Jan de Koning (born October 7, 1949, in
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban are ...
) is a
Dutch footballer,
scout and
manager
Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business.
Management includes the activities ...
. He played as a
forward
Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward.
Forward may also refer to:
People
* Forward (surname)
Sports
* Forward (association football)
* Forward (basketball), including:
** Point forward
** Power forward (basketball)
** Sm ...
. After working as assistant technical director at
Liverpool F.C.
Liverpool Football Club is a professional football club based in Liverpool, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Founded in 1892, the club joined the Football League the following year and has p ...
's Academy, he now scouts for
Portsmouth F.C. in Europe.
Player
In his playing career, de Koning played for
Ajax
Ajax may refer to:
Greek mythology and tragedy
* Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea
* Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris
* ''Ajax'' (play), by the ancient Gree ...
,
Vitesse Arnhem,
Lokeren, and
Cercle Brugge
Cercle Brugge Koninklijke Sportvereniging () is a Belgian professional football club based in Bruges. Cercle have played in the Belgian Pro League since the 2003–04 season, having previously spent several years in the Belgian Second Divisi ...
. De Koning also regularly played for the
Netherlands U18 and
U21 national teams. During his career de Koning played with many of renowned players such as
Johan Cruyff
Hendrik Johannes Cruijff (, internationally known as Johan Cruyff; 25 April 1947 – 24 March 2016) was a Dutch professional football player and manager. As a player, he won the Ballon d'Or three times, in 1971, 1973 and 1974. Cruyff was a ...
,
Ruud Krol
Rudolf ("Ruud" or "Rudi") Jozef Krol (; born 24 March 1949) is a Dutch former professional footballer who was capped 83 times for the Netherlands national team. Most of his career he played for his home town club, Ajax, and he became a coach ...
,
Johan Neeskens
RCH may stand for:
* Radio Club de Honduras, an amateur radio organization
* Railway Clearing House, the British financial clearing house and technical standards bureau for railways
* The Royal Canadian Hussars (Montreal), a unit of the Canadian F ...
,
Arie Haan
Arend "Arie" Haan (; born 16 November 1948) is a Dutch football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. He scored 6 goals in 35 matches for the Netherlands national team of the 1970s. At club level, he enjoyed a successful career ...
and
Johnny Rep
John Nicholaas Rep (born 25 November 1951) is a Dutch former professional footballer who played as a right winger. He holds the all-time record for FIFA World Cup goals for the Netherlands with 7.
Playing career
Rep played as a right-footed ...
.
After his playing career de Koning spent time in his family’s
scrap metal business while achieving his
coaching
Coaching is a form of development in which an experienced person, called a ''coach'', supports a learner or client in achieving a specific personal or professional goal by providing training and guidance. The learner is sometimes called a ''coa ...
qualifications in the Netherlands. In 1990, after receiving all of his coaching qualifications, de Koning was asked to join Ajax by
Louis van Gaal
Aloysius Paulus Maria "Louis" van Gaal (; born 8 August 1951) is a Dutch former football player and manager. At club level, he served as manager of Ajax, Barcelona, AZ Alkmaar, Bayern Munich and Manchester United, as well as having three spe ...
to develop young talent. During his time at Ajax he trained some internationally known players such as
Wesley Sneijder
Wesley Sneijder (; born 9 June 1984) is a Dutch retired professional footballer. Due to his elite playmaking ability, Sneijder was considered one of the best midfielders in the world during his prime.
A product of the Ajax Youth Academy, he st ...
,
Rafael van der Vaart
Rafael Ferdinand van der Vaart (born 11 February 1983) is a Dutch former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder, and is currently the assistant manager of Danish 2nd Division club Esbjerg fB.
Van der Vaart began his c ...
,
Johnny Heitinga
John Gijsbert Alan "Johnny" Heitinga (born 15 November 1983) is a Dutch football coach and a former player who played as a centre back. He manages Jong Ajax, the reserves team of AFC Ajax.
A product of the Ajax Youth Academy, he played for thei ...
and
Dave Van den Bergh
Dave van den Bergh (; born 7 May 1976) is a Dutch football coach and former player who played as a left winger.
Career
Europe
A product of the famed AFC Ajax youth program, Van den Bergh played for Ajax from 1995 to 1997, winning one league ti ...
