Arjan van der Laan

Arjan van der Laan
Personal information
Full name Arjan van der Laan
Date of birth (1969-11-10) 10 November 1969
Place of birth Nieuwkoop, Netherlands
Height 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)[1]
Playing position Midfielder
Youth career
SV Nieuwkoop
ARC
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1992–1999 Sparta Rotterdam 212 (54)
1999–2002 FC Twente 93 (14)
2002–2004 ADO Den Haag 44 (8)
2004 → FC Dordrecht (loan) 17 (3)
2004–2006 FC Dordrecht 61 (9)
Teams managed
2013 Sparta Rotterdam (interim)
2013 Sparta Rotterdam (interim)
2015 FC Lisse
2015–2016 Netherlands Women
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

Arjan van der Laan (born 10 November 1969) is a Dutch former footballer, who played as a midfielder. Currently, he is a manager, most recently of the Netherlands women's national football team.

Early life

Van der Laan was born in Nieuwkoop and started playing football at the age of six, at local club SV Nieuwkoop.[2][3] After advancing to the senior team, he wanted to play at a higher level, and applied to ARC from Alphen aan den Rijn, who were competing at the highest amateur level.[2]

Playing career

Sparta Rotterdam

While playing at ARC, Van der Laan was scouted by Sparta Rotterdam, and at the age of 22, he made the switch to professional football.[2][3] In his first season, he was used sporadically,[3] but from the 1993–94 season on, he was a regular in the midfield of the Eredivisie side.[1][2] In 1996, Van der Laan reached the final of the KNVB Cup with Sparta, which they lost 5–2 against PSV.[2][3]

FC Twente

In the summer of 1999, Van der Laan was transferred to FC Twente. He immediately became an important player for the team, and achieved the biggest honour of his playing career by winning the 2000–01 KNVB Cup.[2][3] As a result, FC Twente played in the UEFA Cup in the next season, where they were knocked out in the second round by Grasshoppers, losing 5–6 on aggregate despite two goals from Van der Laan.[3] Nevertheless, he considers playing in these European matches "a great experience."[2][3]

ADO Den Haag

In July 2002, Van der Laan moved to Eerste Divisie side ADO Den Haag.[1] His first season was a succes, as ADO became champions and achieved promotion to the Eredivisie.[2] In the following Eredivisie season, however, Van der Laan experienced internal strife within the club and expressed a desire to leave ADO.[3]

FC Dordrecht

On 25 January 2004, it was announced that Van der Laan would be loaned to Eerste Divisie club FC Dordrecht for the remainder of the season, with the intention of joining them on a free transfer after the summer break.[4] At the end of the 2005–06 season, he retired from professional football.[2][3]

Managerial career

Early managerial career

Van der Laan started his managerial career in his last years of playing for FC Dordrecht, coaching various youth teams of ARC.[2] After retiring as a player, he took up a job as youth couth at Sparta Rotterdam.[2] He also had a one-year internship at NEC, after which he qualified for his coaching licence.[2] Eventually, he became assistant manager of Sparta's first team.[2][3] He served as interim manager twice: first in April 2013 after the dismissal of Michel Vonk, and for a second time in December 2013 after Adrie Bogers was sacked.[5] In total, he managed Sparta for four games.[2] In the summer of 2014, he left Sparta to become a youth coach at FC Utrecht.[5][2]

FC Lisse

In December 2014, it was announced that Van der Laan would become the new manager of Topklasse side FC Lisse, starting from the 2015–16 season.[6]

Netherlands Women

After only two months in charge of FC Lisse,[1] on 24 September 2015, it was announced that Van der Laan would succeed Roger Reijners as head coach of the Netherlands women's national football team.[7][8] He said it was "an honour" to become the national women's coach and that it was "fantastic to contribute" to the development of the team.[7][8] His first major tournament in charge of the Netherlands was the 2016 Olympic Qualifying Tournament, where the Netherlands competed with Sweden, Norway and Switzerland for a place at the football tournament of the 2016 Summer Olympics. The Netherlands finished in second place, with group winner Sweden taking the Olympic ticket.

On 23 December 2016, Van der Laan was sacked by the KNVB, having been in charge of the Netherlands for fifteen months.[9] According to the KNVB, they had "insufficient confidence" Van der Laan would achieve good results with the team at the Women's Euro 2017.[9]

Honours

FC Twente
ADO Den Haag

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Arjan van der Laan". Worldfootball.net. Retrieved 29 May 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 "Twintig vragen aan Arjan van der Laan" (in Dutch). FC Lisse. 16 February 2015. Archived from the original on 3 June 2016. Retrieved 30 May 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "Arjan van der Laan (44) is in zijn hart nog steeds ‘Nieuwkoper’" (in Dutch). Leidenamateurvoetbal. 20 November 2013. Retrieved 30 May 2016.
  4. ↑ "Toda tekent bij ADO, Van der Laan vertrekt" (in Dutch). Voetbal International. 25 January 2004. Retrieved 30 May 2016.
  5. 1 2 "Arjan van der Laan vertrekt bij Sparta" (in Dutch). RTV Rijnmond. 10 June 2014. Retrieved 30 May 2016.
  6. ↑ "Arjan van der Laan nieuwe trainer FC Lisse" (in Dutch). FC Lisse. 4 December 2014. Retrieved 30 May 2016.
  7. 1 2 "Arjan van der Laan bondscoach Nederlands vrouwenelftal" (in Dutch). KNVB. 24 September 2015. Retrieved 30 May 2016.
  8. 1 2 "Van der Laan replaces Reijners as Dutch coach". UEFA. 24 September 2015. Retrieved 30 May 2016.
  9. 1 2 "Van der Laan leaves Netherlands job after just fifteen months". VAVEL.com. 23 December 2016. Retrieved 28 December 2016.
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