Maurice Steijn (born 20 November 1973) is a Dutch professional

football manager ''Football Manager'', also known as ''Worldwide Soccer Manager'' in North America from 2004 to 2008, is a series of football management simulation video games developed by British developer Sports Interactive and published by Sega. The game beg ...

and former player. He is the current head coach of Eredivisie club

Sparta Rotterdam Sparta Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club based in Rotterdam. Established on 1 April 1888, Sparta Rotterdam is the oldest professional football team in the Netherlands. Sparta currently competes in the Eredivisie, the top flig ...

Managerial career

ADO Den Haag

Steijn has a

Bachelor of Education A Bachelor of Education (B.Ed. or BEd) is an undergraduate academic degree which prepares students for work as a teacher in schools. A Bachelor of Education program typically lasts three to four years and combines both coursework and practical exp ...

and has taught in primary education. As a coach, he started as an assistant to Bob Kootwijk at the

ADO Den Haag Alles Door Oefening Den Haag (), commonly known by the abbreviated name ADO Den Haag (), is a Dutch association football club from the city of The Hague. They play in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of Dutch football, following relegation ...

amateur branch and also coached youth teams. After this, he became assistant for the first team and until 30 March 2010 also coached the ADO reserves, before being appointed

caretaker manager In association footballing terms, a caretaker manager or interim manager is somebody who takes temporary charge of the management of a football team, usually when the regular manager is dismissed or leaves for a different club. However, a caret ...

of the ADO first team after the dismissal of Raymond Atteveld. After the departure of

John van den Brom Joseph Anthonius ''John ''van den Brom (born 4 October 1966) is a Dutch professional football manager and former player who is the current manager of Eerste Divisie club Vitesse. As a player, he played for Vitesse, Ajax, De Graafschap and Is ...

to Vitesse on 30 June 2011, Steijn was appointed head coach of ADO. On 5 February 2014, after three years as head coach, Steijn was dismissed after a loss against

Heracles Heracles ( ; ), born Alcaeus (, ''Alkaios'') or Alcides (, ''Alkeidēs''), was a Divinity, divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of ZeusApollodorus1.9.16/ref> and Alcmene, and the foster son of Amphitryon.By his adoptive descent through ...

, and was succeeded by his assistant, former defender Henk Fräser.

VVV-Venlo

Maurice Steijn was appointed head coach of

VVV-Venlo VVV-Venlo (, ''VVV'' stands for ''Venlose Voetbal Vereniging'' meaning "Venlo Football Club") is a Dutch association football, football club from Venlo, a city on the border with Germany. They play in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of Dutc ...

in July 2014 and held the position until June 2019. In his first two seasons, the team finished seventh and second in the

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 ...

, but failed to secure promotion through the play-offs. In the 2016–2017 season, VVV-Venlo won the Eerste Divisie title under his leadership, earning promotion to the Eredivisie. The club maintained its top-flight status in the following two seasons, finishing fifteenth and twelfth respectively. In June 2019, Steijn left VVV-Venlo to become the head coach of Al-Wahda in the United Arab Emirates.

Al-Wahda

Maurice Steijn was appointed head coach of Al-Wahda in June 2019 but was dismissed in October 2019 after just a three games in charge.

NAC Breda

Maurice Steijn was appointed head coach of NAC Breda in July 2020, signing a three-year contract. During the 2020–2021 season, the team finished fifth in the Eerste Divisie and failed to secure promotion after losing to

NEC is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered at the NEC Supertower in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It provides IT and network solutions, including cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), Inte ...

in the play-off final. His tenure was marked by internal conflicts, including disagreements with technical director

Ton Lokhoff Antonius Johannes Jacobus "Ton" Lokhoff (born 25 December 1959) is a Dutch football manager and former player, he is the currently assistant manager of Super Lig club Samsunspor. Playing career Lokhoff is named ''Mister NAC'' due to his long-tim ...

and criticism from supporters over the team's defensive playing style. In June 2021, Steijn resigned from his position due to threats directed at him and his family.

Sparta Rotterdam

Maurice Steijn was appointed head coach of

in April 2022, taking over from

Henk Fraser Hendrikus "Henk" Fraser (born 7 July 1966) is a Dutch football coach and former player. He played as a defender for various Dutch teams. Born in Suriname, he earned seven caps for the Netherlands national team in which he scored one goal. He ...

with four matches remaining in the season and the club at the bottom of 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 ...

table. Under his leadership, Sparta secured 10 points from those four games, finishing 14th and avoiding relegation. In the

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

season, Steijn guided Sparta to a sixth-place finish and reached the final of the European play-offs. In June 2023, he departed to become head coach of Ajax after the Amsterdam club activated a clause in his contract.

Ajax

On 14 June 2023, Steijn was hired by

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 ...

on a three-year contract. On 23 October 2023, a day after a 4–3 loss to

Utrecht Utrecht ( ; ; ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city of the Netherlands, as well as the capital and the most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Utrecht (province), Utrecht. The ...

placed it second-from-last on the

table, Ajax announced that it was parting ways with Steijn after just two wins through eleven matches in charge. The club under Steijn experienced their worst ever start of a season, with only five points in seven matches, taking into consideration that the 1964–65 season was during a standard of two points for a win.

Return to Sparta

On 2 November 2024,

announced that Steijn would return to the club on a contract until the end of the season.

Personal life

Steijn is the father of the Dutch footballer

Sem Steijn Sem Steijn (born 12 November 2001) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for club Feyenoord. A product of the ADO Den Haag academy, Steijn made his professional debut on loan at VVV-Venlo under the management ...

, and managed his son's debut at

on 6 December 2018.

Managerial statistics

Honours

2016-17 Eerste Divisie 16-17 is a band from Basel, Switzerland. Their music combines punk rock, hardcore punk, jazz and industrial music. Biography 16-17 was founded in 1983 by Alex Buess, Knut Remond and Markus Kneubühler. When the group played its first con ...

References

1973 births Living people Dutch men's footballers Footballers from The Hague Men's association football midfielders Eredivisie players ADO Den Haag players NAC Breda players Dutch football managers Eredivisie managers Eerste Divisie managers UAE Pro League managers ADO Den Haag managers VVV-Venlo managers Al Wahda FC managers NAC Breda managers Sparta Rotterdam managers AFC Ajax managers Dutch expatriate football managers Dutch expatriate sportspeople in the United Arab Emirates Expatriate football managers in the United Arab Emirates {{Netherlands-footy-midfielder-stub