Gertjan Verbeek (; born 1 August 1962) is a Dutch former professional

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 ...

er who last managed

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 Almere City.

Coaching career

Netherlands

After retiring from his playing career in 1994, Verbeek stayed with

SC Heerenveen Sportclub Heerenveen (; West Frisian language, West Frisian: Sportklub It Hearrenfean) is a Dutch professional association football, football club from Heerenveen. They currently play in the Eredivisie, the top level of football in the Netherla ...

as an assistant-coach. He left for Heracles Almelo in 2001, and after a successful stint there was hired as the successor to

Foppe de Haan Foppe Geert de Haan (, born 26 June 1943) is a Dutch football coach. He is known for his long association with Frisian club Heerenveen. De Haan was the manager of the Tuvalu national team during 2011 and then rejoined Heerenveen's youth prog ...

with SC Heerenveen. In 2008, he was hired by Feyenoord, but was fired after clashing with players a few months into his tenure. He moved to Heracles Almelo for the 2009–2010 season, and after guiding them to a 6th-place finish in the

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 ...

, AZ hired him for the 2010–2011 season. Verbeek caused controversy in December 2011 in a 2011–12 KNVB Cup match against

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 ...

by leading AZ off the pitch in protest at having their goalkeeper Esteban Alvarado sent off for retaliating against a pitch invader. The game was consequently abandoned. On 29 September 2013, AZ fired him due to lack of chemistry with the players.

Germany

The German football club 1. FC Nürnberg hired him on 22 October 2013, giving him the first coaching opportunity outside of Netherlands, with a contract until 30 June 2015. However, he was sacked on 23 April 2014. On 22 December 2014, the

VfL Bochum Verein für Leibesübungen Bochum 1848 Fußballgemeinschaft, commonly referred to as VfL Bochum (), is a Football in Germany, German professional association football club based in the city of Bochum, North Rhine-Westphalia. They currently play ...

announced signing Verbeek as head coach, starting 1 January 2015. In his return to

Nuremberg Nuremberg (, ; ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the Franconia#Towns and cities, largest city in Franconia, the List of cities in Bavaria by population, second-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Bav ...

on 23 March 2015, Bochum defeated 1. FC Nürnberg 2–1. He was sacked on 11 July 2017.

FC Twente

On 29 October 2017 he returned to management in his native Holland, where he signed with

FC Twente Football Club Twente (), sometimes known internationally as FC Twente Enschede, is a Dutch professional Association football, football club from the city of Enschede. The club was formed in 1965 by the merger of 1926 Dutch champions Sportclub E ...

, which was going through a disastrous campaign of the 2017-18 Eredivisie. On 26 March, after 149 days, Verbeek was fired as FC Twente's manager, with the team at the bottom of the table with six games remaining of the season.

Adelaide United

On 23 May 2019, Verbeek was officially announced as Marco Kurz' replacement as manager for

A-League A-League Men, also known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional soccer league in Australia and New Zealand and the highest level of the Australian soccer league system. Established in 2004 as the A-League by the ...

club Adelaide United. Verbeek led Adelaide United to their third FFA Cup victory by defeating Melbourne City 4–0 at Coopers Stadium. Due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, Verbeek took a leave of absence to return home to the Netherlands indefinitely while still being under contract with the club. Verbeek and Adelaide United decided to mutually part ways on 29 April 2020.

Career statistics

Playing career

Coaching record

Honours

AZ *

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 ...

: 2012–13 Adelaide * FFA Cup:

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Verbeek, Gertjan Living people 1962 births Footballers from Deventer Dutch men's footballers Dutch association football commentators Men's association football defenders Eredivisie players Eerste Divisie players SC Heerenveen players Heracles Almelo players Dutch football managers Dutch expatriate football managers Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Australia Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate soccer managers in Australia Expatriate football managers in Germany Eredivisie managers Bundesliga managers A-League Men managers Feyenoord managers Heracles Almelo managers SC Heerenveen managers AZ Alkmaar managers 1. FC Nürnberg managers VfL Bochum managers FC Twente managers Adelaide United FC managers SC Heerenveen non-playing staff FC Twente non-playing staff 20th-century Dutch sportsmen