Gerard van der Lem

Gerard van der Lem (born 15 November 1952) is a retired football winger from the Netherlands, who made his professional debut for FC Amsterdam on 12 August 1973 against PSV Eindhoven. He later played for Roda JC, Feyenoord, Sparta Rotterdam and Utrecht.

After his professional playing career, van der Lem started his coaching career as assistant coach to world-famous coaches like Piet de Visser, Dick Advocaat and Louis van Gaal.

In his first engagement at AZS, he was responsible coach for the amateur teams (and became Holland Champion in 1985) as well as assistant coach to Piet de Visser with the senior team. From 1986 to 1989, he was employed with Haarlem starting out as assistant coach to Advocaat, and then following him into the position of head coach during the last year. Having always given great emphasis to youth development, van der Lem joined Ajax in 1990 as Head of the Youth Development Department. After a successful year, and many new impressions, he was chosen to be co-coach to Louis van Gaal with the great and famous Champions League team. During this period, from 1991 to 1997, one title followed the next:

3 x Dutch Champion 2 x Dutch Cup Winner 1 x Winner of the European Champions League 1 x UEFA Cup Winner 1 x Winner of the FIFA World Cup for Clubs 2 x Winner of the Dutch Super Cup

These successes did not go unseen. The next engagement of van Gaal and van der Lem followed suit at equally famous Spanish Premier League club Barcelona. In the two seasons there, van der Lem was able to achieve the following titles:

2 x Spanish Premier League Champion 1 x Spanish Cup Winner 1 x Winner of the Spanish Super Cup

After his time in Spain, van der Lem returned to his native Netherlands to become the head coach of FC Alkmaar again, followed by one season in Japan at Oita Trinita of the J-League.

Another memorable and highly successful period followed in Saudi Arabia in his first engagement as coach of the national team. He and his team won:

1 x Winner of the Gulf Cup / 1 x Winner of the Arab Cup / Qualification to the Asian Cup

Furthermore, he was awarded "Best Coach of the Middle East".

After some time back home with Ajax, where he worked in several positions (2002-2003, 2004–2006), he returned to the Middle East for an engagement with United Arab Emirates 1st League club Al Sharjah in the 2007-2008 season.

In 2008, van der Lem joined his fellow manager Henk ten Cate in an appointment at the famous Greek club Panathinaikos.

At present, van der Lem is technical director at Kayserispor in Turkey.