Giggs retires, will assist Van Gaal at United
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E-mail Shanghai Daily, May 20, 2014
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Ryan Giggs on his 963rd and final appearance for Manchester United - a 3-1 win against Hull on 6 May 2014. |
Netherlands coach Louis van Gaal was named as Manchester United manager yesterday, and tasked with repairing the damage after David Moyes' disappointing 10 months in charge and reviving the fortunes of one of the world's biggest clubs.
The 62-year-old Dutchman signed a three-year contract and will take over at Old Trafford after the World Cup in Brazil, becoming the first United manager from outside Britain and Ireland. United great Ryan Giggs will be his assistant.
Giggs also ended his playing career after a club-record 963 appearances. The 40-year-old Giggs said "for me, today is a new chapter filled with many emotions — immense pride, sadness, but most of all, excitement towards the future."
Van Gaal is a man who rarely goes unnoticed and he should feel right at home attempting to following in the footsteps of club legend Alex Ferguson. Emotional during victories and resembling a red-hot volcano ready to explode after defeats, the 62-year-old thrives in the spotlight.
"I am a party animal," he shouted into the crowd on Munich's central square after Bayern clinched a league and German Cup double in 2010.
A strict disciplinarian with a larger-than-life personality, Van Gaal is in many ways similar to Ferguson who ruled Old Trafford with an iron fist for 26 years.
The Dutchman possesses the ability to draw every ounce of talent from his players as he did at Ajax Amsterdam when he won the 1995 Champions League with a squad of young home-grown talent.
He was equally successful domestically at AZ Alkmaar after two spells at Barcelona where he won two league titles and a Spanish Cup before enduring a hapless stint as Netherlands coach in which his team failed to qualify for the 2002 World Cup.
He took over Bayern Munich in 2009 and instantly turned it into champion following a poor season under Juergen Klinsmann.
Bayern raced to the double and the Champions League final in an impressive first season for Van Gaal, who was seen launching what club bosses described as the "new Bayern era under Van Gaal."
Never shy of big statements and irritated when cornered by media, Van Gaal clashed in the second season with players, officials and reporters with equal verve and pizzazz as results went against him and Borussia Dortmund emerged as serious rival.
Then Bayern president Uli Hoeness accused Van Gaal of "running a one-man-show" and refusing to listen to anything he had to say regarding the team.
"I am what I am and I will not change my personality just because others want it," Van Gaal said of his split with Bayern. He said it was he who had laid the foundations for last season's treble under his successor Jupp Heynckes and the appointment of former Barcelona player and coach Pep Guardiola.
"Only Louis van Gaal can say something like that," Hoeness snapped back. "Van Gaal's problem is not that he's God, but he's God's very own father. Louis was already there before the world even existed. The world does not work they way he looks at it."
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