Arsenal great Bergkamp named Ajax youth team boss
By ANITuesday, January 4, 2011
LONDON - Arsenal legend Dennis Bergkamp has officially been named Ajax youth team manager after the previous incumbent Frank de Boer was promoted to the senior team hot seat.
Former Holland international De Boer has been appointed until the summer of 2014 following Martin Jol’s departure last month, the Daily Express reports.
Bergkamp, like De Boer, came through the youth system in Amsterdam before achieving notable success elsewhere the continent.
The ex-Gunner retired from football in 2006, but has since earned his coaching spurs at the club where he started, gradually.
De Boer spent 11 years with Ajax between 1988 and 1998, winning league titles, the Uefa Cup, the UEFA Champions League and the World Club Championship, before stints at Rangers, Barcelona and Galatasaray. He has also earned 112 caps for his country.
Bergkamp spent the same amount of time in north London after signing from Inter Milan in 1995, and has made no secret of his desire to train the Gunners’ strikers.
In February last year, Arsene Wenger left the door open for a future link-up recently when he tipped Bergkamp to be a ‘very good coach’.
That same month Bergkamp completed his coaching badges with the Dutch FA alongside former international teammates Phillip Cocu, Patrick Kluivert and Michael Reiziger.
‘I wouldn’t rule out (working for Arsenal),’ the 40-year-old said in 2009. ‘I really love this club and the country and I love working here. (ANI)
