national team coach. That came later. Everyone thinks it's the best job you could get, but at the right time and not at the beginning of your coaching career. Marco van Basten and Frank Rijkaard are the exceptions, who also did well. But again, they are the exceptions. So many things come your way in this job that you don't learn on the course. As a national coach, I have therefore become even more of a manager. There has to be unity and everyone has to feel involved. Not just the players. After January 1, I will again manage 55 people and 35 players. Before the selection arrives, I always call a meeting with my staff of thirty people. From the cook to the material man. To make it clear to them that they too have an influence on the performance. In addition to all the trainers and physios, I also have someone who very specifically looks at the process between trainer and team with the eyes of a trainer. My main point with that is that in top soccer, for a coach it's not just a matter of technique and tactics. It extends beyond the trainership anyway, while as a coach you are ultimately forced to make the right choices as a manager for the process outside the locker room in addition to the game."

MASTERS MAGAZINE

Want to read more of this interview and find out what Ronald expects from the World Cup? In the fall edition of MASTERS, an interview with LVMH boss Bernard Arnault ("being the richest man in the world didn't do anything for me"), a driving review of the electric Audi RS e-tron GT, on reportage with the 'tree matchmakers' of The Green Contractors, an interview with celebrity chef Dick Middelweerd and on a visit in Barcelona with Ronald Koeman. The war, the climate crisis, the energy problem... More than ever, leadership and entrepreneurship are being called upon. With MASTERS EXPO | The Colourful Edition (December 8 to 12, RAI Amsterdam), we want to contribute in our own way and give the world a push in the right direction. In this edition of MASTERS, a colorful preview of the most exclusive business fair. Time to think ahead, innovate, connect!

MASTERS #51