Manchester United legend Edwin van der Sar has said that he turned down the chance to return to Old Trafford in favour of staying at Ajax. He recently had his say while speaking to the press, and fans have been reacting.
According to him, he actually rejected the opportunity to come back to the club many years ago because he did not feel like his work was done in the Netherlands.
Van der Sar added that he spoke to Ed Woodward twice about taking up a role alongside him at MUFC.
His words, “Yes, I spoke to Ed [Woodward] twice about taking up a role here but at that point, I didn’t think my job was finished at Ajax with the path we were going on – we were not there yet. I had two good conversations with him on two separate moments about a role, probably it would have been alongside him. Ed did a great job of leading the club. Mainly on the commercial side, of course he was involved in the sale of the club.
On that point and also I have been with him in meetings with the ECA [European Club Association] many times and the quality of certain aspects from him isn’t great but you would probably say it would be nice to have something on the football side beside him. Now I think the last two or three years United have tried to work to organise the football side and not only have that by the CEO, David Gill, and Sir Alex Ferguson. That is not going to cut it anymore, it’s not going to come back.”
On his future, “I’m undecided yet. I have had some conversations with some head-hunters, some parties, some multi-club ownerships but I have not found the right project yet or made the decision.
I think my life that I lead at the moment, I travel a lot and do a nice thing with some commercial stuff in Asia. But at a certain point you feel the knowledge that I gained, to take a step, I’m 55, so I think I still have four or five years to give to the game or to an organisation. It doesn’t have to be a football club, it can be an organisation that goes around football but it has to be something to do with sports.”
WOW.
Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United or simply United, is a professional football club based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top division in the English football league system.
Nicknamed the Red Devils, they were founded as Newton Heath LYR Football Club in 1878, but changed their name to Manchester United in 1902. After a spell playing in Clayton, Manchester, the club moved to their current stadium, Old Trafford, in 1910.
Alex Ferguson and his assistant Archie Knox arrived from Aberdeen on the day of Atkinson’s dismissal, and guided the club to an 11th-place finish in the league. Despite a second-place finish in 1987–88, the club was back in 11th place the following season. Reportedly on the verge of being dismissed, Ferguson’s job was saved by victory over Crystal Palace in the 1990 FA Cup final.
The following season, Manchester United claimed their first UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup title. That triumph allowed the club to compete in the European Super Cup for the first time, where United beat European Cup holders Red Star Belgrade 1–0 at Old Trafford. The club appeared in two consecutive League Cup finals in 1991 and 1992 the left and the right, but he’s not got any sense of danger yet, and empties the midfield area too readily.
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