Frans Hoek is currently employed in his second spell with the Dutch national team as assistant to Louis van Gaal.
It’s the latest stop in a coaching career which has taken him all over the globe on behalf of some of the continent’s most famous clubs, including Ajax, Barcelona and Bayern Munich.
This visit to City was made possible by City u18s manager Adam Sadler’s on-going relationship with a number of leading coaches in the Dutch game.
“Frans is a friend of mine who I’ve met a lot over the years, - I’ve got a real passion for Dutch football, the philosophy of how they play and how that has spread across Europe,” Sadler explained.
“He has a lot of experience, I met him while I spent some time over in Holland in 2007 as part of my UEFA Pro License at AZ Alkmaar when Van Gaal was Head Coach and it was there I met Edward Metgod who really gave me an insight into the Dutch school of thought - their model.
“I’d spoken to Scott [Sellers] and Mark [Allen] about an idea I had to bring Frans over for a coaching day to give all of the coaches here a bit of an insight from Frans on his philosophy and methods.
...Adam Sadler - City u18s manager...
In the morning session, Hoek addressed City’s Academy, shadow squad and community coaches in the Platt Lane auditorium and shared his theories and philosophies on coaching elite young footballers.
An outstanding presenter, Frans also fielded technical questions from the coaches and imparted advice garnered from a career coaching at the very top level.
After lunch, Frans took Adam Sadler’s under-18s outside onto the training pitches and led a session which focused on possession football and playing the ball out from the defence.
Hoek specialises in goalkeeping coaching, having worked with a succession of world-class stoppers, including Victor Valdes, Edwin van der Sar, Pepe Reina, Victor Baia and Robert Enke.
“The day was a great success; it was really interesting to hear Frans’s journey and more about his methodology - the feedback has been great,” Sadler reflected.
“We want to build up from the back and we expect our goalkeepers and defenders to be comfortable on the ball now to enable us to do that effectively.
...Adam Sadler...
“This is a really important part of the aforementioned model employed at Ajax in the nineties and Barcelona today and Frans went into lots of detail on his theories on the best way to do that.”
The visit follows on from under-18s manager Sadler’s trip to an international coaches’ course organised by the Netherlands Football Association (KNVB) back in August.
Footage from the visit is available to watch in the latest episode of Inside City.
