Gerard van der Lem

Gerard van der Lemmade his professional debut for FC Amsterdam in 1973 vs PSV. He later played for Feyenoord, Sparta and FC Utrecht with a total of 300 professional games. After his professional playing career Gerard Van der Lem started his coaching career as Assistant coach to world-famous coaches like Piet de Visser, Dick Advocaat and Louis van Gaal. In 1990 he became the Head of the Youth Development Department of Ajax. After a successful year and lots of new impressions he was chosen to be the Assistant Coach of Louis vna Gaal with the famous Champions League-team. During this period from 1991 to 1997 the team became 3x Dutch Champion, 2x Dutch Cup Winner, 1x Winner of the European Champions League, 1x UEFA Cup Winner, 1x Winner of the FIFA World Cup for Clubs and 2x Winner of the Dutch Super Cup. The next engagement of Louis van Gaal and Gerard van der Lem followed at famous Spanish Premier League-club FC Barcelona. In the two seasons in Barcelona Gerard van der Lem won the Spanish Premier League 2x, became Champion 1x and also won the Spanish Cup 1x. He also won the Spanish Super Cup 1x. After his time in Spain Gerard van der Lem returned to his native Netherlands to become the Head Coach of AZ Alkmaar, followed by one season in Japan with Oita Trinita in the J-League. Another memorable and highly successful period followed in Saudi Arabia in his first engagement as National Coach. He and his team won the Gulf Cup, the Arab Cup and qualified for the Asian Cup. Furthermore, he was awarded "Best Coach of the Middle East". After some time back home with Ajax Amsterdam where he worked in several positions, he returned to the Middle East for an engagement with United Arab Emirates 1st Leaguist Al Sharjah Club in the season 2007–2008. In 2008 Gerard van der Lem joined his fellow coach Henk ten Cate at famous Greek club Panathinaikos. In 2010 he became Technical Director at Kayserispor in Turkey.