Louis van Gaal was crowned coach of the year at Tuesday’s Dutch sports Gala, while Arjen Robben, Robin van Persie and the Oranje national team were also big winners.

  • By Michael Bell
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robben awrd spritThe award ceremony in Amsterdam was dominated by the Netherlands national team , who finished third at the World Cup in the summer.

Louis van Gaal was the first big winner after being named coach of the year for overseeing the World Cup run. However the current Manchester United boss was confused by the award.

He said, “I’m standing here with mixed feelings. We ended in third place, while there are many Olympic champions and world champions here tonight. Maybe I’ve won this award because of the media.”

“I wasn’t sure if I should turn up here tonight because footballers usually never win these kind of awards, but, in the end, I thought that you should always go if you are nominated and now I’m standing here as the winner.”

Robin van Persie’s flying header against Spain at the World Cup was named as the sports moment of the year, while Netherlands football squad was named team of the year.

The Jaap Eden award for sportsman of the year was for the first time in 27 years awarded to a footballer as Arjen Robben became the first player since Ruud Gullit in 1987 to be honoured with the trophy.




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