Louis van Gaal is known by many names, LVG, the Iron Tulip, the numerous ways in which his last name is pronounced. Seriously, during the World Cup media in every country came up with several ways to pronounce “Van Gull,” “Van Hall,” “Van How,” “Van Gal.” No matter how you pronounce it though everybody knows that Louis is a boss.
He is a hard-liner, a perfectionist, a tough love kind of leader. And now former Dutch striker Patrick Kluivert described the current Manchester United manager as the “Godfather of coaching.”
Wow. Quite a compliment.
From Here is the City:
‘What can I say? I think he is the Godfather of coaching’, the former Ajax and Barcelona striker told Sky Sports. ‘He has been at a lot of big clubs and has had a lot of success with big clubs, and that says something about Van Gaal’.
Most experts regard Van Gaal as one of the best football manager of all time. As with Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Ajax, and now with United, he is a big personality with a big ego and big level of confidence to handle a big job at a big club. The Godfather designation fits with Van Gaal.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and very often writes The Sports Bank.net ,which is partners with Fox Sports. Read his features stories in the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. Listen to him on 1620 The Zone. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks). His work has been featured in hundreds of media outlets including The Washington Post and ESPN 2