. Van der Vaart later stated in a Dutch TV interview that de Koning was the best coach he ever had.
Scout
De Koning also is renowned for his eye for talent. In 1994, #10 of Top Sport Group, and later ISM International brought him in as a talent scout. During the following eight years de Koning oversaw the transfer of several big-name players between clubs, notably
Cristian Chivu
Cristian Eugen Chivu (; born 26 October 1980) is a Romanian professional football manager and former player who is the head coach of Inter Milan's under-19 side.
A defender, he began his career with hometown club CSM Reșița before moving to ...
. Chivu was bought by Ajax on de Koning's recommendation for 2.5 million euros and later sold to
AS Roma
' (''Rome Sport Association''), commonly referred to as Roma (), is a professional Association football, football club based in Rome, Italy. Founded by a merger in 1927, Roma has participated in the top tier of Italian football for all of its ...
for 20 million euros. In 2002, de Koning scouted for
Premier League
The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...
clubs in England, working with
Sunderland,
Newcastle United, and for
Ray Clarke
Ray Clarke (born 25 September 1952) is an English retired professional footballer who played in England for Tottenham Hotspur, Swindon Town, Mansfield Town, Brighton and Newcastle United, in the Netherlands for Sparta Rotterdam and Ajax Amst ...
at
Southampton
Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...
.
Manager
Later in 2003, de Koning was yet again asked for help, this time from ex-Ajax footballer
Piet Hamberg
Piet Hamberg (born 22 January 1954) is a former Dutch Association football, footballer and manager. He worked at Liverpool F.C., Liverpool as technical manager for their Liverpool F.C. Academy, academy.
Playing career
Hamberg began his youth ca ...
. Over the next two years, Hamberg and de Koning managed
Al Jazira Club
Al Jazira Club is an Emirati professional football club based in Abu Dhabi, that currently competes in the UAE Pro League.
History
Al-Jazira was established in 1974 as a merger between ''Khalidiyah'' and ''Al Bateen''. The club struggled to st ...
(
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia ( The Middle East). It is located at t ...
) and
Ettifaq FC
Al Ettifaq Football Club ( ar, نادي الاتفاق لكرة القدم) is a professional football club in Dammam, Saudi Arabia. Al-Ettifaq was established after the merging of three clubs in the city of Dammam at the year 1944. Al Ettifaq i ...
(
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...
).
In 2005, the
Stoke City F.C.
Stoke City Football Club is a professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which competes in the . Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, it changed its name to Stoke in 1878 and then to Stoke City in 1925 after Stoke ...
board appointed
Arnor Gudjohnsen to find a new manager. His nomination was Jan de Koning, but he did not want to be No 1, so suggested his friend, the former Holland midfielder
Johan Boskamp
Johannes "Johan/Jan" Boskamp (born 21 October 1948) is a Dutch former football player and manager.
He played the majority of his career for hometown club Feyenoord and Belgian side RWDM and managed primarily in the Belgian leagues. Currently he ...
. de Koning served as assistant manager under Boskamp. De Koning was twice suspended by Stoke due to disagreements within the management team. He was sacked by Stoke in April 2006.
During 2006 de Koning once again worked with
Ray Clarke
Ray Clarke (born 25 September 1952) is an English retired professional footballer who played in England for Tottenham Hotspur, Swindon Town, Mansfield Town, Brighton and Newcastle United, in the Netherlands for Sparta Rotterdam and Ajax Amst ...
, serving as head scout for
Celtic
Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to:
Language and ethnicity
*pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia
**Celts (modern)
*Celtic languages
**Proto-Celtic language
* Celtic music
*Celtic nations
Sports Fo ...
, until 2007 when he joined Piet Hamburg at Liverpool's Academy. He is now scouting for Portsmouth, concentrating on Holland,
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
and
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
.
References
External links
Profile & statistics- Lokeren
Statistics- Cercle
{{DEFAULTSORT:Koning, Jan De
1949 births
Living people
Dutch men's footballers
AFC Ajax players
SBV Vitesse players
K.S.C. Lokeren Oost-Vlaanderen players
Cercle Brugge K.S.V. players
Belgian Pro League players
Footballers from Amsterdam
Stoke City F.C. non-playing staff
Dutch football managers
Men's association football forwards