Find out everything you need to know about new Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal

HE’S known as the ‘Iron Tulip’, he mentored Jose Mourinho and he’s a believer in Total Football. Get to know Manchester United’s new manager.

LOUIS van Gaal has just been handed the keys to one hell of a footballing castle.

The 62-year-old Dutchman was officially named Manchester United’s new manager on Monday night, as the club looks to move on from the disastrous season just completed — mostly under the tenure of now-departed manager David Moyes.

Van Gaal will take over at the English giants once his time as Netherlands coach is over after the World Cup.

VAN GAAL NAMED MAN UNITED MANAGER

GIGGS CALLS TIME ON PLAYING CAREER

The dawning of a new era at Old Trafford will still have a strong link to the club’s successful past, with club legend and Sir Alex Ferguson favourite Ryan Giggs to be van Gaal’s assistant.

But essentially this is a massive departure from the methods that have served the Red Devils well in the past. Van Gaal is the club’s first non-British or Irish manager, and he has no previous coaching experience in England.

However his resume is one of the most impressive in world football, and he does have a fair amount in common with Fergie — most notably his love of discipline and loathing of the media.

But how much do you really know about the man about to take charge of arguably the world’s biggest football club? Here are 10 facts to bring you up to speed with Louis van Gaal.

1. He had a 15-year playing career

Before he made his name as a manager, van Gaal carved out a reasonably successful career as a player. He had short stints at Dutch side AZ Alkmaar and Belgian club Royal Antwerp, but he spent the majority of his career at Sparta Rotterdam, where as a midfielder he helped the club reach the UEFA Cup on several occasions. He hung up the boots in 1987 and immediately became an assistant manager.

2. He’s not afraid of getting in his players’ faces

We’re not sure if ‘discipline’s is van Gaal’s favourite word, but it has to at least be in his top five. Over more than two decades of managing some of the world’s biggest teams he’s had to deal with his fair share of egos, and has never taken a backwards step in doing so. Even as recently as last week, with cameras watching his every move during a pre-World Cup training camp, van Gaal was seen vigorously grabbing Ajax midfielder Davy Klaassen in an effort to get his point across.

Van Gaal can sometimes be forceful in getting his point across to players.

3. He mentored Jose Mourinho

During the early days of his time in charge of Barcelona, van Gaal worked with a young, ambitious assistant from Portugal. His name was Jose Mourinho. The now-Chelsea manager has welcomed his former mentor to the Premier League with open arms. “’He is a great football manager and I am happy he joins me in the same country and the Premier League,” Mourinho said. “But more important than that, he’s a great guy, a great man and I wish him good.”

A young Jose Mourinho (L) with Louis van Gaal at Barcelona in 1997.

4. He is a staunch defender of ‘Total Football’

Van Gaal earned his stripes as an assistant at Ajax, and therefore has a near-religious dedication to the ‘Total Football’ philosophy that blossomed at the club, and indeed in the whole country, through the 1970s. However he is not averse to change, with many crediting him for coming up with ‘Total Football 2.0’ by updating the tactics while in charge of AZ Alkmaar in recent years.

5. He is a fully qualified gymnastics teacher

If the Man United job doesn’t work out for him, van Gaal can always turn to his other profession — teaching gymnastics. He is fully qualified in that area and worked in various schools as both a gym and football coach during his playing career.

6. He coached Ajax’s ‘Golden Generation’

Van Gaal has achieved many things over his storied managerial career, but the achievement with which he’s most associated is guiding a young Ajax team to the top of the footballing summit as European Champions. That side featured several players that went on to come footballing giants, such as Edgar Davids, Clarence Seedorf, Frank and Ronald De Boer, Marc Overmars and Patrick Kluivert. Almost all of those players are now working as coaches in some capacity.

Ajax manager Frank de Boer (C) with assistants Jaap Stam (L) and Dennis Bergkamp (R) after the club won the title this year. De Boer and Bergkamp played under van Gaal.

7. He hates the media

Here’s another thing van Gaal and Ferguson have in common — they share an unhealthy loathing of the news media. The Dutchman reportedly has a ‘blacklist’ of journalists that have written negative stories about him in the past, and may borrow from the Ferguson handbook of media relations by banning certain journalists from press conferences. As a result of his relationship with the media, van Gaal earned himself the rather enviable nickname of ‘The Iron Tulip’

8. This is his second stint as Netherlands coach

It hasn’t all been smooth sailing for van Gaal as a manager. He’s in the midst of his second stint as Netherlands coach, and is currently grooming the Dutch side for a World Cup campaign in which they face tough challenges against Spain, Chile and … ahem … Australia. This is his shot at redemption with the national side — during his first tenure the Netherlands failed to qualify for the 2002 World Cup, and he was promptly given his marching orders.

9. He’s won the league title in Spain, Germany and Netherlands

Not many managers can lay claim to winning the league title in three different European leagues, but van Gaal is one of them. He tasted glory with Barcelona in Spain, Bayern Munich in Germany and Ajax and AZ Alkmaar in the Netherlands.

Bayern Munich won the league-cup double in 2010 under van Gaal.

10. He had a torrid time at Barcelona — twice!

Another claim to fame for van Gaal is the fact he had two separate tenures in charge of Spanish giants Barcelona. His first lasted from 1997-2000, and in the first season of that stint he ended Barca’s 37-year wait for a league-cup double. But a fallout with Brazilian star Rivaldo eventually led to his departure. The Dutchman returned in 2002 but fared even worse second time around, lasting just half a season.

Originally published as Find out everything you need to know about new Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal