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In life, of course, anything can happen, but still, it seems that Patrick van Leeuwen will become the head coach of Shakhtar. And, as knowledgeable media assure, they will present it in this capacity at the very beginning of July. Anticipating this event, Terrikon.com peers closely into the dossier of this extraordinary specialist – and easily finds a lot of interesting things there…

In March 2013, Patrick van Leeuwen left the post of director of the Shakhtar academy, leaving for Kairat as a sports director. He said goodbye like this: “Working at Shakhtar was my first experience of long-term work in another country, from this point of view, Donetsk turned out to be an ideal place. I very quickly joined the Shakhtar family. Leaving this club was a difficult decision, but I’m sure I will be coming back here again and again.” Well, it looks like the time has come.

But in fact, van Leeuwen’s first contact with Shakhtar after leaving the club came in February 2021, when he was the acting head coach of Maccabi Tel Aviv. The Pitmen met this Israeli club in the playoffs of the Europa League. Then, following the results of two matches, Shakhtar advanced quite confidently, but in one of the two matches, the wards of the Dutch coach gave a real fight to a more classy opponent, and he himself later complained that a goal was unfairly taken away from his team – they say, everything could go to another.

Patrick van Leeuwen was born on August 8, 1969 in the relatively small town of Zoetermeer. At the age of 16, he got into the youth system of Sparta Rotterdam, but his career as a player did not work out. Injuries began to haunt him early, because of which he could not prove himself in Sparta, played only 16 matches for it in the midfield line – and went to Helmond, which vegetated in one of the lower leagues. There, at the age of 27, he ended his football career, having by that time a national coaching license of category A (he received it six years earlier).

The key person in the life of Patrick van Leeuwen was Henk van Stee. It was his former coach at Sparta. In 2000, he headed the Feyenoord academy, and then became the team’s coach. He launched van Leeuwen’s coaching career – pulled him to Feyenoord, where he was entrusted with working with the youth team. By the way, at that moment the Rotterdam club was on the rise and participated in the Champions League, so it was quite “live”. And then, when van Stee was offered to take the Shakhtar academy under his wing, he persuaded van Leeuwen to move to Donetsk. That is, without van Stee, Patrick might not have become an acting coach at all – although he most likely would have, because he had a very suitable mindset.

Van Leeuwen has a reputation for being methodical, conscientious and competent. In 2009, being the director of the Shakhtar Academy, he studied at the FFU Licensing Center, receiving a UEFA PRO-diploma in coaching. Then the technical director of the Federation, Konstantin Vikhrov, described the 35-year-old student as follows: “There was a special permit for him. By the way, he was a very qualified coach, for whom it was not difficult to answer questions from teachers and take tests in a timely manner.”

Another very useful quality of van Leeuwen is empathy, attention to each ward, which allows him to establish human contact with them. At one time, Dutch journalists who came to study the work of a compatriot at the Shakhtar academy were amazed that he knew all the pupils by name. Van Leeuwen confirmed this, noting that it was impossible to do otherwise and that he not only knew the name of everyone, but also tried to communicate with everyone, and if possible in their native language.

Prior to Maccabi, van Leeuwen had no experience as a senior coach. That is, on the one hand, he had a grandiose skill in bringing young football players to condition, and on the other hand, he was very weak in working with the main squads. Therefore, when he joined Zorya in the summer of 2022, no one could say for sure whether this was a good option for the Luhansk team or not. In fact, club president Eugene Geller played the lottery in this case – and, as it turned out, won. The Dutchman came to the court and almost led Zorya to the Champions League qualification.

Geller knew van Leeuwen since the mid-2000s, from the beginning of his work at the Shakhtar academy. This, of course, played a role when they were looking for a new Zorya coach. But another circumstance turned out to be important: van Leeuwen’s agent is Vadim Shabliy, who, to put it mildly, solves a lot of issues in the Luhansk club. Finally, as they wrote, Geller was bribed by the Dutchman’s program, which he outlined in person, combining ambitious goals with reasonable means to achieve them.

Explaining his playing philosophy, van Leeuwen said in an interview: “Quality football for me is attacking football. A short passing style where we work the ball aggressively and press aggressively. I love this style of play and always try it in my teams. My team must play in its own way, not adapt to the opponent. ”

Dynamic, fun, inventive game, which van Leeuwen eventually managed to put “Dawn”, brought results. The team reached its peak in April, when they scored 7 victories in a row in the UPL and got involved in the fight for the “silver” (which they probably would have taken if they had felt their game earlier). Van Leeuwen was named Coach of the Month (for the second time this season) and then Coach of the Year. By that time, he was already listed as a candidate for the post of head coach of Shakhtar. Which looks like he’ll get it soon…

2023-06-30 07:10:00

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