Erik ten Hag

Erik ten Hag ([eːrɪk tən hax] (), born 2 February 1970) is a Dutch professional football manager and former player, who is the head coach of Eredivisie club Ajax. He will become manager of English club Manchester United from the start of the 2022–23 season.

Ten Hag played primarily as a centre-back for FC Twente, De Graafschap, RKC Waalwijk and FC Utrecht. He had three stints with FC Twente, with whom he won the KNVB Cup in the 2000–01 season.

Ten Hag also won the Eerste Divisie with De Graafschap in the 1990–91 season, ten years before winning the cup with FC Twente. He retired from active playing in 2002 at the age of 32 while playing for FC Twente, after the end of the 2001–02 Eredivisie season.

Early career

In 2012, Ten Hag was appointed as manager of Go Ahead Eagles in the Eerste Divisie by Marc Overmars, who was a shareholder of the club. During his only season at Go Ahead Eagles, he led the team to its first promotion in 17 years.

He coached Bayern Munich II from 6 June 2013 until 2015 when he was replaced by Heiko Vogel. His final match as Bayern Munich II head coach was a 1–0 loss to Nürnberg II on 22 May 2015.

Ten Hag then became the Sporting Director and head coach of FC Utrecht in summer 2015, where he led the club to fifth place during his first season. In the2016–17 season, he improved FC Utrecht's final position to fourth, booking a place in the Europa League qualifiers.

AFC Ajax

On 21 December 2017, he was appointed as the head coach of AFC Ajax after the club dismissed Marcel Keizer. In 2019, he led his Ajax team to the semi-finals of the 2018–19 UEFA Champions League for the first time since 1997, by winning against holding champions Real Madrid 4–1 in the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium at the round of 16 stage, and also beating Juventus away 1–2 having drawn the first leg 1–1 at home in the quarterfinals. In the first leg of the semifinal, he led his team to take a 1–0 lead against Tottenham Hotspur in the recently completed Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. However in the second leg, a second half hat-trick by Lucas Moura for Tottenham Hotspur, with the last goal being scored in the 96th minute to make it 3–2 (3–3 on aggregate) to win on away goals, ended Ajax's hopes of playing in the final.

He won his first managerial trophy with Ajax on 5 May 2019, the 2018–19 KNVB Cup, beating Willem II in the final. Only 10 days after winning the cup, Ajax, led by Ten Hag won the Eredivisie as well after a 1–4 away victory over De Graafschap and brought the double back to the club.

On 18 April 2021, Ten Hag guided Ajax to their record extending 20th KNVB Cup with a 2–1 win over Vitesse in the final. Two weeks later, Ten Hag extended his contract with Ajax through to the end of the 2022–23 season. On 16 January 2022, Ten Hag became the fastest manager in league history to reach 100 wins with Ajax, achieving the feat in 128 matches, when his side beat FC Utrecht 3–0 away on match day 19.

Manchester United

On 21 April 2022, Ten Hag was appointed as manager of Manchester United starting 1 July until June 2025 with the option of extending for a further year.

As of match played 17 April 2022

Player

De Graafschap

• Eerste Divisie: 1990–91

Twente

• KNVB Cup: 2000–01

Manager

Bayern Munich II

• Regionalliga Bayern: 2013–14

Ajax

• Eredivisie: 2018–19, 2020–21
• KNVB Cup: 2018–19, 2020–21
• Johan Cruyff Shield: 2019

Individual

• Rinus Michels Award: 2016, 2019
• The Best FIFA Men's Coach: 2019 (4th place)