Former Dutch manager Foppe van de Haan has stated that he had received an offer from Sunderland but was not very interested in it.
The 80-year-old has spoken with FC Update about his managerial career, which has primarily involved Heerenveen and the Netherlands’ youth teams.
He returned the club to the Eredivisie in 1993 after being appointed head coach the previous year, and led them to second place in the division in 2000, qualifying them for the Champions League for the first time in their history.
He went on to lead the Netherlands U21s squad, who won the UEFA European U21 Football Championship in 2006 and 2007, as well as a quarter-final spot in the 2008 Summer Olympics.
After that, he had minor spells with Ajax Cape Town and Tuvalu until a brief stint at Heerenveen in 2015-16, which was his final.
He is now reflecting on his career and reveals that he had the option to join Sunderland at one point but did not want to move to the Stadium of Light.
“I once received a call from England via an agent,” he said.
“But that was already during my time with the Dutch Juniors, so I didn’t respond to that either. I think that was the Premier League, it could have been Sunderland. For me it was… that’s never an option, no. I didn’t even have an agent myself.”
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