With Ajax’s mediocre start to the season, it had been clear for some time that Ajax was looking for an extra assistant to help head coach John Heitinga. After the match against 3-3 Heitinga also indicated that he could put it to good use. “Now I do a lot of things myself. Field training, finishing, that kind of thing. It would be nice if I could leave that to someone else.”
So that assistant will be Fred Grim. The born Amsterdammer played for Ajax for a total of nine seasons. For most of that time he was a reserve goalkeeper behind Stanley Menzo and Edwin van der Sar, among others.
Experience
He was the first goalkeeper for the last three years of his career. He later coached Jong Ajax, Almere City, RKC Waalwijk, Willem II and FC Emmen. Grim was also an assistant with the Dutch national team for a while, and in 2017 he was the interim national coach during three international matches.
After his dismissal from FC Emmen, Grim has been without a club since last year. Ajax says in a press release that Grim was brought in from Ajax at the intercession of Heitinga.
“With Fred we gain quality and a lot of experience, every day on the field and on the bench during matches,” says technical director Alex Kroes. “We want to further strengthen the staff around the team, with the aim of improving sporting results as well as the development of the game and of the individual players.”