 Beenhakker in 1986 | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date of birth | (1942-08-02)2 August 1942 | ||
| Place of birth | Rotterdam,German-occupied Netherlands | ||
| Date of death | 10 April 2025(2025-04-10) (aged 82) | ||
| Place of death | Rotterdam, Netherlands | ||
| Position | Right winger | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| Maasstad Tediro [nl] | |||
| Xerxes | |||
| Zwart-Wit '28 | |||
| Managerial career | |||
| 1965–1967 | Epe [nl] | ||
| 1967–1968 | Go Ahead Eagles (assistant) | ||
| 1968–1972 | Veendam | ||
| 1972–1975 | Cambuur | ||
| 1975–1976 | Go Ahead Eagles | ||
| 1976–1978 | Feyenoord (youth) | ||
| 1978–1979 | Ajax (youth and assistant) | ||
| 1979–1981 | Ajax | ||
| 1981–1984 | Real Zaragoza | ||
| 1984–1985 | Volendam | ||
| 1985–1986 | Netherlands (interim) | ||
| 1986–1989 | Real Madrid | ||
| 1989–1991 | Ajax | ||
| 1990 | Netherlands | ||
| 1992 | Real Madrid | ||
| 1992–1993 | Grasshoppers | ||
| 1993–1994 | Saudi Arabia | ||
| 1994–1995 | Club América | ||
| 1995 | İstanbulspor | ||
| 1996 | Guadalajara | ||
| 1996–1997 | Vitesse | ||
| 1997–2000 | Feyenoord | ||
| 2003–2004 | Club América | ||
| 2005–2006 | Trinidad and Tobago | ||
| 2006–2009 | Poland | ||
| 2007 | Feyenoord (interim) | ||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Leo Beenhakker (Dutch:[ˈleːjoːˈbeːnɦɑkər]; 2 August 1942 – 10 April 2025) was a Dutchfootball player and coach. Nicknamed "Don Leo" for his role in Spanish football, he had an extensive and successful career both at club and international level.
After his amateur playing career ended at 19 through injury, he began his coaching career. He won theEredivisie title twice withAjax and once withFeyenoord, becoming the only person to do so withboth rival teams. In Spain he won three consecutiveLa Liga titles withReal Madrid in the late 1980s, including one as adouble with theCopa del Rey. Additionally, he had brief spells in the top divisions of Switzerland, Mexico and Turkey.
At international level, he led theNetherlands at the1990 FIFA World Cup,Trinidad and Tobago to the2006 FIFA World Cup andPoland toUEFA Euro 2008, the latter two being firsts for both nations.
Beenhakker was born on 2 August 1942 inRotterdam, during theNazi occupation of the Netherlands. After his father's death, he worked as an electrician to support his family.[1]
Aright winger,[2] Beenhakker played at amateur clubsMaasstad Tediro [nl],Xerxes andZwart-Wit '28.[3] His playing career was spent only at amateur levels, and ended at 19 due to injury.[1]
Beenhakker began coachingSV Epe [nl] in 1965 before his breakthrough atAjax, where he won theEredivisie in his debut season in1979–80. He also gaveFrank Rijkaard his professional debut and reached the semi-finals of theEuropean Cup.[4]
Beenhakker arrived atReal Zaragoza to replaceManolo Villanova during the1980–81 season, aged 38. His side, which included the likes ofJuan Señor,Jorge Valdano andPichi Alonso, won no trophies during his term, but finished in high league positions including 6th in1982–83 and 7th a year later.[5]
As manager ofVolendam in1984–85, Beenhakker took the club as high as third place, leading to him being simultaneously named interim manager of theNetherlands national team due toRinus Michels' heart problems. Volendam finished the season relegated, while the Netherlands finished second toHungary in their1986 FIFA World Cup qualification group, before losing a playoff torivals Belgium on theaway goals rule.[6]
He was Real Madrid's most recent manager to win bothLa Liga andCopa del Rey in the same season.[7] His Real Madrid side was built aroundLa Quinta del Buitre, five academy-trained players centred on forwardEmilio Butragueño.[8] In the1988–89 European Cup, he caused headlines by dropping Butragueño for a European Cup quarter-final second leg against reigning championsPSV Eindhoven, despite the tie being level;Arrigo Sacchi'sAC Milan eliminated Real Madrid in the semi-finals after winning the second leg 5–0 at theSan Siro.[4]
In 1989, Beenhakker returned to Ajax, who had struggled theprevious season and were experiencing financial problems. His young team, featuring the likes of twinsFrank andRonald de Boer,Dennis Bergkamp andBryan Roy,won the league but were banned from entering the European Cup due to a hooligan riot in aUEFA Cup game againstAustria Wien in September 1989.[9] In October 1989, Beenhakker fined five of his players 1,000Dutch guilders each for losing aNetherlands under-21 game against Iceland; Frank de Boer's fine was halved due to only being a substitute in that game.[10]
