Dutch coach Blind Danny

Blind Danny is a Dutch coach, and in the past a football player. Now he is 55 years old, and he trains the Dutch national team. In those days when he was still a player, Blind Danny acted as a libero, but he could also play on the right flank both as a defender and as a midfielder.

Beginning of a career and playing in "Sparta"

Blind Danny was born on August 1, 1961 in Holland, where he started playing soccer at the Academy of Rotterdam's "Sparta" from an early age. It was with this club that Danny signed a professional contract in 1979 when he turned 18 years old. First time he was used in the club exclusively as a substitute for more experienced players, so for three seasons he played only 37 matches. However, since 1982 Blind Danny became a player of the club's foundation, and gradually turned into a key player for the football team. In total, "Sparta" libero spent seven years - he went on the field 165 times, scoring 18 goals. The Dutchman was among the top ten record-holders for the number of matches for the club, but in 1986 he went on promotion, moving to the strongest club of the country "Ajax".

Playing for Ajax

Danny Blind is a footballer who had a very great talent, so he could not stay in the club middle-class all his career. That's why in 1986, a 25-year-old player went for trophies to the capital. Here he immediately found himself at the basis and quickly acquired a key role. It was with Ajax that Blind linked his career - here he became the Dutch champion five times, won the Dutch Cup four times, won the UEFA Cup in 1992, and in 1995 reached the peak of success - won the Champions League. The reason for this was the fact that Blind had an impressive supply of health and stamina. The majority of players finish their career in the region of 33 years, and Danny moved to Ajax at 25 - and spent 13 seasons for the capital club. As a result, he completed his career in 1999 at the age of 38. Naturally, with such a long career the most basic to today's record for "Ajax" remains exactly Danny Blind. Statistics of the player in the Dutch club is amazing - 482 matches and 36 goals.

National team appearances

In the national team of Holland, Blind was not as good as at the club level. He made his debut only in 1986, when he moved to "Ajax" - before that he was not noticed because he played for not the most outstanding club. In the end, Blind spent only 42 matches in the Dutch national team's shirt, scoring one goal. The only big tournament that the Dutchman went to was the European Championships in 1996, where he played three of four matches at the base.

Coach career

As soon as Blind finished his playing career, he immediately began to work as a coach. He started as a coach of the youth team "Ajax" - in this position Blind worked for six years, after which he was appointed head coach of the Amsterdam club. However, his success was far from the most impressive, so in the summer of 2006 he was fired. A year later, he moved to his native Rotterdam "Sparta", where he became a sports director, and a year later in this position was invited to "Ajax". There he worked for another year, after which he became an assistant coach - for two years he worked under the guidance of Martin Jol and Frank de Boer, and in 2001 again became a sports director. In the summer of 2012, everything changed, as Blind was included in the coaching staff of the Dutch national team. There he for three years was an assistant coach - Louis van Gala and Guus Hiddink. And in the summer of 2015 he was himself appointed coach of the team - in this position he is still working. At the moment as a coach, Blind did not win almost any trophies. His greatest achievement was the victory in the Dutch Cup in 2006 with "Ajax". However, Danny is not so many years - ahead of him for many years of coaching. It is unlikely that now he will be someone's assistant, although the team debut was not the most rosy - the Dutch could not reach the final of the European Championship in 2016.