User:PetrusintGroen/sandbox

Petrus “Pieter” In ‘t Groen (born 10 June 1969) is a Dutch professional football coach and former player, who is currently the technical director of the academy at Al-Arabi SC (Qatar). He played professionally for Willem II Tilburg and RKC Waalwijk before suffering from injuries and moving into coaching.

Managing career
The Netherlands

After suffering from injuries, In ‘t Groen moved into coaching. In 1999 he was given a job as a Under-19 assistant coach at his former club RKC Waalwijk. The following two seasons he became Under-15 head coach in combination with assisting the Under-23 for his internship of the UEFA B coaching license.

In 2002 he accepted a job at Willem II Tilburg as Under-16 head coach. He coached this age group for two years and obtained in May-2003 the UEFA A-Elite coaching licence. In the season 2004-2005 he was Under-19 head coach.

During the summer of 2005 he signed a contract as technical director of SV Triborgh in his hometown Tilburg and was made responsible for the player’s development of the club. He had a huge impact in re-organizing the youth academy structure. After only two years this resulted that many players were invited to go on trial at the nearby professional clubs, such as PSV Eindhoven, Willem II Tilburg, RKC Waalwijk, NAC Breda and FC Den Bosch. Just before the start of the season in July 2007 he received an offer to go and coach at Al-Arabi Sports Club in Qatar.

Qatar

In 't Groen moved to Qatar in August 2007, where he was appointed as Under-19 head coach of Al-Arabi Sports Club. He trained the team for three seasons and was recognized as one of the most successful coaches in developing player’s in Qatar. In his second season he was recommended by Mubarak Mustafa, head of football at Al-Arabi to be coach of the first team, but he had to refuse as he was not having the Pro coaching licence. Later that season his Under-19 team won the national cup. Uli Stielike was contracted as the new first team head coach and from the start of the third season In 't Groen was regularly assisting the first team. As Under-19 head coach he won that season the national league by staying unbeaten for twelve matches in a row. After the third season in June 2010 third-teen players signed a contract for the reserves and first team of the club. Until today, still the highest number of contracts signed at the end of the season for players coming from the Al-Arabi academy.

Notable players that he coached at Al-Arabi were: Abdulaziz Hatem, Ahmed Al-Nahwi, Abdullah Al-Oraimi, Ahmad Khalfan, Mohammed Al Kuwari, Mohammed Khalfani, Abdullah Marafee and Ahmed Fatehi.

Ghana

Red Bull Salzburg approached him in 2010 to become technical director and head coach at Red Bull Ghana in Ghana. He evaluated the structure, way of working and the players at the academy and realized that chances were necessary to develop players for the international level. He introduced more individual training programs in relation to the Ghanaian player strengths and weaknesses. His periodization methods and training methodology were successful as the academy start receiving invitations for their players from the Ghana Football Association for the national youth teams. After two years he renewed his contract with another two years as Red Bull was pleased with the positive attention, the attractive playing-style of the teams and the individual progress of the talented players in close cooperation with the Diagnostic Training Center in Thalgau in Austria. Political differences within the management of Salzburg and political circumstances in Ghana during his third year, were the reasons that Salzburg unexpectedly decided to sell the academy. His contract was officially terminated in April 2014.

Notable players that he coached at Red Bull Ghana were: Patrick Twumasi, Augustine Okrah, Richard Arhin, Abdul Ganiyu, Ishmael Hammond, Fatawu Mohammed, Robin Gnagne, Raphael Dwamena, Reuben Acquah, Joseph Cudjoe, David Atanga, Lawrence Ati-Zigi, Seth Paintsil, Samuel Kwame Owusu, Joseph Paintsil, Ogodjo Indrissa, Augustine Awiah, Isaac Gyamfi and Gabriel Leveh.

Qatar

On request of the management of Al-Arabi Sports Club he returned in June 2014 as Under-23 head coach and first team assistant coach. He assisted Gianfranco Zola in the 2015-2016 season. In that season the Under-23 team was unbeaten for ten matches in a row. When the club terminated the contract of Gianfranco, he also decided to leave in October 2016.

New Zealand

He signed a three years contract in January 2017 at Christchurch United in New Zealand. He was to re-structure the academy and try to establish a top academy of the country. After five months he resigned due to too many differences with the owner/president regarding the structure, vision and daily workflow of the club.

Qatar

Al-Arabi Sports Club contacted him again in October 2017 for the position of technical director of the academy. He accepted and started the job in November 2017. During the year 2018 he was selected to join the first Pro Coaching Course in Qatar by the Asian Football Confederation(AFC). He successfully passed and in February 2019 he received the AFC Pro Coaching certificate. The instructors Erich Rutemöller and Gary Phillips gave him a recognition of distinction.

Notable colleague students that also passed the Pro Licence were: Djamel Belmadi, Philippe Burle, Silvio Diliberto, Hakeem Shaker, Dragan Tadić and Sami Trabelsi.