Jordan Balhassan 18/02/2021 12:44
Patrick Van Leven (Radad Jabara)
For Maccabi Tel Aviv he is the man who made a change, the character who arrived at the right place at the right time just before the ship sank and maybe even complete a big comeback on the way to the championship title. But for Shakhtar Donetsk, whom he will meet tonight (Thursday, 22:00) as an opposing coach, Patrick Van Leven He is one of the most important screws in the last 15 years and the one who has commanded the club’s youth department with great success for five years (and another two years as an assistant).
Two months ago, when Maccabi Tel Aviv was drawn against Shakhtar in the last 32 rounds of the Europa League, the picantry of Israeli football was not long in coming – Manor Solomon will meet Maccabi Tel Aviv. The boy who grew up in the youth department of Maccabi Petah Tikva and who came to the stands in Bloomfield with his mother, will play as a rising star in front of his friends. In those days the one who coached the champion was still Georgios Donis who led her to the class, but fate wanted (and so did Goldhar) and the upheaval in Kiryat Shalom led Van Leven to take the reins as interim coach, which became a permanent appointment. The Dutchman who brought Jordi Cruyff to Israel was promoted after serving as the executive director of the youth department, and in front of Shakhtar he will close an exciting circle for him.
The road to Ukraine
After a football career that ended at the age of 27 after playing in the 1990s at Sparta Rotterdam and the amateur Helmond Sport, Van Leven retired and turned to a target that spoke much more to him. He entered the world of management in 2000 and served for six years as the executive director of the youth department at Feyenoord, when he was also in charge of scouting. During his years in the Dutch team, players such as Stefan de Frey (currently at Inter) and Giorgio Vinaldom (Liverpool) passed under his leadership. In addition, he managed to work with ex-Yellows Peter Boss.
In 2006 one of Van Leven’s friends, Hank Van Sti, a former Dutch player who worked with him at Feyenoord, received an offer to come to Shakhtar Donetsk and asked the Dutchman to join him on a trip to Ukraine. Patrick jumped on the bandwagon and served as Van Set’s deputy for two years, and when the latter left for Zenit in 2008, Van Leven inherited his position and managed the youth department, in which he was in charge of 20 teams. During his years at Shakhtar Van Levon he strengthened ties with Brazil and took care to lay foundations that are still used today in the Ukrainian luxury club.
Along the way, Van Leven also published a book on the basics of his game called “Football Philosophy” in which he tells about his thinking in terms of tactics, exercises and even sample videos. The book is available for purchase on Amazon. Van Leven had a good relationship with Shekhtar CEO Sergei Falkin, who gave him the reins. Falkin Referring to the expected meeting with his friend: “Patrick did a great job at our club and the coaches who work here still remember him well. He is an expert at the highest level, although we have never played against Maccabi Tel Aviv, but we know Van Leven and know that he has a head of football. “
During his seven years at Shakhtar, Van Leven also developed a close relationship with the team that coached the team throughout the period – the Romanian Mircea Lucescu, who coached a variety of teams including Inter, Zenit, the Turkish national team and currently stands on the lines of Shakhtar’s biggest rival for the championship Dynamo Kiev.
Van Leven, who will celebrate 52 this coming August, looks on his face like an old-fashioned coach, but the techniques he used along the way and which he also instilled in yellow belong entirely to the new generation. Great involvement in scouting, advocates in the analyst department and thinks outside the box. He came to Israel after courtship by Cruyff and Martin Bain, when while playing Jordi in Metallurg Donetsk, a connection was made between the two, a relationship that would later become a collaboration in Tel Aviv. Van Leven recounted upon his arrival in Israel: “My philosophy comes from the Netherlands, where the importance of thinking in one direction is understood in order to strive for success. From the beginning, my intention was to push the coaches on the team in my direction, that we would all work together. “
“Patrick is a football expert. I do not understand why there will not be an audience in Bloomfield “
Israeli football fans will probably remember the name Sergei Kandaurov. A former Ukrainian national team player arrived in Israel in the 1990s and played for Maccabi Haifa for four years, and in the early 2000s he came to Ashdod. Due to his acquaintance with Israel and also with Van Leven, the past contact and current coach referred to the meeting between Maccabi and Shakhtar: “I know Van Leven well, he is a very nice person and an expert in football. He knows the structure of Maccabi Tel Aviv because he was there in the youth department, so the transition to the coaching position was simpler for him.
