Interview with Edwin van der Sar - "Saving the last penalty to win the Champions League in 2008 was the most unbelievable moment of my life"

Edwin van der Sar – currently, the Marketing Director of Ajax Amsterdam

8 league titles, 2 Champions League wins, 1 FIFA Club World Cup trophy, a career spanning over two decades – these numbers define a stellar playing career that Edwin van der Sar can look back upon with a sense of pride and satisfaction.

At 43, he still misses being on the pitch, he still wants to make an impact on the game and also give something back to the club where it all started for the Flying Dutchman.

He is currently working as a Marketing Director at Ajax Amsterdam and I had an opportunity to chat with the legend himself on his life after retirement, his playing career, Sir Alex Ferguson and more.

Here are a few excerpts from the conversation:

2011 - Winning the 19th title for Manchester United, losing the Champions League final at Wembley - surely a bittersweet way to retire from the game. But what has Edwin van der Sar been doing for the past 3 years?

Yeah, it is not something you’d call a retirement. After my last match, we stayed another couple of months in England before we moved back to Holland. At first, I was looking to pursue a coaching degree or a coaching job but then decided to do a Masters in Sports Management at a university in Amsterdam.

I learned a lot about the commercial side of the game – the marketing spectrum of sports. And in 2012, I decided to return to the club where I started playing professional football – Ajax. They asked me to join the Board as a Marketing Director.

Could you please explain your current role as the Marketing Director at Ajax?

Currently, my responsibilities at the club are about managing international relations, the commercial end of the club and managing the sponsors. It is massive change from what I have done in football over the last couple of decades. From being a man who was in his tracksuit for most of his playing days, I now have to work wearing a shirt, a tie and a jacket.

‘I feel Frank de Boer has been doing an amazing job at Ajax’

Was it difficult early on to cope up with retirement? Did you miss training, the dressing room atmosphere and matchdays?

Yeah! Of course. That is the best thing to do in the game. I enjoyed my playing days and tried to prolong my career as much as possible. I got a lot of recognition, won a lot of trophies, in Holland, Italy, England and couldn’t have asked for more. Those are the moments you cherish and they stay with you for the rest of your life.

And then it was all gone. Boom! I didn’t train, never maintained my fitness because I did not want to go back to playing again. For others, there may always be doubts lingering in their mind about a possible comeback but for me it was all done.

And I hope people remember me for the highs of my career and not the lows.

You mentioned you wanted to be involved in the game for years to come. You could have also joined the backroom staff at Manchester United. But why choose Ajax over all the other options?

I share a special bond with Ajax. I think we are a special club. And we’re known for our philosophy around the world. Of course, the best player we’ve ever had is Johan Cryuff and then we’ve had some other famous names who started their careers at Ajax over the past decades.

The lifeline of this club is its youth academy. We always focus on producing our own players. We make sure that young talents that arrive at the age of 8-9 years eventually make it to the first team. And now, with our reputation in world football, everyone expects high standards of youth development from us.

And that is the story of Ajax -You have Marco van Basten, Frank Rijkaard, Patrick Kluivert, Frank and Ronald de Boer, Edgar Davids, Clarence Seedorf, Wesley Sneijder and also some of the overseas talents like Luis Suarez and Ibrahimovic – it is one great legacy.

And I was fortunate enough to return to this club as I owe all of my career to them. Now, I have a chance to give it back to the club where it all started. All the former players that are working here with me - Frank de Boer as the coach, Dennis Bergkamp, Marc Overmars, Jaap Stam, Ronald de Boer – wanted to contribute at the club that helped us grow as a player.

Talking about the current Ajax squad now, how do you see the team progress this season?

Well, the league is not strong enough in Holland. So at a certain point of time in their career, players want to leave the club. Last summer, we lost Daley Blind to Manchester United and before that Christian Eriksen to Spurs. So, it is a challenge for the coach to prepare the club every season and I feel Frank de Boer has been doing an amazing job.

We won the league 4 times in the last 5 years and have qualified for the Champions League consistently. Currently, our aim would be to qualify for the second round of the Champions League this season. We have Barcelona and PSG in our group so it won't be easy as their transfer budget is something we cannot compete with.

But, we have had a reasonable start to the competition and are confident of getting results in the group-stage.

"I should have signed Van der Sar after Schmeichel. I made a mistake there” – Sir Alex on not signing Edwin van der Sar in 1999.

Moving on to your playing career, Sir Alex Ferguson has admitted several times now, that you were his pick to replace Peter Schmeichel in '99. However, you ended up choosing Juventus that summer. Why do you think your transfer did not materialize back then?

Well, I told Ajax that I was leaving that summer and several clubs in Europe were interested in my signature. Sir Alex turned up a little bit late as I had already held talks with Juventus - and we came to a verbal agreement.

So, I think Ferguson wanted me but Ajax chairman was expecting more money from my transfer move.

