Death of manager Leo Beenhakker will be honored during upcoming football matches

There will be a minute's silence before the football matches in the next round of the Eredivisie, Keuken Kampioen Divisie, and the semi-finals of the women’s KNVB Beker in remembrance of former football manager Leo Beenhakker. The 82-year-old passed away on Thursday.

Matches will be played in the Eredivisie and Keuken Kampioen Divisie from Friday night to Monday night. No games will be played in the women’s Eredivisie due to the cup matches.The decision for a minute silence was made by the competition board for professional football.

Beenhakker won several major honors in his career as a manager. He won the Eredivisie on three occasions (two with Ajax, one with Feyenoord) while also winning the Spanish league title three times with Real Madrid in the late 80s. Beenhakker managed the Dutch national side in 1985-86 and at the 1990 World Cup.

“Don Leo” as he also known as, also worked at Volendam, Go Ahead Eagles, SC Cambuur, BV Veendam, Vitesse, De Graafschap, and Sparta Rotterdam in the Netherlands, while also taking jobs in Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Poland, Hungary, and Saudi Arabia.

Former players praised Beenhakker’s personality after the former coach’s passing. “He was a real people person, always interested in you,” Danny Blind said on Ajax’s website. Jan Wouters, who was the team captain under Beenhakker at Ajax, added: “He could really motivate a group. A very human coach who understood things beyond football.”