Gerard van der Lem

Gerard van der Lem (born 15 November 1952) is a retired football winger from the Netherlands, who made his professional debut for FC Amsterdam on 12 August 1973 against PSV Eindhoven. He later played for Roda JC, Feyenoord, Sparta Rotterdam and Utrecht. After his professional playing career, 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 his first engagement at AZS, he was responsible coach for the amateur teams (and became Holland Champion in 1985) as well as assistant coach to Piet de Visser with the senior team. From 1986 to 1989, he was employed with Haarlem starting out as assistant coach to Advocaat, and then following him into the position of head coach during the last year. Van der Lem joined Ajax in 1990 as head of the club's youth development department. In 1991, he became assistant coach to Louis van Gaal. He remained in the role until 1997, during which Ajax won several domestic and international titles, including: 3 x Dutch Champion 2 x Dutch Cup Winner 1 x Winner of the European Champions League 1 x UEFA Cup Winner 1 x Winner of the FIFA World Cup for Clubs 2 x Winner of the Dutch Super Cup These successes did not go unseen. The next engagement of van Gaal and van der Lem followed suit at equally famous Spanish Premier League club Barcelona. In the two seasons there, van der Lem was able to achieve the following titles: 2 x Spanish Premier League Champion 1 x Spanish Cup Winner 1 x Winner of the Spanish Super Cup After his time in Spain, van der Lem returned to his native Netherlands to become the head coach of FC Alkmaar again, followed by one...