Louis van Gaal The Biography.epub Gooner torrent

Publisher: Ebury Press (24 July 2014)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0091960142
ISBN-13: 978-0091960148

So who is Louis Van Gaal? An inflexible ex-PE teacher who only knows how to act like a dictator or a footballing visionary that has made him one of the greatest ever European managers?

Wherever he has gone, Van Gaal has been accused of being a domineering disciplinarian and a control freak. He is certainly, by his own admission, a man who leaves nothing to chance. A disciple in the 1970s of Rinus Michels’ Total Football philosophy, he is a fascinating contradiction – an ultra-individualist utterly devoted to the collective effort. He believes in the team over the individual, in always having a plan and a team prepared to follow that plan. Van Gaal led the young Ajax team he moulded to Champions League glory in 1995, went on to win titles across Europe with Barcelona, AZ Alkmaar and Bayern Munich and is currently in his second stint as national coach of Holland. It is a career that has never been short on colour and drama – from fallouts with players to rants at the media wherever he has managed.

Dutch football commentator Maarten Meijer’s has written the definitive biography of Van Gaal – both the man and his methods. It offers the best psychological insight so far – from his earliest roots to his greatest triumphs – into the man given the task of returning the glory days to Manchester United.


Biography


Maarten Meijer spent his childhood years in the small town of
Zeist in the Netherlands. After completing his school education,
he traveled extensively, from Ireland to Turkey, from Finland to
Spain. When Europe became a little small, he sailed a yacht across
the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas. After touring the Caribbean
islands, he landed in the USA. He enrolled at the State University
of New York, receiving a bachelor's degree in science and a master's
degree in philosophy. In 1982, he met his wife Myra, a New York
City native.
In 1991, a taste for new adventure drove the family, which by
then included a daughter and a son, to Russia. Maarten taught
philosophy in Moscow, and again traveled widely, from Riga and
the Crimea in the west to Lake Baikal and Vladivostok in the east.
He received his Ph.D. in Russian literature from Moscow State
University, writing a dissertation on an old favorite, Leo Tolstoy. In
Russia, the family befriended Russian Koreans and Korean natives
and developed a taste for kimchi and Korean hospitality.
This ultimately inspired a move to Korea in 2000. Maarten
taught English at a Seoul university for several years. He is fluent in
English, German, Russian, Dutch, and knows survival-French and
Korean. He is the author of What's So Good about Korea, Maarten?
(Korea, 2005), Guus Hiddink - Going Dutch (Australia, 2006), Dick
Advocaat - de grote droom van de Kleine Generaal (Netherlands,
2009), Education War (Korea, 2009), and Guus Hiddink - portret
van een supercoach (Netherlands, 2010). From March 2006, he has
taught philosophy and ethics at a private international school in the
Korean mountains, while continuing his activities as an author, a
football commentator, and a social critic.
Maarten and Myra have a daughter and three sons. The second
son was born in Moscow; the third in Seoul.