Ruud Kaiser (born 26 December 1960) is a Dutch

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of Athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coac ...

and former player who played as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

. He is currently the coach of

Helmond Sport Helmond Sport () is a Dutch professional football club based in Helmond, North Brabant. Founded in 1967 following the acquisition of the professional license of , the club achieved promotion to the top-tier Eredivisie in 1982. After two seasons ...

's under-19 team.

Playing career

Born in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

, Kaiser began his career with his hometown club,

Ajax Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * Ajax (play), ''Ajax'' (play), by the an ...

, before leaving in 1980 to join

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

. He would later play for

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is an English professional football club based in Coventry, West Midlands. The club plays in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club is nicknamed The Sky Blues after the sky blue colou ...

and

Nice Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one million FC Den Bosch FC Den Bosch () is a professional football club from 's-Hertogenbosch, They currently compete in the Eerste Divisie. They were founded 18 August 1965, as FC Den Bosch/BVV. They are the successor of BVV (1906) and Wilhelmina (1890). Their stadiu ...

and SVV. He ended his career in Belgium with KFC Dessel Sport. Kaiser also represented the Netherlands at under-16, Netherlands under-18/19, and under-21 level.

Coaching career

Kaiser then moved into coaching, where he has earned a reputation as a specialist at spotting and working with young players. Kaiser spent seven years at

TOP Oss TOP Oss (), is a professional association football club based in the town of Oss, North Brabant, Netherlands, that competes in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of the Dutch football league system. Founded in 1928 as T.O.P., a Dutch abbrevia ...

, working in a variety of sporting development roles, before taking on his first managerial responsibilities at RBC, whom he managed from 1998 to 1999. He then moved to the

Royal Dutch Football Association The Royal Dutch Football Association (, ; KNVB ) is the governing body of football in the Netherlands. It organises the main Dutch football leagues ( Eredivisie and Eerste Divisie), the amateur leagues, the KNVB Cup, and the Dutch men's and w ...

, where he initially served as assistant manager to the

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece bet ...

team A team is a group of individuals (human or non-human) working together to achieve their goal. As defined by Professor Leigh Thompson of the Kellogg School of Management, " team is a group of people who are interdependent with respect to in ...

, who were unable to qualify for the

2000 Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, officially branded as Sydney 2000, and also known as the Games of the New Millennium, were an international multi-sport event held from 15 September to 1 October ...

. In 2001, he took over as head coach of the Netherlands under-17 team, where he had his greatest successes. Working with future stars such as

Rafael van der Vaart Rafael Ferdinand van der Vaart (; born 11 February 1983) is a Dutch former professional association football, footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. Van der Vaart began his career at AFC Ajax, Ajax's Ajax Youth Academy, youth academ ...

Robin van Persie Robin van Persie (; born 6 August 1983) is a Dutch football coach and former professional association football, footballer who is the head coach of Eredivisie club Feyenoord. He is regarded as one of the best strikers of his generation and was ...

Nigel de Jong Nigel de Jong (born 30 November 1984) is a Dutch former professional footballer who played as a defensive midfielder. He is currently the technical director of the KNVB, the national Dutch football federation. He has also worked as an English ...

Arjen Robben Arjen Robben (; born 23 January 1984) is a Dutch former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Winger (association football), winger. Known for his Dribbling#Association football, dribbling skills, speed, and long-range s ...

and

Wesley Sneijder Wesley Sneijder (; born 9 June 1984) is a Dutch former professional footballer. Noted for his playmaking ability, he was considered one of the best midfielders in the world during his prime. A product of the Ajax Youth Academy, Sneijder started ...

, he led the team to runner-up spot in the 2005 UEFA European Under-17 Football Championship and third place in the

2005 FIFA U-17 World Championship The 2005 FIFA U-17 World Championship, the eleventh edition of the tournament, was held in the cities of Lima, Trujillo, Chiclayo, Piura and Iquitos in Peru from 16 September to 2 October 2005. Players born after 1 January 1988 could participate i ...

. During this time he also headed up international scouting for the Dutch FA. From 2006 to 2007 Kaiser was coach of the Chelsea

Academy An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

, and was appointed as

Dynamo Dresden Sportgemeinschaft Dynamo Dresden e.V., commonly known as SG Dynamo Dresden or Dynamo Dresden, is a German association football club based in Dresden, Saxony.Grüne, Hardy (2001). Enzyklopädie des deutschen Ligafußballs 7. Vereinslexikon. Kasse ...

manager in July 2008, replacing

Eduard Geyer Eduard "Ede" Geyer (born 7 October 1944) is a German former professional football player and manager. He was the last manager of the East Germany national team. Playing career Geyer was born in Bielsko (Bielitz), during the German occupation ...

who was fired on 4 October 2009. Dynamo struggled for the first half of Kaiser's first season in charge, with the team generally performing well, but unable to convert this into goals. Things picked up in the second half of the season, though, and the team finished in a respectable position in the top half of the

3. Liga The 3. Liga is a professional association football league and the third division in Germany. In the German football league system, it is positioned between the 2. Bundesliga and the fourth-tier Regionalliga. The modern 3. Liga was formed for t ...

table. However, the following season also started badly, and in October, with six defeats in the first twelve games, Dynamo found themselves in the relegation zone, and Kaiser was sacked. In April 2010, Kaiser signed a two-year contract with

Regionalliga Nord The Regionalliga Nord () is the fourth tier of the German football league system in the states of Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, Bremen and Hamburg. It is one of five leagues at this level, together with the Regionalliga Bayern, Regionalliga N ...

side

1. FC Magdeburg 1. FC Magdeburg is a German Association football Football club (association football), club based in Magdeburg. The club was founded in 1965 from the football department of the Sports club (East Germany), sports club ''SC Magdeburg'' and has bee ...

, taking over managerial duties on 1 July 2010. He became the club's first foreign manager and was tasked with assembling a squad capable of achieving promotion in the 2011–12 season. However, following a series of poor results that left the team close to relegation, he was dismissed on 17 March 2011 and replaced by

Wolfgang Sandhowe Wolfgang Sandhowe (born 14 December 1953) is a German professional football manager and former player who is the manager of NOFV-Oberliga Nord club TuS Makkabi Berlin. As a player, he spent three seasons in the 2. Bundesliga with KSV Baunatal, ...

. After serving as technical director of Lierse for two years, Kaiser returned to a managerial role by signing with

Eerste Divisie The Eerste Divisie (; ) is the second-highest tier of football in the Netherlands. It is linked with the top-level Eredivisie via promotion/relegation systems. It is also known as the Keuken Kampioen Divisie due to sponsorship reasons, while ...

side

FC Den Bosch FC Den Bosch () is a professional football club from 's-Hertogenbosch, They currently compete in the Eerste Divisie. They were founded 18 August 1965, as FC Den Bosch/BVV. They are the successor of BVV (1906) and Wilhelmina (1890). Their stadiu ...

in July 2013. He was dismissed on 3 February 2015 due to disappointing results, with the club in 13th place at the time. In 2016, it was announced that Kaiser would become the head coach of

JVC Cuijk JVC Cuijk is a Dutch association football club from Cuijk, Netherlands. The club was founded in 1931 and plays in Derde Divisie, the fourth tier of Netherlands, Dutch football, in the Sunday league. The team plays home games at Sportpark De Groen ...

, a team competing in the

Derde Divisie The Derde Divisie (; ), formerly known as Topklasse (; ), is the fourth tier of football in the Netherlands, which had its inaugural season as a third tier in 2010–11 and as a fourth tier in 2016–17. The league is placed between the Tweede D ...

. He later coached

Dongen Dongen () is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and village in North Brabant, in the southern Netherlands. In the past it had a profitable leather industry, and a few old shoe factories in the town's older sections remain. The town ...

during the 2018–19 season. Beginning with the 2020–21 season, he managed

Achilles '29 Achilles '29 is a football club from Groesbeek, Netherlands, competing in the seventh-tier Tweede Klasse. The club is known for its successes in the Dutch domestic cup, having knocked FC Volendam, Heracles Almelo, RKC Waalwijk, Telstar and ...

in the

Hoofdklasse The Vierde Divisie (; "Fourth Division"), formerly known as Hoofdklasse () is the second-highest league of amateur football in the Netherlands, and the fifth tier in general. Background The league was divided into two sections: Saturday and Sunda ...

but was dismissed on 6 October 2021. In 2022, Kaiser returned to youth coaching and joined the academy of

, where he took on several roles.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Ajax *

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; "Honour Division" or "Premier Division") is a professional association football league in the Netherlands and the highest level of the Dutch football league system. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start o ...

: 1978–79 *

KNVB Cup The KNVB Beker (; ), branded as the TOTO KNVB Beker for sponsorship reasons, is a competition in the Netherlands organised by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) since 1898. It was based on the format of the English FA Cup. Outside the N ...

: 1978–79

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaiser, Ruud 1960 births Living people Men's association football midfielders Dutch men's footballers AFC Ajax players Royal Antwerp F.C. players Coventry City F.C. players OGC Nice players FC Den Bosch players SV SVV players K.F.C. Dessel Sport players Eredivisie players Eerste Divisie players Belgian Pro League players English Football League players Ligue 2 players Dutch expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in England Expatriate men's footballers in France Dutch football managers Chelsea F.C. non-playing staff RBC Roosendaal managers FC Den Bosch managers Dynamo Dresden managers Footballers from Amsterdam 1. FC Magdeburg managers Achilles '29 managers 3. Liga managers 20th-century Dutch sportsmen