Back
Sacked Man United manager fell out with wife and broke down in tears after winning trophy
May 21, 2025
Having managed many of Europe’s grandest teams, Louis van Gaal never had his heart broken quite so badly as he did with Manchester United.
And as Ruben Amorim's Red Devils look to salvage a dreadful domestic campaign with trophy success in the Europa League final on Wednesday night, Van Gaal's story serves as a reminder that silverware is not always enough to save your job.
3
The legendary Dutchman made his name with arguably the biggest clubs in the Netherlands, Spain and Germany, before doing the same in England.
Having won it all at Ajax, Barcelona and Bayern Munich, he jetted into Old Trafford in 2014, and left with the FA Cup.
Van Gaal finished fourth in his debut campaign after replacing David Moyes, and then won the first trophy of the post-Alex Ferguson era at Wembley in May 2016.
Yet that wasn’t enough to keep him in situ, and his wife Truus has since opened up on how heartbroken he was over what they considered a premature dismissal.
"I knew Louis would be fired by Manchester United, I felt it," she said on the documentary 'Van Gaal'.
"We had a small boardroom there and it was always fun with the old Manchester legends, [Alex] Ferguson, Bobby Charlton. We had a table there with good food and drinks.
"Suddenly, they stopped greeting us, just waved from afar. Something was wrong. It was female intuition.
14Shares
0Comments
5Favorites
22Likes
No content at this moment.