“Of vital importance to my career” – Belgium star reveals why he owes so much to Manchester United’s Van der Gaag

Despite currently playing in the Championship, Wout Faes is still a prominent member of the Belgium national team, and a lot has to do with a Manchester United coach.

That man is Mitchell van der Gaag, who so happens to be the current assistant manager to Erik ten Hag at Old Trafford.

The story was revealed by the centre-back in an interview with Sud Info, where he spoke about the Manchester United assistant manager, at a time when he was the man in charge of Excelsior Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

Faes was asked to look back on his career and choose the decision, football wise, he was the most proud of to this day, since he is still only 25.

Without skipping a beat, he said: “My loan spell at Excelsior Rotterdam. After spending four or five months at Heerenveen, I chose Rotterdam because of Mitchel van der Gaag. He’s currently Erik ten Hag’s assistant at Manchester United, and he’s known for working a lot with his central defenders. 

“Van der Gaag convinced me to return to the Netherlands. He was straightforward and knew exactly what my strengths were and what I still needed to work on. He was of vital importance to my career.”

A centre-back himself back when he was a player, the Manchester United assistant manager has held a lot of jobs since he retired from football in 2007.

He started as the manager of the Maritimo B team in Portugal before moving onto the first-team, later taking managerial posts at Belenenses, Ermis Aradippou, FC Eindhoven, Excelsior and NAC Breda.

Van der Gaag then became the Ajax U21 manager, before moving to the club’s assistant manager under Erik ten Hag; a role he still holds to this day at Manchester United.