After two years, Dutch success coach Mark van Bommel leaves Antwerp FC. This is reported by Gazet van Antwerpen.
Van Bommel was appointed as trainer of Antwerp in mid-2022, just months after Marc Overmars started working at the club as technical director.
The now 47-year-old head coach had an incredible first year in Belgium. After winning the cup final, Antwerp also became champions, after a thrilling showdown on the last match day. It was the first national title in 66 years for the Great Old. This season, Antwerp won the Supercup and qualified for the group stage of the Champions League.
After the departure of several important players – the talented Arthur Vermeeren also moved to Atletico Madrid in the winter – performances have decreased somewhat. Antwerp is currently in sixth place in the Belgian championship group, the Champions’ Play-offs. Next week it will be in the cup final again, against Union.
Despite an ongoing contract, Van Bommel has indicated internally that he is ready for a new challenge. The former coach of PSV and VfL Wolfsburg was previously linked to AC Milan in the Italian media.
He announced his decision to the players’ group on Thursday, according to Gazet van Antwerpen, but on Friday at his weekly press chat the Dutchman was tight-lipped about his future. “What do these rumors about foreign interest do to me? What is true about it?”, Van Bommel said on Friday. “I don’t want to talk about it because I still have one year left on my contract here and we are discussing whether we will continue with that. No evaluation is necessary for this. How did you come up with that? We play against Club Brugge on Sunday and if we have something to announce earlier, we will do so.”
So it remains to be seen when RAFC will officially communicate something. (dige)
