The players “don’t know it”, Louis van Gaal, 70, told RTL television, adding that he had already undergone 25 irradiations, including in the evening or at night during the national team’s training camps. Dutch, poured into Group A of the World Cup with Qatar, Senegal and Ecuador.
Players think “I’m a healthy guy, but I’m not,” added the technician, adding that his cancer diagnosis was made in 2020 and his treatment started in 2021.
During the last four periods of international matches, he explained, he went to the hospital in the evening, by the “back entrance”, to receive his treatment, which he describes as “preferential”.
His family and friends knew regarding it, but not his players. “You don’t say something like that to the people you work with” because it can “influence” them, he explained.
“It’s part of my life,” he added, invited on a television set on the occasion of the upcoming release of a film regarding his life, entitled Louis.
“I have been through so much in my life, sickness and death, I have probably become richer as a person because of all these experiences”, continued the one who is in his third term as head. of the “Oranje” (following 2000-2001 and 2012-2014).
Van Gaal’s first wife died of pancreatic cancer.
Messages of support were quick to pour in on social media following his announcement on Dutch TV.
The Iron Tulip
Former English international Gary Lineker, converted presenter on British television, sent him on Twitter his “best wishes” and wishes him a “full recovery”.
“Everyone at Manchester United fully supports our former manager, Louis van Gaal, in his battle once morest cancer,” the English club, which he coached from 2014 to 2016, said on the same social network.
During his long career, the one who is nicknamed “The Iron Tulip”, in reference to his strict methods and attitude, has also been at the head of Ajax Amsterdam, FC Barcelona and Bayern Munich.
His first stint at the head of the Dutch selection ended with a bitter setback, the non-qualification of Orange for the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan. His second stint (2012-2014) led to a third place at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
Van Gaal, who announced his “retirement” in January 2017, was recalled to the head of the national team following the resignation of Frank de Boer in the wake of a failed Euro last summer, with an elimination from the round of 16 stage.
Tested positive for Covid-19 in March, the technician had sparked controversy by believing that the decision to organize the World Cup in Qatar was “ridiculous”. He accused Fifa of being solely driven by “money and commercial interests”.
The Netherlands will play their first World Cup match on November 21 once morest Senegal.
Louis van Gaal intends to be in the game.
“We do not die of prostate cancer, in most cases. Most often, these are underlying diseases that can be fatal in this form of cancer,” he says.
