 Cate withAl Jazira in 2016 | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Hendrik Willem ten Cate[1] | ||
| Date of birth | (1954-12-09)9 December 1954 (age 70) | ||
| Place of birth | Amsterdam, Netherlands | ||
| Height | 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in) | ||
| Position | Left winger | ||
| Youth career | |||
| Ajax | |||
| –1973 | De Volewijckers | ||
| 1973–1975 | Vitesse | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1975–1977 | Vitesse | 4 | (0) |
| 1977–1979 | VV Rheden | ? | (?) |
| 1979–1985 | Go Ahead Eagles | 132 | (21) |
| 1980 | →Edmonton Drillers (loan) | 21 | (5) |
| 1981–1982 | →Telstar (loan) | 30 | (7) |
| 1985–1986 | Heracles Almelo | 19 | (1) |
| Total | 206 | (34) | |
| Managerial career | |||
| 1986–1990 | Go Ahead Eagles (assistant) | ||
| 1990 | Go Ahead Eagles | ||
| 1990–1992 | Heracles Almelo | ||
| 1992–1993 | VV Rheden | ||
| 1993–1995 | Go Ahead Eagles | ||
| 1995–1997 | Sparta Rotterdam | ||
| 1997–1998 | Vitesse | ||
| 1998–1999 | KFC Uerdingen | ||
| 1999–2000 | MTK Budapest | ||
| 2000–2003 | NAC Breda | ||
| 2003–2006 | Barcelona (assistant) | ||
| 2006–2007 | Ajax | ||
| 2007–2008 | Chelsea (assistant) | ||
| 2008–2009 | Panathinaikos | ||
| 2010 | Al-Ahli | ||
| 2010–2011 | Umm Salal | ||
| 2012–2013 | Shandong Luneng | ||
| 2013 | Sparta Rotterdam | ||
| 2015–2018 | Al-Jazira | ||
| 2018–2019 | Al-Wahda | ||
| 2019–2020 | Al-Ittihad | ||
| 2021 | Al-Wahda | ||
| 2023 | Suriname (assistant) | ||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Hendrik Willem ten Cate (born 9 December 1954) is a Dutchfootball coach and former player.
In the 2005–06 season, he was assistant toFrank Rijkaard atBarcelona when the team won theUEFA Champions League andLa Liga titles. He then served as manager ofAjax until October 2007 and won three trophies for the Dutch club.
Ten Cate joined Chelsea on 11 October 2007 as assistant manager[2] but stepped down after the defeat of the2008 UEFA Champions League Final on 29 May 2008, just five days after the departure of managerAvram Grant.
Ten Cate started his football career at amateur side FC Rheden before signing his first professional contract atGo Ahead Eagles. He made hisEredivisie debut in the 1979–80 season and earned himself 27 appearances throughout the season in which he scored four goals. These performances earned him a transfer toNASL sideEdmonton Drillers in Canada.
After the North American season he returned to Go Ahead Eagles and continued his Eredivisie campaign. He became however unsure of his position and was sent on loan toEerste Divisie sideTelstar where he was one of their key players. After the season at Telstar he returned toDeventer and became a first team regular for Go Ahead Eagles again for three more seasons. In 1985, he switched toHeracles, where he ended his professional career as a player.
After his playing career, Ten Cate became an assistant manager ofFritz Korbach at Go Ahead Eagles, playing in the Eerste Divisie. When Korbach moved toHeerenveen in February 1990, Ten Cate took over as a manager. He managed to lead them to a play-off place at the end of the season, but Heerenveen were promoted to the Eredivisie on goal difference.
Ten Cate left Go Ahead Eagles and returned to one of the other teams he was active at during his playing career, Heracles where he became the assistant of managerHenk van Brussel. When Van Brussel was unable to finish the season due to health problems, in November 1990 Ten Cate became the first team manager and led Heracles until 1992, when he was told his contract would not be extended. He moved to the club where his football career started, amateur side FC Rheden, and managed them for one year.
