Wesley Sneijder steps up to manage a ninth-division club in his very first coaching job.
Wesley Sneijder is about to start his coaching journey in his home country, the Netherlands, at 42 years old. He’ll be managing Eminent Boys, a club in the ninth tier, where his brother Rodney is a director.
During his long playing career, Sneijder played for big clubs like Inter Milan, Ajax, and Real Madrid. Many people thought he might join Manchester United, but that never happened. Manchester United recently named Mauricio Pochettino as their new manager, hoping to improve their poor Premier League position. Pochettino will be looking for the right players, but even great managers like Sir Alex Ferguson sometimes couldn’t get certain players to join the club. Sneijder was one player Ferguson couldn’t bring to Old Trafford, despite years of rumors.
Now, Sneijder has chosen to start coaching at Eminent Boys, a small club based in Utrecht. He showed up at their training session this Tuesday to begin as manager and will be working alongside his brother Rodney. This is Sneijder’s first coaching job, and he’s starting way down the Dutch football levels.
Although he retired from pro football in 2019 after playing for Al-Gharafa, Sneijder was still seen playing with a ninth-division team called OSM’75 last season. The players at Eminent Boys must be excited to learn from a former Champions League winner and World Cup finalist.
Many fans remember Sneijder as one of the best players in the world around 2010 and 2011, especially when he was key to Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan team. He has talked before about how close he came to joining Manchester United. Sneijder shared, “In 2011, after the Champions League and the World Cup, I almost joined United. But then talks stopped suddenly. Later, I found out my manager had asked for extra money, so the deal fell through. Sir Alex Ferguson even told one of my family members about it.”