Gerard Nijkamp succeeds Henk van Stey as technical director at Sparta | football

door Jeroen Captains

“After leaving America, I consciously took the time to orient myself on the next step I wanted to make,” said New Sparta td. In recent days the contact with Sparta has been intense and the challenge to join this beautiful club has become very interesting to me. From my point of view, Sparta is a unique club with a beautiful identity in an interesting pool area. What I also like is the youth academy. Sparta has proven in the past that it can allow players to move on from the youth academy themselves. So I am very much in favor of such a well-functioning ecosystem that starts with the Youth Academy. I am therefore pleased to take on the challenge of working alongside the technical staff, the Youth Academy and the entire organization to raise the bar for Sparta.”

Nijkamp can start immediately, because Sparta is penultimate in the Eredivisie and has many offensive problems. Therefore, repair work should be carried out immediately in the upcoming conversion period. In my conversations with the Board of Directors, the short and medium term ambition was discussed. Of course, implementation in the Eredivisie is the most important thing and we will work on that together to strengthen the selection during the winter break. In parallel with this goal, it is also important to work on the other goals of the club and in the coming period I will fully work on this with everyone.”

General Manager Manfred Larousse was pleased with Nijkamp’s success. We immediately began looking for a new interpretation of the position of Technical Director. Gerrard Nijkamp has been on our shortlist since the beginning, and our conversations with both Gerrard himself and other people involved in professional football confirmed our selection. Besides the fact that he had a very successful period at PEC Zwolle, his experience and ideas aligned with the culture of Sparta Rotterdam and his national and international scouting network is a very welcome addition.”