The Dutch coach said in an interview that he had been suffering from this disease for some time, for which he had undergone 25 radiation therapy sessions. Despite this, he hopes to be at the next World Cup in Qatar 2022.
Louis van Gaal, coach of the Netherlands national team, announced on a local TV show that he was suffering from prostate cancer. The news shocks the world. Even his players didn’t know that. Anyway, the former Manchester United manager and Barcelona have assured that he will be present at the Qatar 2022 World Cup.
“You don’t tell the people you work with because it might influence their decisions,” he said in the interview where he made the revelation. In the same line, He confessed that in the middle of the concentrations of the Oranje, he left the hotel to undergo radiotherapy without anyone from the delegation noticing.
25 sessions
Illness strikes the coach at 70, just months after turning 71. “You don’t die from prostate cancer, at least not 90% of the time. It’s other underlying diseases that kill you,” Van Gaal told RTL4.
So far, whoever led the tulips to third place in Brazil 2014 has undergone 25 radiation therapy sessions. “I had preferential treatment at the hospital. They let me in through the back door when I went on a date and they treated me wonderfully,” he said.
Without lowering the profile of the disease, he spoke of its magnitude. “I have a pretty aggressive shape. I’ve told my friends and family about it and the fact that it didn’t leak says a lot about my surroundings,” he said in the broadcast.
An exceptional career
After missing the 2018 World Cup in Russia, the Dutch FA trusted that with Louis Van Gaal his team could win again and so far he has proven them right. In this third stage, he led nine matches, with six wins, one draw and two losses. He previously played for the Netherlands national team between 2000-2001 and 2012-2014
At club level, the Amsterdam-born has managed Ajax and AZ Alkmaar in his country, as well as FC Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester United. In casting, ajacieden won seven titles; with the culé, three, as in Germany; with AZ he had one and in England two more.
Regarding his footballers’ possible suspicions about his illness, Van Gaal said: “They saw my flushed cheeks and thought ‘what a healthy man’, but that was not the case”. At the World Cup, the Netherlands were in Group A, where they will face Senegal, Ecuador and Qatar, in that order. Their duel against the African team will be the opening of the tournament for them.
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Source: Latercera
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