In 1993, Go Ahead Eagles appointed Ten Cate yet again as their manager, this time to replaceJan Versleijen who left the club to manageDe Graafschap. In his first year, he did well, but when Go Ahead Eagles was at the bottom of the Eerste Divisie during the winter break of the 1994–95 season, he was fired. Eredivisie sideSparta Rotterdam offered him a contract and he led the team to a sixth position in the Eredivisie in 1996; they also reached the final of theKNVB Cup that year, which they lost 5-2 toPSV Eindhoven.
In the 1997–98 winter break, Ten Cate switched to manageVitesse, which he led to their best Eredivisie ranking in their history, third place, with records in both the number of points won, as well as the number of goals scored. After a disappointing start in the following season, he left Vitesse and ledKFC Uerdingen 05 until March 1999 without success. In the 1999–00 season, he managedHungarian sideMTK Hungária to win theHungarian Cup and a runners-up place in thePNB League. He returned to the Netherlands and became manager ofNAC which he led until 2003 earning them a spot in theUEFA Cup for the 2003–04 season.
In June 2003,Ajax offered him the chance to be their next manager, however, he decided to joinFrank Rijkaard atBarcelona, and became his assistant manager becauseFrank Rijkaard had the lack of experience as a top manager at that time. Thus,Frank Rijkaard believed that Ten Cate was able to compensate for his weak points as a manager. Rijkaard explained: "I was a motivator, Henk [ten Cate] was a strategist for the team". Indeed, Ten Cate was responsible for strategies and tactics of Barcelona during its training sessions. Together, they managed Barça to aChampions League trophy and twoLa Liga titles. In 2006, he replacedDanny Blind as a manager atAjax, where he won theJohan Cruijff-schaal in 2006 and 2007 and the KNVB Cup in 2007. Ajax finished equal on points with PSV Eindhoven in the Eredivisie in 2006, only to be denied the championship by a single goal ingoal difference.
In early October 2007, Ten Cate was strongly linked to taking over as assistant manager toAvram Grant atChelsea, because the owner, Russian billionaireRoman Abramovich, had a high opinion of Ten Cate as a great tactician. On 8 October 2007, Ajax announced on their website that they had reached an agreement with Chelsea about Ten Cate's immediate move to the London side, noting also that the deal was still to be finalized.[2] Ten Cate officially joined Chelsea on 11 October 2007 as assistant first team coach.[3]
Following the2008 UEFA Champions League Final, Ten Cate expressed his disappointment withDidier Drogba for his sending-off (if Drogba had not been sent off, he would have taken the fifth penalty). Drogba's expulsion led toJohn Terry taking Chelsea's fifth penalty, which he failed to convert, as he slipped on the rain-soaked turf. Had he scored, Chelsea would have secured their first Champions League title.[4]
Ten Cate was sacked from his role at Chelsea on 29 May 2008,[5] two days after being told the sacking ofAvram Grant would not affect his position.
On 13 June 2008, Ten Cate signed a two-year deal with aGreekSuperleague team,Panathinaikos.[6] Ten Cate gave the following statement on his appointment:
"Panathinaikos' history, ambition and attitude towards football in general match those of the greatest football clubs in Europe. "I've been used to working at the highest level and that's why I consider this a great challenge."
Ten Cate's Panathinaikos managed to qualify for the last 16 phase of UEFA Champions' League in the 2008–2009 season, where Panathinaikos were eliminated byVillarreal. However, they won the European Cup play-Offs, winning the second seed for the next year's Champions League play-offs. In his first year to the club, Ten Cate built Panathinaikos to play an attacking style of play based on possession in 4–2–3–1 and 4–3–2–1 formations, and they scored the most goals in the league.
The Panathinaikos board kept Ten Cate in his position for a second year, in which the club managed to achieve its best start in the league since 1996, with nine wins and two draws in eleven matches. However, the club's financial situation was seriously affected by theGreek government-debt crisis, and it was revealed that they had £4million worth of unpaid wages for Ten Cate. Ten Cate resigned as manager on 8 December 2009.
On 6 February 2010, it was announced that Ten Cate signed a six-month contract with the UAE championsAl-Ahli. Only one month later, he quit Al-Ahli, after a 5–0 defeat against Al-Sadd.
