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Introducing new Saints head coach Jan
Poortvliet
Adam Leitch
Hampshire
Sport
30/05/2008
Jan Poortvliet was appointed head
coach of Championship and former Premier League side
Southampton FC today.
The team finished 20th in last
season's English second flight.
The local new site 'This
is Hampshire' made the following portrait of a former
Dutch top player who sort of went into oblivion:
Jan Poortvliet is steeped in Dutch football history.
Born on September 21, 1955, in Zeeland, a province
to the west of the Netherlands, he grew up at PSV Eindhoven.
He was part of the successful PSV side that won a clutch
of honours during his 12 seasons up to 1983.
Poortvliet, who racked up 420 domestic appearances
and 57 European matches for PSV, picked up no less than
three Dutch league Eredivisie winners medals, two domestic
cups and most notably a UEFA Cup winners medal after
playing SC Bastia of France over two legs in the 1978
final.
After leaving PSV, Poortvliet went on to have a six-month
stint at Roda JC before three years in France with Nimes
Olympique.
Poortvliet went on to have spells in Belgian football
with Royal Antwerp and Eendracht Aalst, punctuated by
another stint in France with Cannes.
advertisementBut it is on the international stage that
Poortvliet achieved his arguably greatest success as
a player.
He was capped 25 times for his country, most memorably
winning six of those in the 1978 World Cup.
He only made his senior international debut in Holland's
last warm-up friendly before the tournament.
He didn't feature in the first game but appeared in
every game thereafter as his country reached their second
successive World Cup final.
Poortvliet played the whole 90 minutes, plus extra
time, in the final wearing the number two jersey.
His side lost out 3-1 to the Mario Kempes-inspired
hosts after the scores had finished 1-1 at the end of
full time.
As a player, Poortvliet was part of the total football
Dutch team, coming into the side right at the end of
Johan Cruyff's spell in international level.
After hanging up his boots, Poortvliet headed into
coaching where he has an impressive record.
He has built a reputation for forging promotion-winning
teams on a limited budget by playing and developing
the club's young players - something that must have
appealed to Saints.
Poortvliet landed his first coaching job in Belgium
with Eendracht Aalst where he stayed for two seasons,
leading them to consecutive play-offs.
In 1994 he started three years at Brabantia in Holland
where he guided them twice to the fourth division title,
winning promotion once, before two years at de Valk
where he again won the title.
Back in Belgium in 1999 with Overpelt, he won them
promotion from the second division in his first season
and guided them to 11th in the top flight the next campaign
before joining Den Bosch in Holland.
There he took over with the club in administration
but led them immediately to the first division title
and promotion to the Eredivisie.
Then came a three season stint with Telstar, where
Poortvliet built a team on a tiny budget using youngsters
that gradually improved to the point where they reached
the play-offs.
Two seasons at Nuenen followed with an immediate fifth
division championship and then third place in the fourth
division which guaranteed a play-off.
Last summer Poortvliet tried a fresh challenge with
Helmand Sports, another club in the mould of those he
had previously managed and the one he shortly will -
one with limited money looking for promotion from the
country's second tier of football using young players.
He guided them straight into the play-offs but they
lost out in the second round of the three-round knock-out
competition for promotion.
Helmand didn't want to let Poortvliet leave but agreed
to give him the chance to move to Saints.
He has paid his own severance fee to Helmand in order
to move to England.
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