Of course, I eventually moved to Manchester United later in my career but it is always good to hear from a top manager like Sir Alex that he made a mistake by not signing me a few years earlier. But then, I still managed to win 4 league titles and 1 Champions League trophy in my six years at Old Trafford - Not bad, is it?

Your brief spell at Juventus wasn’t the most ideal phase of your career. What do you think went wrong? Do you regret the move?

Well, it was not my type of league, the Serie A. I prefer a bit more space between the defensive line and myself that allows me to be more involved in the game.

However, we can also not ignore the fact that I could not bring my top game to Juventus. It was just unfortunate that it had to end that way after a couple of seasons when I decided to move on to the Premier League.

Even when you did decide to leave Juventus, why go to Fulham? Were there other offers from top clubs?

Yes, there were enquiries from German and other English clubs - including Liverpool. But I wanted to make a decision early on in the transfer window while other top clubs chose to wait until the deadline day.

I wanted to make a decision as soon as possible and I chose Fulham. They were an ambitious side and were offering good terms. And I had planned to stay at the club for a couple of years before making a move to a top Premier League club.

But it took me a little longer, 4 years, before the biggest club in the country signed me up.

When you joined Manchester United at the age of 34, did you see yourself playing for six more years and probably play the six best years of your career?

Absolutely not! I signed a two-year deal and was hoping to see it off. Then maybe, play one year in Holland and retire at the age of 37. But I kept my body in shape, hardly got injured and with the coaching staff you have at United, I managed to stretch it until 40.

When we talk about you and the Premier League, there is always a mention of the magic number - 1311. Do you think the record will be broken anytime soon?

Of course it will be broken but I take a lot of pride in holding the record for such a long time now. More importantly, keeping clean sheets for so many games in a row helped us clinch the league title. I still hope though that the record stays with me for a couple of more seasons.

‘Winning Champions League in 2008 was the greatest moment of my career’

Tell us more about the United dressing room. Could you share your standout moments with the United teammates?

Well, whatever happens in the dressing room stays in the dressing room, right? [laughs]

The best moments have to be Sir Alex’s team talks that inspired us to win great things at the club.

Then you also have moments after winning a game or a trophy, when you can express yourself in the dressing room with no cameras around. It will always be a special place for me, surrounded by special people.

You have been involved in several high profile penalty shootouts throughout your career but how special was Moscow ’08? Tell us more about your mindset ahead of the shootout.

Yes, I have had plenty of them throughout my career – I won with Ajax [1995] but then lost three in a row with the Dutch side at Euro ’96, World Cup ’98 and Euro ’00. I also lost one against Juventus in 1996 too. So over the years, I did lose confidence too.

But then, with these experiences behind you, and the desire to win were the two things that made sure I wasn’t going to lose in Moscow.

I still remember it. Anelka, stepped up to take his penalty, I dived in the right direction and the ball hit my face. The next 3-4 seconds, before your teammates are all over you, the whole world is watching you. It was the most unbelievable moment of my life.

Moving on to the Dutch national team, were you impressed with what they achieved at the World Cup?

Nobody expected a lot of from the Dutch side right from the beginning of the tournament. So yes, it was a bit surprising. But credit to Louis van Gaal, his tactics and the players, we finished as the third best team in the world.

And the goalkeeping swap against Costa Rica could have won the game for either side. But Costa Rica didn’t know how to react to the substitution and ended up losing the game. It was one masterstroke from Van Gaal.

Things though, are not going according to the plan for the Dutch side right now. We lost back to back qualifiers against Czech Republic and this week to Iceland. So, it is certainly not going in the right direction.

Do you think Van Gaal is the right man for a club as massive as Manchester United? How do you rate his start at the club?

Ah..It has been a bit up and down, eh? They were expected to win more matches and be higher up in the league table and they are out of the League Cup.

Having said that, I do trust Louis van Gaal’s methods and I’m sure he’s going to turn it around for Manchester United. I have no doubts in my mind that he will bring success to Old Trafford.

Daley Blind left Ajax to join the Red Devils last summer. Do you see him being the solution to their midfield problems?

Daley started at Ajax when he was 8-years old when I used to play with his father [Danny] who was the captain of the club when we last won the Champions League. So it was fantastic to see him grow into a top professional and watch him play for six years in the senior squad.

He started off as a left back but then got a big break to play as a holding midfielder at the club. And he made that transition very smoothly and has become one exciting player to watch. I’m sure he will stay at Manchester United, playing in central midfield for a long time to come.

What do you think about the progress made by David de Gea at the club? Can we already call him your successor at Old Trafford?

[Laughs] Well you could say that. I’d like everyone else to say that he is my successor if you don’t mind. But David always had the potential to be a top goalkeeper and he is still very young. I’m confident that with Van Gaal and goalkeeping coach Frank Hoek, he will only get better and more consistent as a United goalkeeper.