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Pune Football Club has appointed highly rated Dutch coach Mike Snoei ahead of next season.
The Rotterdam native will be on his first stint in India and becomes the third foreign coach signed since the inception in 2007.
The Pune FC management believes that in Snoei there exists a guide with significant experience at the highest level of the game at both youth and senior level
Pune FC Director, Nandan Piramal said: “Mike will be a great addition to Pune FC. He brings with him a wealth of experience from the top levels of both European and Asian football. As we continue to invest in our academy and youth teams, Mike will be the perfect fit to develop these players and help the club reach our long term goals.”
The 49-year-old’s appointment is the fourth Dutch coach to be involved in Indian football and only the second at club-level.
The vastly traveled Snoei, a defender during his playing days, comes with outstanding pedigree.
He began his career at the biggest Rotterdam club Feyenoord (1981-82), before moving to neighboring Excelsior (1982-88) and Sparta (1988-93).
Head Coach Snoei added: “It gives me immense pleasure to be associated with Pune FC, who is one of the premier football clubs of India. As new coach, I hope to bring a new dimension to the team and also develop a style of play along the way. I am sure, that working with young and dynamic players will enable me to further develop as a coach. I also hope to give the team a new vision and grow together with Pune FC.”
Pune FC Head Operations, Chirag Tanna, said: “We are very happy with the appointment of Mike Snoei as our Head Coach. Snoei comes with vast experience of managing and playing in top leagues around the world and we believe that he has what is needed to take Pune FC to the next level.”
Interestingly, at Sparta, Snoei played under current Indian Technical Director Rob Baan, the then Sparta coach (1988-90). Three years later, Snoei was forced into early retirement due to torn knee ligaments. Snoei, then 29, called it quits at Sparta in ’93.
Adding to his impressive playing profile is being member of the Netherlands squad at the FIFA World Youth Championship (U-21), Mexico 1983 along with the famed striker Marco van Basten.
Early retirement led to coaching youth teams at Sparta until 1996. From there, he shifted to Vitesse Arnhem and moved up the coaching ranks at the club from 1996-2002, where he headed their Youth Academy and second team.
An UEFA Pro License holder (since 2002), Snoei was appointed Head Coach at Vitesse in the Eredivisie (Premier League) for a season. Following that he returned to Sparta as Head Coach for 2 seasons from 2003-05, where he lead the club to the promotion play-offs before moving to Go Ahead Eagles (2005-08), where he repeated the feat of leading the team to the play-offs for the Eredivisie.
Having spent time as Head Coach in Holland, Snoei moved abroad as Assistant Coach to renowned Dutch Coach Henk ten Cate for several years. Ten Cate was Head Coach at Sparta and at Vitesse when Snoei was coming through the coaching ranks. Following that, Ten Cate was assistant coach to Frank Rijkaard at Barcelona (including their Champions League win in 2006), Head Coach at Ajax and also assistant at Chelsea (when they lost the Champions League final in 2008).
Snoei assisted Ten Cate at Panathinaikos FC (2008-10), Al Ahli, Dubai (2010), Umm-Salal SC, Qatar (2010-11) and most recently at Shandong Luneng, China (2011-12) before turning to Pune FC.
To his credit as Assistant Coach is reaching the Champions League Round-16 (2009) with Greek side Panathinaikos and making it to the Finals of the National Domestic Cups each with Al Ahli and Umm Salal respectively.
Adding up to his list of achievements is, leading Chinese side Shandong’s Reserve to the National Reserve-League title.
Coach Snoei is expected to arrive in India in the first week of July to meet both management and team before taking full charge.
Pune FC’s deal with Snoei was facilitated by Libero Sports India.
