Mohammed "Mo" Allach (born 20 September 1973) is a Dutch

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

executive and former player. He serves as the

technical director A technical director (TD) is usually a senior technical person within e.g. a software company, engineering firm, film studio, theatre company or television studio. This person usually has the highest level of skill within a specific technical f ...

RKC Waalwijk RKC Waalwijk () is a Dutch professional football club based in Waalwijk, that is currently competing in the Eredivisie. Its name is derived from 'Rooms Katholieke Combinatie' ('Roman Catholic Combination' in Dutch) and was established as a merger ...

Playing career

Allach studied

social pedagogy Social pedagogy describes a holistic and relationship-centred way of working in care and educational settings with people across the course of their lives. In many countries across Europe (and increasingly beyond), it has a long-standing tradition a ...

after high school. He started his professional career at a relatively late age. He was a youth worker in

Gouda, South Holland Gouda () is a city and municipality in the west of the Netherlands, between Rotterdam and Utrecht, in the province of South Holland. Gouda has a population of 75,000 and is famous for its Gouda cheese, stroopwafels, many grachten, smoking pipe ...

and played at amateur level with DWO in

Zoetermeer Zoetermeer () is a city in the Western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The municipality covers an area of of which is water. A small village until the late 1960s, it had 6,392 inhabitants in 1950. By 2013 this had grown to 123,328 ...

and Alphense Boys when he was recruited in 1996 by the second-tier

Eerste Divisie The Eerste Divisie (, en, First Division) is the second-highest tier of football in the Netherlands. It is linked with the top-level Eredivisie and with the third-level Tweede Divisie via promotion/relegation systems. It is also known as the ...

club

Excelsior Excelsior, a Latin comparative word often translated as "ever upward" or "even higher", may refer to: Arts and entertainment Literature and poetry * "Excelsior" (Longfellow), an 1841 poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow * ''Excelsior'' (Macedo ...

. Halfway through the 1999–2000 season, Allach moved to top-tier side

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the club changed to various names before settling on being called after its ...

, where he did not make an official appearance. In 2000, he left for

Groningen Groningen (; gos, Grunn or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen province in the Netherlands. The ''capital of the north'', Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of the northern part of t ...

, where he was a regular starter for more than two seasons. In 2002, he was forced to leave there after a conflict with head coach

Dwight Lodeweges Dwight Lodeweges (born 26 October 1957) is a Canadian–born Dutch football coach and former professional player. He is currently one of the assistant managers of the Netherlands national team. In 2020 - after Ronald Koeman left to join FC Ba ...

, who called him a "source of friction" in the squad. Allach then played for

Dordrecht Dordrecht (), historically known in English as Dordt (still colloquially used in Dutch, ) or Dort, is a city and municipality in the Western Netherlands, located in the province of South Holland. It is the province's fifth-largest city after R ...

in the Eerste Divisie and

Twente Twente ( nl, Twente , Tweants dialect: ''Tweante'') is a region in the eastern Netherlands. It encompasses the most urbanised and easternmost part of the province of Overijssel. Twente is most likely named after the Tuihanti or Tvihanti, a Germ ...

in the

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is c ...

. When he was unable to enforce a regular starting spot at the last club, he left for

VVV-Venlo VVV-Venlo (, ''VVV'' stands for ''Venlose Voetbal Vereniging'' meaning "Venlo Football Club") is a Dutch football club from Venlo, a city on the border with Germany. They play in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of Dutch football, following ...

in 2004. In 2006, he retired from professional football and then started working as

and head of practice at VVV.

Executive career

Twente and RKC

In 2008, Allach moved from the role as technical director and head youth academy of VVV to

FC Twente Football Club Twente () is a Dutch professional football club from the city of Enschede, sometimes known internationally as Twente Enschede. The club was formed in 1965 by the merger of 1926 Dutch champions Sportclub Enschede with Enschedese Bo ...

, where he became

director of football A sporting director, or director of sport, is an executive management position in a sports club. The role is well known as a manager role for European football clubs, which are sometime also "sports clubs", offering many types of sports. The sport ...

. After one season at Twente he became director of football affairs at

KNVB

In 2011, Allach moved into a position as technical manager for the

Royal Dutch Football Association The Royal Dutch Football Association (, ; KNVB ) is the governing body of football in the Netherlands. It organises the main Dutch football leagues (Eredivisie and Eerste Divisie), the amateur leagues, the KNVB Cup, and the Dutch men's and women ...

