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Wednesday April 3, 2024 at 2:04 PM
Special After the current cycling season, Merijn Zeeman will start working as general manager at football club AZ Alkmaar. The 45-year-old North Hollander now works as a sporting director at Visma | Lease a Bike. A dream is coming true for him, because he has always seen a challenge in the football world. CyclingFlits lists his thoughts on football.
It is mid-March 2024 as CyclingFlitseditor-in-chief Maxim Horssels asks him about his ambitions in football during the premiere of the new Amazon documentary, after there were rumors about a move to AZ. “I haven’t received a call from them yet. They can always call me, but whether I answer is another matter. It doesn’t matter…”
“I play seven-a-side football on Friday evenings, but my son thinks I can’t do anything,” he continues. “I think football is a very nice sport and I certainly think that I would like to switch to football someday, but that is not current at the moment. I will definitely be at Visma | this year Lease a Bike. I don’t know what I think about it. I have already been associated with FC Twente, that is a compliment.”
Collaborating with Erik ten Hag
Zeeman has been trying to learn from other sports for years. During the corona pandemic, he came into contact with Erik ten Hag, then coach of Ajax and currently of top club Manchester United. “I wanted to understand from him: how do you arrive at tactics? What is the essence of your sport for you? Before you make a competition plan, what is behind it? I had the opportunity to speak to him about this a number of times,” he told NOS in 2022.
“Conversations with Erik have given me insight that we could have much clearer principles,” Zeeman added in the podcast With an open mind. “What is the basis for how we approach a competition? In broad terms we started looking into what cycling is. Where can we make a difference and what do we always want to bring back? All of Erik’s exercises, training and tactics can be traced back to the principles of how to have the greatest chance of scoring goals and winning matches.”
Erik ten Hag – photo: Cor Vos
The collaboration between the two was also highlighted in the Algemeen Dagblad, a year later in July 2023. “It starts with a culture, then with a structure, then a strategy and so you continue. Erik and I recognize that in each other and we think very much the same about it. Make it clear to everyone: what is our goal and how are we going to get there? But also that very clear line at Feyenoord, with a good leader like Dennis te Kloese and a fantastic coach like Arne Slot, that appeals to me and inspires me.”
In that interview it is also revealed for the first time whether he does not like working in the football world. “It is a very big sport and if you are ambitious, it is also a challenge in some way. […] I have also discussed this with Erik. That was not about a director position.”
“To collaborate with him. Not about football content, but about the organization, about the team and the structure. He wanted to brainstorm about that with me. I wanted that too, but I also indicated that I would stay where I am. But if I had walked that path with Erik and it was interesting, I could have already joined Ajax.”
Game changers speak to Zeeman
In the podcast Met Open Vizier by football coach Alex Pastoor, Zeeman predicted in 2023 that he would be more likely to work at a football club than at a cycling team in 2030. He also said he would like to work for an NFL club in the United States (American football) one day. “I work in cycling, but my interests are very broad. I have a very busy job, but somewhere my interest is stronger. I collect a lot of information from many sports.”
“Since I was a child, I have found coaches more interesting than athletes,” Zeeman explains. “I don’t know how that is possible, but people like Rinus Michels have inspired me. I was curious what they did. I had the opportunity to meet Johan Cruijff once, which means more to me than seeing Lionel Messi. When I met Cruyff in real life, it was a highlight. But I place him below Louis van Gaal. As a coach he is more like how I see things than Cruijff. He fell into a magic pool of gold. Van Gaal is more of someone who self-made and has learned many things.”
In the podcast, Zeeman was presented with a number of statements. These are presented in bullet points below:
- “Van Gaal over Cruijff”
- “I am in favor of VAR in football, it should also remain in cycling”
- “Mental health is more important than physical health”
- “Attacking is more important than controlling, but controlling is more important than defending”
- “It’s 2030, and I’m more likely to be working at a football club than a cycling team”
- “A foreigner as coach of the Dutch national team, that is possible”
- “A foreigner as coach of the Dutch cycling team at a World Cup, that is also possible”
Looking behind the scenes at AZ on the advice of Van Gaal
Zeeman himself, together with his brother and TV maker Thijs Zeeman, started the podcast in the autumn of 2023 Game changers. They are inspired by the stories of coaches who have been progressive and decisive in their sport. One of the episodes featured Marijn Beuker, director of football at Ajax. He previously worked at AZ as Head of Training. Zeeman also visited him to learn.
“Louis van Gaal was once with us in Paris to congratulate us on the yellow jersey. Then he literally told me that he was in contact with someone who could clarify what he meant with his vision. That was Marijn Beuker,” says Zeeman himself. “Marijn has been to my team’s training camps several times, and I was regularly allowed to watch with him, especially when he still worked at AZ. I learned a lot there. About the way he looks at football.”
In With an open mind Zeeman also referred to this once. “I have also had the opportunity to watch youth football training courses. I think you should never train teams, but individual players. You have to train team players to play in a team and with all the responsibilities that come with it. But being a good team in youth, what does that buy you? It’s about the players being successful at the highest level and being able to generate transfer income.”
Zeeman himself pushes leader Wout Van Aert in the 2022 Tour – photo: Cor Vos
Creating a new football vision
As an outsider, he often sees that a football coach is screwed when a team is performing poorly. Zeeman would like to approach this differently. “In football, the role of technical director is 80% buying and selling players, negotiating contracts and maintaining relationships with managers. The sporty aspect no longer receives any attention at all. I am waiting for the first football club that says: we have a technical director and a sporting director.”
“The sporting director is very focused on the coach, the first team, the training program, everything that surrounds it,” Zeeman philosophizes. “So that the coach can focus on the team and the dynamics, but has a mirror or sparring partner every day. A joint responsibility for the sporting program. And a technical director who is busy with everything that takes place in the market on a daily basis. That now falls to the head coach, but he also has 25 players and a staff to manage.”
Zeeman calls himself ‘human, innovative and confrontational’. His starting point is that in football the position of the coach should not be up for discussion. “It is really football that a trainer is looked at in that way, but in cycling we don’t have that at all. Sometimes there could be a little more refreshment. Now there are sometimes coaches who have been with a team for twenty years. […] My current position with the team can be compared to the old football coach, when there was no technical director yet. As a trainer you were also responsible for new players, you had conversations with them.”
Merijn Zeeman was nominated for the title of Sports Coach of the Year in the Netherlands for the first time at the end of 2023, after Jumbo-Visma’s cycling miracle year. The team reached an absolute highlight by being the first team ever to win the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France and Vuelta a España in the same season. Zeeman was ultimately defeated by rowing coach Eelco Meenhorst. At AZ Alkmaar he will focus more on managing the club as a whole.
Zeeman exchanges the cycling press for football journalists – photo: Cor Vos