Beenhakker was named manager of the Netherlands again for the1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy. His side were the reigning European champions ofUEFA Euro 1988, and were favoured to do well due to having high-profile players such asRuud Gullit,Frank Rijkaard andMarco van Basten. TheOranje were eliminated in the round of 16 without winning a game, with Beenhakker rumoured to have fallen out with Van Basten, and the players wantingJohan Cruyff as manager instead.[1]
In February 1992, Beenhakker returned to Real Madrid after the dismissal ofRadomir Antić. He left at the end of the season, after finishing in second place.[11] His team missed out on the title on the final day after losing a lead away toTenerife, while Cruyff'sBarcelona defeatedAthletic Bilbao.[4]
Beenhakker was named manager ofGrasshoppers in the SwissNationalliga A in1992–93. He succeededOldrich Svab at theZurich-based club, who were struggling despite the presence of players such asGiovane Élber andMurat Yakin. The team fell into the promotion-relegation round, which they survived, but he was dispensed of at the end of the season.[12]
In November 1993, Beenhakker was appointed manager ofSaudi Arabia, who had qualified for theFIFA World Cup for the first time. He was sacked just three months later, and four months before the finals in the United States, as the players did not adapt well to his tactics.[13]
Beenhakker was appointed atClub América in Mexico on 15 June 1994. His team included African players such asFrançois Omam-Biyik of Cameroon andKalusha Bwalya from Zambia. Despite winning 18 and losing 4 of his 31 matches, he was removed with no official explanation on 6 April 1995. In 2010, he said in an interview that this was because he had argued with club presidentEmilio Diez Barroso, who did not wantJoaquín del Olmo in the team due to the cost of the player.[14]
In 1995, Beenhakker was the manager ofİstanbulspor in the Turkish1. Lig.[15] Returning to Mexico, he ledGuadalajara in 1996, taking exactly half of the 84 potential points from matches during his tenure. On 18 February, his team won aSúper Clásico 3–2 against América; losing 2–1 at half time, he motivated the squad by telling them to enjoy the experience at the sold-out game as if they were children.[16]
Beenhakker returned to the Eredivisie withVitesse in1996–97. His one season with the club fromArnhem resulted in a 5th-place finish and qualification for theUEFA Cup.[17] Moving on to his hometown clubFeyenoord, he won the league title in1999–2000.[18] As of his death, he was the only person to win the title withrivals Ajax and Feyenoord.[4]
From 2000 to 2003, Beenhakker was director of technical affairs with Ajax. In that period, he fired head coachCo Adriaanse and replaced him withRonald Koeman.[18] He was also responsible for the signing of Sweden internationalZlatan Ibrahimović fromMalmö FF.[19]
In the2003 Apertura tournament, Beenhakker returned to América. He was sacked with a year remaining of his contract after quarter-final elimination from the2004 Clausura.[14]
On 1 April 2005, Beenhakker was appointed byTrinidad and Tobago, succeedingBertille St. Clair. The Soca Warriors were last placed in thefinal round of qualifying for the 2006 World Cup with one point from three games.[20] He called up 23 foreign-based players for his first training camp,[21] and on 4 June he won on his debut, a 2–0 home victory overPanama.[22] On 13 October, the team won 2–1 at home toMexico on the final day to make the playoffs at the expense ofGuatemala; strikerStern John scored both goals despite earlier missing a penalty.[23]
Beenhakker coached the team to qualify for the2006 FIFA World Cup, the country's first-ever World Cup appearance,[24] after a 1–0 win away againstBahrain via a header byDennis Lawrence as Trinidad and Tobago won 2–1 on aggregate.[25] Beenhakker was awarded theChaconia Medal (Gold Class), the second higheststate decoration of Trinidad and Tobago.[26]
Drawn in theGroup B at the World Cup, the team secured a 0–0 draw againstSweden in their first match,[27] and lost to bothEngland[28] andParaguay 2–0.
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On 11 July 2006, Beenhakker was appointed as the manager of thePoland national team. He succeededPaweł Janas after the team had also been eliminated from the group stages of the World Cup, and was the first foreigner to lead the national team. He established scouting missions in Germany and the Netherlands so that the team would not lose out on diaspora players.[29]
After Poland defeatedBelgium 2–0 on 17 November 2007, he managed to qualify the team for theUEFA European Championship for their first time.[30] Poland won 8 of their 14 qualifying matches.[31] On 20 February 2008, Beenhakker was decorated with the Order ofPolonia Restituta by Polish presidentLech Kaczyński.[32] AtUEFA Euro 2008 in Austria and Switzerland, Poland facedGermany in a group match. Polish tabloids depicted Beenhakker with the severed heads of German captainMichael Ballack and managerJoachim Löw; Beenhakker personally apologised to the German people and called the journalists "mad, dirty and sick".[33]
Following the tournament, Beenhakker's contract was extended until November 2009, the end ofqualifying for the 2010 World Cup. After Poland's failure to qualify for thetournament in South Africa, Beenhakker was sacked.[34]
While still in charge of Poland,Feyenoord hired Beenhakker on 5 May 2007 as an interim coach to lead the club through the2006–07 play-offs. After his departure from Poland, he was named the sports director of the club, signing a contract on 9 October 2009 lasting until 30 June 2011.[35]
In December 2013, Beenhakker was appointed technical director atSparta Rotterdam, a position he held on to until June 2015, before announcing his retirement from football.[36] In November 2017, he joined the Sparta board as a technical advisor, which he did voluntarily until Sparta found a technical director. In March 2018,[37] when Sparta appointedHenk van Stee, Beenhakker left his post and announced his retirement again.[37]
Simon Kuper, author of several books on Dutch football, opined that Beenhakker lacked the tactical knowledge for elite players, but made up for it with his speaking skills.[1] Beenhakker faced scrutiny for never having been a professional player, responding that a milkman does not need experience of being a cow.[1]Johan Cruyff chided Beenhakker as a "schoolteacher" for not having professional playing experience.[1] While an advisor at Ajax, Cruyff broke protocol and ordered Beenhakker to change tactics; Beenhakker later reflected that he should have punched Cruyff for this intervention.[1]
Zlatan Ibrahimović praised Beenhakker in his autobiographyI Am Zlatan Ibrahimović. Ibrahimović described Beenhakker's image as a "mafioso", a "dominant figure and decision maker", and a "harder" version ofEmmett Brown fromBack to the Future.[38] In Spain, he was nicknamedDon Leo.[1] Trinidad and Tobago playersDwight Yorke andKelvin Jack reflected that Beenhakker was a great leader of their team.[1]
Joachim Löw said that Beenhakker's Poland team that hisGermany side faced at theEuro 2008 played in an attacking manner similar to the Netherlands. He added that they were much stronger than the Poland team Germany had defeated at the2006 World Cup.[31]
Beenhakker died in Rotterdam on 10 April 2025, at the age of 82.[39] He had a son and a daughter from his first marriage.[40][41]
Ajax
Real Madrid
Feyenoord
Individual
Chaconia Medal, Gold Class: 2006[26]
Order of Polonia Restituta, Officer's Cross: 2008[32]
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