The Hague, Nov 3 (IANS) Dutch football coach Louis van Gaal has said he is open to accepting a job from a club since no country is going to hire a foreigner after Sven-Goran Eriksson and Fabio Capello have ruined the chances of others.
‘The opportunities to coach a country are now minimal, hardly anyone chooses a foreigner anymore. England have tried it twice with Sven-Goran Eriksson and Fabio Capello, but those two have ruined it for the rest,’ he said.
‘There’s little doubt that the English FA will appoint an Englishman when they need a new manager,’ he continued. ‘I would have given myself a chance with Argentina, but they chose a youth coach (Alejandro Sabella) instead,’ he told Dutch football magazine Voetbal International Wednesday, Xinhua reported.
Van Gaal, who is on a sabbatical after being fired by Bayern Munich in Aril, has received some offers from clubs.
‘At some point it becomes difficult to say no because I received very challenging offers from real top clubs.’
During his time at Bayern, the 60-year-old Dutchman said he only wanted to coach a country after his period in southern Germany. He even spoke about his preferred countries, Netherlands, Spain, Argentina, England and Germany.
That intention no longer remains valid, Van Gaal said.
Van Gaal was also in charge of Dutch club Ajax, Barcelona and AZ Alkmaar, winning lots of trophies. He won the Champions League with Ajax in 1995.
His stint as national coach of the Dutch team was, however, a major disappointment, the team failing to qualify for the 2002 World Cup.
— Indo-Asian News Service
vs/vm