Frank Arnesen

Arnesen moved from his childhood club Fremad Amager, in the lower leagues of Danish football, to the big Dutch team Ajax in November/December 1975. At the time he was only 19, and made the move together with Fremad Amager teammate Søren Lerby, who was only 17. Arnesen got his debut with Ajax three or four months later, on 7 March 1976, in a 1–1 draw with Utrecht. It was also in his time at Ajax that Arnesen debuted for the Danish national team, in a 1977 friendly 1–0 loss against Sweden, in Malmö. In Arnesen's six seasons at Ajax, he won three Dutch Eredivisie championship titles in 1977, 1979, and 1980, and won the KNVB Cup in 1979, beating Twente 3–0 in the final. In 1978, 1980 and 1981, Ajax also reached the KNVB Cup finals, but lost. In 1980, Arnesen and Ajax reached the semi-final of the European Cup, before they were eliminated by English team Nottingham Forest, the European Cup winners in the 1978-1979 and 1979–1980 seasons (2–0 away loss, 1–0 home win, 31 goals for and eight goals against in the 1979-80 tournament). In the summer of 1981, Arnesen was bought by the Spanish football club Valencia, and two years later he went to Belgium to play for Anderlecht. In November 1985, Arnesen returned to the Netherlands to play for Ajax' rivals PSV Eindhoven. Here, he saw three extremely successful seasons, winning the Eredivisie three consecutive seasons (1986, 1987 and 1988), with fellow Danes Jan Heintze, Søren Lerby and Ivan Nielsen. Arnesen stopped his international…

After his active career, Arnesen was first appointed assistant coach at PSV under Bobby Robson from 1991 to 1993, and in 1994 he became the club's general manager. Arnesen spent ten years as director of football at PSV Eindhoven, and was credited with discovering major talents, such as Brazilian striker Ronaldo and Dutch players Jaap Stam, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Arjen Robben. In May 2004, Arnesen was brought to Tottenham Hotspur, replacing David Pleat. Arnesen was to function as the manager responsible for player transfers and scouting for new talent, while coach Jacques Santini handled the daily training sessions and match setups - an arrangement identical to Arnesen's days as PSV manager. Things did not work out well, and Santini left within months, citing "personal problems" as his reason for leaving. Arnesen's original hire for assistant coach, Martin Jol, was put in charge of the club. Arnesen was suspended by Spurs on 4 June 2005 for expressing a desire to move to rival club Chelsea, after Chelsea allegedly made an illegal approach to sign him as manager. Arnesen was photographed aboard one of Roman Abramovich's three luxury yachts on 22 June 2005, thus reinforcing Tottenham's compensation claim. Arnesen was recommended to Abramovich by Piet de Visser. Later on, one of the reasons to end José Mourinho's contract would have been that Mourinho did not want to engage with Abramovich's football consultants. On 24 June, both clubs announced that they had reached a…

Ajax

Eredivisie: 1976–77, 1978–79, 1979–80 KNVB Cup: 1978–79 Anderlecht

Belgian First Division A: 1984–85 UEFA Cup: 1983–84 (runners-up) Jules Pappaert Cup: 1983, 1985 PSV

Eredivisie: 1985–86, 1986–87, 1987–88 KNVB Cup: 1987–88 European Cup: 1987–88 Individual

UEFA Euro Team of the Tournament: 1984 Danish Football Hall of Fame: Inductee