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Assignment of Koeman and Krol now official

03 December: Ajax and its website Ajax.nl have now officially confirmed that Ronald Koeman (38) will be the new 'director of professional football' and head coach of the Amsterdam club. His newly signed coach-assistant is a true Ajax and Holland legend: Ruud Krol (52). Until this weekend, they worked for Vitesse and the KNVB, respectively. Right now, they're Ajacieden again. They were presented at a press conference in the ArenA at 10:30 this morning and led their first training session at 11:30.

RONALD KOEMAN

Ronald Koeman was born on 21 March, 1963 in Zaandam, within a stone's throw from Amsterdam. He started playing Eredivisie at age 17, at FC Groningen. He played for the northern side for three seasons, before moving to Ajax, where he made his debut at age 20, on 21 August, 1983 against FC Utrecht (1-1).

Koeman played 94 league games for Ajax, in which he scored 23 goals. He won the KNVB Cup in his last game for Ajax, on 28 May, 1986 in De Meer against RBC (3-0). He also won the 1985 Dutch championship as an Ajacied, but the real success was yet to come, as a player for PSV, FC Barcelona and Holland.

Koeman went on playing for PSV for three seasons, and then for FC Barcelona for six. In total, he won the Dutch league title four times, the KNVB Cup three times, the Spanish league title four times, the Spanish national Cup once, the Spanish Super Cup three times, the European Super Cup once and the Europan Champions Cup twice (with PSV and FC Barcelona).

In the mean time, he had won Euro 1988 with Oranje, for which he played 78 games.

Ronald Koeman's coaching career started at the KNVB. He was Guss Hiddink's coach-assistant of the Dutch national team during the World Cup of 1998 in France, where Holland made it to the semi finals. From 1998 until December, 1999, he was coach-assistant at FC Barcelona. He got his first job as a head coach on 01 January, 2000, at Vitesse Arnhem. In almost two full years, Koeman's Vitesse played Ajax four times - and won all of those four games.

RUUD KROL

Ronald Koeman may have spent a part of his football life in Amsterdam, but Ruud Krol (born 24 March, 1949 in Amsterdam) is one of those true Ajax legends. He played no less than 457 official games for Ajax. Only Sjaak Swart (603), Wim Suurbier (509), Danny Blind (493) and Piet Keizer (490) played more games for the Amsterdammers. Krol played 339 league games (23 goals), 41 domestic Cup games and 68 European games (7 goals).

Ruud Krol was one of the living legends of the 'Great Ajax' of the early 1970s. He made his debut under coach Rinus Michels, on 30 October, 1968, in a friendly game at Manchester City. His official debut followed a good month later, on 11 December, in (it still existed back then!) the Amsterdam city derby in the Eredivisie, DWS vs Ajax. More than eleven years later, he said goodbye to Ajax in the KNVB Cup final against Feyenoord, in De Kuip, which Ajax lost 3-1.

In those eleven years, Krol won seven national championships, four KNVB Cups and two European Champions Cups. Ajax won three of those, but Krol missed Ajax' first European victory (in 1971, at Wembley against Panathinaikos), because he had broken his leg a few weeks earlier.

After Ajax, Krol went to play for the Vancouver Whitecaps for four months (16 games), before moving to Napoli in Italy, where he played from 1980 to 1984, 107 games in total, scoring one goal. The last club of his impressive career was French side Cannes, for which Krol played from 1984 to 1986.

Ruud Krol was Oranje's record holder for 21 years, with 83 caps (4 goals) for his country. He became Holland's record holder on 22 May of 1979, in a game against Argentina. That was his 65th, one more than the legendary Puck van Heel, who had been the record holder since 1937. Krol himself was outstripped by Aron Winter, in June of 2000.

Krol made his Oranje debut on 5 November, 1969 against England. He won the silver medal with Holland at the World Cup tournaments of 1974 and 1978 and the bronze at Euro 1976. He played his last Holland game on 16 February, 1983, a 1-0 defeat in Seville, against Spain. He was offered a 'farewell game' in Holland - on 27 April, 1983, in Utrecht against Sweden - but Krol turned that invitation down. The Holland vs Sweden game marked the end of the Krol era, but als the Holland debut of... Ronald Koeman.

He coached KV Mechelen (Belgium), Servette Geneva (Switzerland), the Egypt national team, Zamalek Caïro (Egypt) and Al Wahad (United ARab Emirates) before returning to Oranje on 22 May, 2000 as Frank Rijkaard's assistant, reaching the semi finals at Euro 2000.

He also assisted Louis van Gaal during the qualification campaign for the 2002 World Cup, in which Holland failed. Krol resigned with Van Gaal, last Friday. Three days later, the great news was announced that Ruud Krol will return back home.

Ronald Koeman and Ruud Krol will make their debut on the Ajax bench on Tuesday night at 8:15 PM, in the Amsterdam ArenA against Fortuna Sittard. (MP)

(Source: Ajax.nl)

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