(KNVB). Under Allach's period as technical manager, the

Netherlands national football team The Netherlands national football team ( nl, Nederlands voetbalelftal or simply ''Het Nederlands elftal'') has represented the Netherlands in international men's football matches since 1905. The men's national team is controlled by the Royal Du ...

, led by

Bert van Marwijk Lambertus van Marwijk (; born 19 May 1952) is a Dutch football manager who was recently the head coach of the United Arab Emirates national team. As a player, he played for the Go Ahead Eagles, AZ, MVV and Fortuna Sittard amongst other clubs a ...

, easily qualified for the

UEFA Euro 2012 The 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2012 or simply Euro 2012, was the 14th European Championship for men's national football teams organised by UEFA. The final tournament, held between 8 June and 1 ...

, where the team subsequently went winless in the group stage and were therefore immediately eliminated. On 6 June 2012, the Netherlands were in fourth place in the

FIFA World Rankings The FIFA Men's World Ranking is a ranking system for men's national teams in association football, led by Brazil . The teams of the men's member nations of FIFA, football's world governing body, are ranked based on their game results with the ...

, only behind

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 ...

, Uruguay and Spain.

Vitesse

In July 2013, Vitesse announced that they had contracted Allach as technical director. He succeeded Ted van Leeuwen. Allach held that position until 2017. During this period, Vitesse won the

KNVB Cup The KNVB Beker (; en, KNVB Cup), branded as the TOTO KNVB Beker for sponsorship reasons, is a competition in the Netherlands organized by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) since 1898. It was based on the format of the English FA Cup. Ou ...

, the first silverware in club history. After a short stint with Israeli club

Maccabi Haifa Maccabi Haifa ( he, מכבי חיפה) is one of the biggest sports clubs in Israel and a part of the Maccabi association. It runs several sports clubs and teams in Haifa which have competed in a variety of sports over the years, such as Football ...

, Allach returned to Vitesse in March 2019. Allach left the club nine months later after a conflict with club management.

Return to RKC

On 10 June 2020, RKC Waalwijk announced that Allach would become the new technical director; his second period with the club.

Political career

In late 2003, Allach and friends founded the ''Maroquistars Foundation'', a volunteer organisation that aims at strengthening young people in terms of social resilience through social projects. Allach is a member of the Labour Party (PvdA). For the

2006 Dutch general election General elections were held in the Netherlands on 22 November 2006 following the fall of the Second Balkenende cabinet. The elections proved relatively successful for the governing Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) which remained the largest part ...

, he was asked by leader of the party

Wouter Bos Wouter Jacob Bos (; (born 14 July 1963) is a retired Dutch politician of the Labour Party (PvdA) and businessman. Bos attended the Christian Gymnasium in Zeist from June 1975 until July 1980 and applied at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam i ...

to run under the PvdA candidate list, but he declined this. For the

2012 Dutch general election Early general elections were held in the Netherlands on 12 September 2012 after Prime Minister Mark Rutte handed in his government's resignation to Queen Beatrix on 23 April. The 150 seats of the House of Representatives of the Netherlands were ...

, Allach was the PvdA's ''

Lijstduwer ''Lijstduwer'' (, 'list pusher') is a Dutch term for the last candidate on a party list. In Suriname, the Netherlands and Belgium, this position is often taken by well-known non-politicians such as artists, celebrities and sports people. They ar ...

''. He was in 73rd place, just ahead of

Maarten van Rossem Maarten van Rossem (born 24 October 1943) is a Dutch historian, presenter and commentator. He specializes in the history and politics of the United States. As an expert on America, he is a frequent guest on television talk shows. His public care ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Allach, Mohammed 1973 births Living people Dutch men's footballers Men's association football defenders Eredivisie players Eerste Divisie players Alphense Boys players Excelsior Rotterdam players Feyenoord players FC Groningen players FC Dordrecht players FC Twente players VVV-Venlo players FC Twente non-playing staff RKC Waalwijk non-playing staff SBV Vitesse non-playing staff Dutch sportspeople of Moroccan descent Dutch football chairmen and investors Footballers from The Hague Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Israel Labour Party (Netherlands) politicians 21st-century Dutch politicians