Martin Jol
 | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Position(s) | Head Coach | ||
| Team information | |||
Current team | Tottenham Hotspur | ||
Maarten ("Martin") Cornelis Jol (born January 16, 1956 in Den Haag, Netherlands) is the current head coach of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. Appointed in 2004, Jol led Tottenham to their first UEFA Cup place in seven years.
Playing record
Martin Jol started his playing career with his local team Den Haag with whom he won the Dutch Cup before transferring to Bayern Munich in 1977. He returned to the Netherlands to play for FC Twente where he won his first cap for the Dutch national football team.
Jol moved to England in 1981 as a replacement for Bryan Robson at West Bromwich, reaching two semi-finals before moving to Coventry City and then returning to Den Haag.
In all he played over 400 games for five different clubs, earned three caps for the Netherlands national football team, and was Dutch Footballer of the Year in the First Division in 1985
Coaching record
Jol's coaching career began in 1991 when he took over amateur side ADO Den Haag mirroring the start in his playing career. In the four years he was managing the club he took them from the Third Division to the First Division. He then moved to Scheveningen for one season in which he took them to the national non-league championship. He next spent two years at Roda JC during which time he won the Dutch cup which was Roda's first trophy for 30 years. Between 1998-2004, Jol managed Dutch side RKC Waalwijk where he was the Dutch Football Writers Coach of the Year in 2001 and Dutch Players and Coaches Coach of the Year in 2002. When he took over at RKC Waalwijk he saved them from relegation in his first season and then turned them into a team contending for the European places.
In 2004 Jol was chosen by then Tottenham Hotspur Director of Football Frank Arnesen to be assistant to manager Jacques Santini. However, Santini left the job after just 17 games and Jol was made caretaker manager and then later confirmed as head coach. Arnesen has now also left the club and has been replaced by Damien Comolli.
Although his first game as Spurs manager resulted in a loss he managed to turn around the performances of the team and led them to a 9th place finish (their joint highest position in the last 9 seasons)in the Premier League finishing only 3 points away from a European spot. In the December of that season he was awarded the FA Manager of the Month award.
In the 2005-2006 season Jol has led Spurs in an impressive run of form in the FA Premiership with the team never having been outside of the top 6 all season and finishing 5th.
He has also become a popular figure in Tottenham and recently celebrated his 50th game in charge of Spurs with a 2-1 away win over Wigan.
Before his appointment at Spurs, Sir Alex Ferguson considered him for the role of assistant coach before eventually appointing Carlos Queiroz. In early 2005 he was strongly linked in the press with the then-vacant managerial job at Ajax of Amsterdam.
Trivia
In an interview in 2004, Jol told FourFourTwo that he would ideally like to spend five seasons in management with Spurs before returning back to the Netherlands to run a separate business, not football related.[need quotation to verify]
Martin Jol has 2 brothers, Cock (Cornelius) and Dick, who are both active in the world of football. Cock Jol is currently an overseas scout for Tottenham, whilst Dick Jol is a FIFA-accredited international referee, taking charge of the 2001 UEFA Champions League final.
Martin Jol is affectionately nicknamed Tony Soprano by the Tottenham Fans due to his tough Mafia style appearance.