Former assistant manager of Louis van Gaal at Ajax and Barcelona, 61-year-old Gerard Van der Lem is now thought to be interested in the position of Indian national coach following the resignation of compatriot Wim Koevermans earlier this week.
The Dutchman presently plies his trade in Turkey where he is the technical director of Kayseri Erciyesspor in the Süper Lig. Koevermans had resigned after a run of bad results that included a poor showing in the recently concluded Asian Games in Incheon was capped by a 3-2 defeat at the hands of Palestine.
Goal.com reports that the AIFF’s technical committee will be meeting in the coming few weeks to reach a decision regarding the post of Indian coach with prominent names such as current I-League champions Bengaluru FC’s coach Ashley Westwood, Pune FC coach Karim Bencherifa,, Salgaocar FC coach Derrick Pereira and Kerala Blasters assistant coach Trevor Morgan also linked with the job.
Having started off as the head of youth development, Van der Lem worked under Van Gaal at Ajax for six years as Ajax became the youngest team ever to win the Champions League in 1995 besides winning the Dutch league thrice. He followed the current Manchester United manager to Barcelona where they won the La Liga twice in two years.
The former Saudi Arabia national coach has held his current position at Kayserispor since 2010 having worked as a coach at Panathinaikos in Greece two years prior to that.