“We see the results and find that Patrick is doing a good job. It will be difficult for Maccabi Tel Aviv because it does not have much experience in these classes, I played in Bloomfield before, it is a nice and pleasant stadium, the area is relatively crowded in the city but the stadium itself has been upgraded and looks more modern. There is something I do not understand and that is the fact that 70 percent of the residents of the State of Israel are vaccinated to Corona, so why not have fans in the stadium? To be honest, from my acquaintance I know that the government cares about its citizens in Israel, human health is first and foremost. “Maccabi Tel Aviv is stronger with its fans so it will be difficult for them,” he concluded.
“The image of Shakhtar came up with Van Leven. Hope for future cooperation
He who worked with Van Leven at the Shakhtar Academy and is well acquainted with his work is Alexander Alexiev, Who currently heads the Academy of the Ukrainian Club and shared a special conversation with ONE: “I enjoyed working with Patrick. He is professional, systematic and consistent in his daily work and decision-making process. At the same time, he is a good person, with an excellent sense of humor. “
What are the most important things he brought to the academy?
I would say that he was the person who built the structure of our academy and brought a systematic approach – both in terms of the training process and in the organizational dimension. The image of the Shakhtar Academy rose considerably when Patrick ruled the academy. “
Who are the players he developed in the academy and was sold to big teams?
“there is a lot. Ruslan Malinowski and Victor Koblenko who are in Atlanta now, Alexander Zinchenko has become a valued player at Manchester City, Alexander Zubkov – a key player at Frantzvarosh. There is also Mykola from Twainko, Valerie Bonder, Sergei Bublat and Maxim from Elishev who are now in our first team and successful. All of these names are the product of academia under the guidance of Patrick Van Leven. ”
Are you still in touch with him?
“Yes, we’re in touch with Patrick. He was the one who invited me to work in our academy and I am grateful to him for his contribution to my professional development. As for our cooperation, we have experience in joint activities – 3 years ago Patrick brought teams from young Maccabi Tel Aviv to Kiev and played friendly games with our teams. It was a good experience for the young players, in the future we hope to develop our cooperation. “
Do you think he will succeed as a team coach who wants a championship?
“I’m sure he will. “Patrick is a very experienced professional – he knows how to motivate people, lead them to success and at the same time create a very positive environment within the team.”
Will the fact that Shakhtar know him well give her a greater advantage?
“I do not think so. Of course we understand his strong coaching skills which definitely influenced how the team played. What we do know is that Maccabi Tel Aviv is an orderly team and it will be difficult to play against it. “
What impression did Patrick make after leaving Shakhtar?
“Absolutely positive. He left behind a well-developed and well-organized academy. And what’s important is that we all remain good friends – he still maintains a good relationship with the club’s staff. “
“The decision to leave was difficult”
After seven years Van Leven decided to leave Shakhtar to create a new challenge – to instill his philosophy in Kazakhstan where he became the sporting director and also the director of the Kiryat Almaty academy. In his farewell message from Donetsk he said: “Falkin gave me a chance to prove myself here, I thank him and the club for that. I learned a lot of things during my years here, first as an assistant and then as an academy fire. I’m happy for the privilege I had to work here, I admit I wanted to do more but things do not always go as planned.
“I left the academy with a good structure, talented players who can prove themselves in the senior team. It’s not an easy moment, the decision to leave was a difficult one, but in life comes the time you want to try a new role. I decided to resign from the academy because I received an offer that would allow me to develop and grow, to use the talent I had gained in Shakhtar. I met a lot of people that I hope to meet again, ”Van Leven concluded, and indeed after two years in Kazakhstan and another 6 in Israel, he meets Shakhtar again to close an exciting circle for him.
