He’s also snappy, but mostly relaxed to funny. Louis van Gaal is the coach of the Netherlands and a good entertainer. He showed that before the quarterfinals against Argentina.
A slight commotion ensues. The show with Louis van Gaal is about to start, but FIFA is merciless. “It is full. sorry“, says the bouncer of the world association at the entrance to press conference room 2 in Doha. It is clearly too small for the rush before the quarterfinals of the Netherlands against Argentina, which will take place on Friday (December 9th, 2022, 8 p.m., from 6.50 p.m. live on the first and in the Live stream at sportschau.de) also promises to be a show.
The legitimate successor to Rudi Carrell
The stage is set for Louis van Gaal. Expectations are high, especially in his home country, but now also in Germany, because the Bonds coach is the legitimate successor to Rudi Carrell, at least for football fans. The coach has shown the qualities of an entertainer more than once, for example on the balcony of the town hall in Munich, when he promised to play with Bayern “Üüürooopa” to conquer and danced to.
But he’s never been as consistently entertaining as he was during the tournament weeks in Qatar. After the round of 16 win against the USA, van Gaal danced to Shakira’s “Waka Waka” in the team hotel and filmed it with his mobile phone. He gave his player Denzel Dumfries a smack on the cheek at another press conference.
Jokes and a new serenity
At Memphis Depay, van Gaal would go even further. Before the game against Argentina, the FC Barcelona pro is the coach’s sidekick, who is confronted with a steep thesis from Angel Di María. Van Gaal was the worst coach of his career. Something like that would have frozen the facial features of the Tulip General, as the German tabloid called him. But the Louis van Gaal of modern times is cuddly.
Di María is one of the few who claim that, he says. That is a pity, but cannot be changed. Then he hugs Depay and says that, like Di María, he often sat on the bench under him at Manchester United,”and today we kiss, on the mouth“. Depay waves it off, smacks the table and laughs.
Van Gaal has a mind of his own
The show is good, although van Gaal again throws in the elements for which he is as well known as feared by journalists. “nonsensical question“, he etches and lowers his head towards the table. Another question “I won’t answer because it’s very negative“.
The only question from a German reporter relates to the SMS exchange with Bastian Schweinsteiger. “It’s private, sorry“van Gaal falls briefly into English before saying in Dutch that the news from the sports show expert would help him: “I’m learning things my scouts didn’t figure out.”
Schweinsteiger played at Bayern and Manchester under Louis van Gaal, the entertainer who may or may not retire soon.
“I still look damn good“
“I’m 71 years old, but I still look damn good“He says at the end of the show in the far too small hall, which perhaps only became possible due to a very serious illness. Prostate cancer, 25 sessions of chemotherapy, the Bonds coach reveals in April 2022, plus an operation that also went well.
The oldest coach of the tournament
Louis van Gaal is the oldest coach at the tournament, while Lionel Scaloni is the youngest at 44. The Argentine is later. He answers for a long time, mostly dry as a bone. It’s still full. FIFA even reacted and moved the press conference to a much larger room. Should Louis van Gaal get another episode before the semi-finals, they will immediately come up with the idea.