The Man That Defined Bayern Is Fighting Prostate Cancer

It was one of the nicest moments of the Netherlands against Germany friendly in Amsterdam last Tuesday (1-1). Following the game, Dutch coach Louis van Gaal and German forward Thomas Müller were seen having a long post-match conversation. The two are close as the Dutch coach was the man that kick-started Müller’s career at Bayern Munich in 2009/10.

Müller has since gone on and scored 226 goals and 240 assists in 619 games for Bayern Munich and 43 goals in 112 German national team games. Not bad for a player who, without Van Gaal, would have been possibly sent on loan to 1899 Hoffenheim ahead of the 2009/10 season. “Müller always plays,” Van Gaal said at some point during that season.

“Bayern Munich fits like a warm coat,” Van Gaal said when the Rekordmeister presented him in 2009. This author lived in Amsterdam, the home city of Van Gaal when the Dutchman joined the Rekordmeister.

It was fascinating to see the Dutch perspective on German football change in his native Netherlands. The Bundesliga and Bayern Munich were seen as secondary, long removed from winning major international titles. The German national team did not yet have the image of a team playing attractive football, all that would come later.

The now 70-year-old Dutchman and Bayern Munich would go through a complicated divorce just one season later, but his legacy at the club will always remain. Not only did he win the German championship in 2010, but he also guided the club to the UEFA Champions League final that was lost to Inter Milan. Furthermore, several Bayern players would go on and form the spine of a Germany team that excited at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa—finishing third and laying the groundwork for their title win four years later.

Van Gaal brought a new style of football to Germany and one that at Bayern would lay the foundation for the soon-to-be ten years of dominance by the Rekordmeister. The total football, the focus on beautiful football, and tactical dominance, all that was installed at the club by Van Gaal and continued by Jupp Heynckes and later Pep Guardiola.

During his first year at the club, Van Gaal released a two-volume book called Biography & Vision. First published in Dutch and then in German, the two books outlined Van Gaal’s understandings and visions for the game. It revealed the influence of Ukrainian coach Valeri Lobanovsky and how it helped him turn Ajax into one of the most impressive forces in European football between 1994 and 1996.

That book and Van Gaal are still crucial if one wants to understand how Bayern Munich became the all-consuming title monster it is today. It is also important to note that the players at the club, first and foremost Müller and Lahm, were against Van Gaal being fired from the club in 2010.

Van Gaal would go on to have a great career. In 2014 he guided an overaged Dutch national team to a third-place at the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. He is also the last Man United coach with a proper vision.

Since 2021, Van Gaal has been in charge of the Dutch national team, and the game last Tuesday showed that the 70-year-old has already put his fingerprints all over the team. The Dutch might not be the best team at the World Cup in November, but with the Dutch general in charge, will have a chance of winning.

Because Van Gaal is a man on a mission. This week he revealed that he is battling an aggressive form of prostate cancer. “In each period during my time as manager of the national team, I had to leave in the night to go to the hospital without the players finding it out until now. While thinking, I was healthy. But, I am not,” he said in an interview with Dutch television. “You don’t die from prostate cancer, at least not in ninety percent of the cases. It is usually other underlying diseases that kill you. But I had a pretty aggressive form, got treated 25 times.”

It is typical of Van Gaal that he would not reveal the disease for fear that he would take attention away from the players and their mission to qualify for Qatar. It also says a lot about the character of a coach, who, no matter what happens at the winter World Cup, will be a legend at Bayern Munich and beyond.

Manuel Veth is the host of the Bundesliga Gegenpressing Podcastand the Area Manager USA at Transfermarkt. He has also been published in the Guardian, Newsweek, Howler, Pro Soccer USA, and several other outlets. Follow him on Twitter: @ManuelVeth