In April 2010, Umm Salal hired him as a replacement of Gerard Gili. Ten Cate worked as a manager of Umm Salal until February 2011.[7]
On 5 January 2012, Ten Cate became the manager ofShandong Luneng Taishan in China.[8] However, as Shandong Luneng Taishan spent most of the season struggling at the edge of relegation, ten Cate resigned on 6 September.[9]
On 4 April 2013, he shortly replaced the sackedMichel Vonk as manager ofSparta Rotterdam on a contract running until the end of the season.[10] He returned to the Middle East in December 2015 after signing for UAE clubAl Jazira,[11] with whom he won the domestic league title in his second (and first full) season.[12]
In April 2017, he was reportedly offered the job of managing of the Dutch national team, only for him to back out, after it appeared the Dutch FA suddenly preferred to give the job toDick Advocaat.[13] At the same time, Ten Cate was subject to a legal investigation into certain business interests.[14]
He left Al Jazira in May 2018.[15]
On 4 November 2019, ten Cate was announced asAl-Ittihad's manager.[16] He signed a contract which is due to keep him at Al-Ittihad until the end of the2019–20 season, but with a possibility to extend the contract at the end of the season. However, he was dismissed on 11 February 2020, after a defeat againstDamac.[17]
In March 2021, ten Cate returned to Abu Dhabi to manage Al Wahda again.[18] He was sacked in October, after a disappointing start to the season.[19]
| Club | Season | League | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Division | Apps | Goals | ||
| Go Ahead Eagles | 1979–80[20] | Eredivisie | 27 | 4 |
| 1980–81[20] | Eredivisie | 19 | 3 | |
| 1981–82[20] | Eredivisie | 1 | 0 | |
| 1982–83[20] | Eredivisie | 31 | 10 | |
| 1983–84[20] | Eredivisie | 24 | 2 | |
| 1984–85[20] | Eredivisie | 30 | 2 | |
| Total | 132 | 21 | ||
| Edmonton Drillers (loan) | 1980 | North American Soccer League | 21 | 5 |
| Telstar (loan) | 1981–82 | Eerste Divisie | 30 | 7 |
| Heracles | 1985–86[20] | Eredivisie | 19 | 1 |
| Career total | 202 | 34 | ||
| Team | Nat | From | To | Record | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G | W | D | L | Win % | ||||
| Go Ahead Eagles |  | 1 July 1993 | 27 January 1995 | 55 | 12 | 14 | 29 | 021.82 |
| Sparta Rotterdam | | 1 July 1995 | 11 January 1997 | 61 | 24 | 14 | 23 | 039.34 |
| Vitesse | | 12 January 1997 | 30 June 1998 | 55 | 30 | 12 | 13 | 054.55 |
| Uerdingen |  | 30 September 1998 | 28 March 1999 | 17 | 3 | 5 | 9 | 017.65 |
| MTK Budapest |  | 1 July 1999 | 30 June 2000 | 40 | 22 | 11 | 7 | 055.00 |
| NAC | | 1 July 2000 | 30 June 2003 | 116 | 50 | 34 | 32 | 043.10 |
| Ajax | | 1 July 2006 | 8 October 2007 | 68 | 45 | 10 | 13 | 066.18 |
| Panathinaikos |  | 1 June 2008 | 7 December 2009 | 75 | 45 | 17 | 13 | 060.00 |
| Al-Ahli Dubai |  | 6 February 2010 | 11 March 2010 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 016.67 |
| Umm Salal |  | 12 April 2010 | 6 February 2011 | 26 | 11 | 6 | 9 | 042.31 |
| Shandong Luneng |  | 1 January 2012 | 6 September 2012 | 27 | 8 | 10 | 9 | 029.63 |
| Sparta Rotterdam | | 7 April 2013 | 30 June 2013 | 8 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 025.00 |
| Al Jazira | | 31 December 2015 | 15 May 2018 | 111 | 52 | 21 | 38 | 046.85 |
| Al Wahda | | 7 December 2018 | 30 June 2019 | 23 | 15 | 2 | 6 | 065.22 |
| Al-Ittihad |  | 15 November 2019 | 30 June 2020 | 13 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 030.77 |
| Al Wahda | | 13 March 2021 | 25 October 2021 | 22 | 9 | 9 | 4 | 040.91 |
| Total | 723 | 333 | 177 | 213 | 046.06 | |||
MTK Budapest
Ajax
Al Jazira
