Leo Benhakker dies at age 82

Dutch coach, Leo Benhakker, who was in charge of several top clubs and few national teams during his long career, dies at age 82.

photo: 1908.nl

Leo Beenhakker played as right winger on the amateur level in Netherlands. He represented SC Maasstad Tediro, XerxesDZB and Zwart-Wit '28 before moving into the coaching business, for which he became famous. During 1960s and 1970s he worked in smaller Dutch teams, such as SV Epe, Go Ahead Eagles (as assistant), BV Veendam, Cambuur Leeuwarden and Go Ahead Eagles again (this time as the head coach).

From that point his coaching career, spanning almost five decades, stepped up to the top level when he took over Feyenoord Rotterdam youth team in 1976. After two years there, he was hired by famous Ajax Amsterdam to coach their youth team, but in 1979 he was promoted to be in charge of their first team. They won the title in his first season, showed a good performance in the European Cup, ended up second in Eeredivisie during his second season. After that he joined Real Zaragoza for three years, after short contract with Dutch team FC Volendam he became the Netherlands national team coach in 1985 and after two years became manager of Real Madrid.

During his long career he also worked for Grasshoppers Zurich, Club America and CD Guadalajara in Mexico, Istanbulspor, Vitesse Arnhem De Graafshap and Hungarian Ujpest. As national team coach he worked with Saudi Arabia (during their successful 1994 World Cup, when they reached knockout stage), Trinidad and Tobago (during their first ever appearance on World Cup in 2006) and Poland (which he helped to reach the Euro tournament first time in the history). For his work with the national teams he presented with awards by the governments of Trinidad and Tobago (in 2006) and Poland (in 2008).

Beenhakker, often referred to as "Don Leo", was known for his charismatic and innovative coaching style. He was a strong advocate of "total football", a philosophy emphasising fluidity, versatility and attacking play, inspired by his mentor, Rinus Michels. But he not only was advocate of it, he knew how to inspire his players and get the best of them.