Ajax coach Erik ten Hag (52) will start working for Manchester United next season. The Telegraph and Football International report on Tuesday that the coach has reached an oral agreement with the English record champion. Previously, sports channel ESPN reported on an imminent transfer of Ten Hag, who still has a continuous contract with Ajax until 2023. VI United can buy this contract for 2 million euros.
In Manchester, a three-year contract would be ready for Ten Hag. He will succeed interim manager Ralf Rangnick, who was appointed at the end of November after Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was fired due to disappointing results. The official announcement of the switch would in any case not come before the final of the KNVB Cup next Sunday, in which Ajax will face PSV.
Ten Hag started as Ajax coach in January 2018. In his more than four years as head coach of the team from Amsterdam, he became national champion twice and won the KNVB Cup twice. There could also be a championship and a cup win. Ajax is currently the leader in the Eredivisie and has a four-point lead over PSV with five games to go.
Europe
In a European context, Ten Hag had the most success with Ajax in the 2018/19 season. The club reached the semi-finals of the Champions League in that season, after eliminating Real Madrid and Juventus, among others. Ultimately, Tottenham Hotspur kept Ajax out of the final. This season Ajax managed to win all matches in the group stage of the Champions League, but it went wrong in the eighth final against Benfica.
Ten Hag will become the second Dutch head coach in the history of Manchester United. Louis van Gaal, the current national coach of the Dutch national team, was already in charge of the English club from 2014 to 2016. In Manchester, Ten Hag may be reunited with former Ajax player Donny van de Beek, who has been loaned out by Manchester United to Everton this season. The now 37-year-old star footballer Cristiano Ronaldo is also under contract with the English club.