Patrick van Leeuwen (born 8 August 1969) is a Dutch

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

manager who manages

Zorya Luhansk FC Zorya Luhansk ( uk, ФК «Зоря» Луганськ ) is a Ukrainian football team. Zorya Luhansk is based in the city of Luhansk, Ukraine. However, because of the Russo-Ukrainian War, the team play their games at Slavutych-Arena in Zapori ...

Playing career

Van Leeuwen joined Dutch top flight outfit Sparta (Rotterdam) at age of 16. Growing up was receiving a lot of injuries and decided to obtain a coaching certification. At age of 21 Leeuwen obtained his A License at the Sports Academy in Holland. His professional playing career with Sparta (Rotterdam), where he made 16 league appearances and scored 0 goals. In 1994, van Leeuwen signed for

Helmond Sport Helmond Sport is a professional association football club based in the city of Helmond, North Brabant, Netherlands, that competes in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of the Dutch football league system. The club was founded on 27 June 1967, as ...

in the Dutch lower leagues. At the age of 27, he retired.

Managerial career

After retirement, he was appointed youth manager of

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the club changed to various names before settling on being called after its ...

, one of the Netherlands' most successful clubs. After that, van Leeuwen was appointed youth manager of Shakhtar (Donetsk) in Ukraine, before being appointed director of Kazakhstani side Kairat. In 2020, van Leeuwen was appointed manager of

Maccabi Tel Aviv Maccabi Tel Aviv ( he, מכבי תל אביב) is one of the largest sports clubs in Israel, and a part of the Maccabi association. Many sports clubs and teams in Tel Aviv are in association with Maccabi and compete in a variety of sports, such ...

, the most successful club in Israel. In 2020/21, under his management, the team finished in the 2nd place in the

Israeli Premier League The Israeli Premier League ( he, ליגת העל, ''Ligat Ha`Al'', ), is a professional association football league which operates as the highest division of the Israeli Football League – the state's league of Israel. The league is contested b ...

and won the

Israel State Cup The Israel State Cup ( he, גביע המדינה, ''Gvia HaMedina''), is a knockout cup competition in Israeli football, run by the Israel Football Association (IFA). The State Cup was first held in 1928 as the People's Cup. Because it involve ...

. On October 26, 2021 van Leeuwen was sacked due to a poor start to the

regular season In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of Se ...

. 28 June 2022, he was appointed as a manager for Ukrainian

FC Zorya Luhansk FC Zorya Luhansk ( uk, ФК «Зоря» Луганськ ) is a Ukrainian football team. Zorya Luhansk is based in the city of Luhansk, Ukraine. However, because of the Russo-Ukrainian War, the team play their games at Slavutych-Arena in Zapori ...

that temporarily plays out of

Zaporizhia Zaporizhzhia ( uk, Запоріжжя) or Zaporozhye (russian: Запорожье) is a city in southeast Ukraine, situated on the banks of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. It is the Capital city, administrative centre of Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Zapor ...

due to the war with Russia. During the 2022–23 season Patrick van Leeuwen became a laureate of the manager of the month award for October.

References

External links

Patrick van Leeuwen
at playmakerstats.com * 1969 births People from Assen Living people Dutch footballers Sparta Rotterdam players Helmond Sport players Eredivisie players Dutch football managers Dutch expatriate football managers FC Shakhtar Donetsk non-playing staff Maccabi Tel Aviv F.C. managers FC Zorya Luhansk managers Israeli Premier League managers Expatriate football managers in Kazakhstan Expatriate football managers in Ukraine Expatriate football managers in Israel Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Kazakhstan Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Ukraine Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Israel Association football midfielders Footballers from Drenthe Feyenoord non-playing staff {{Netherlands-footy-bio-stub