Foppe de Haan

Career De Haan was born in Lippenhuizen, Friesland. He started his managerial career in 1974 with VV Akkrum. After two years, he combined this role with the youth team manager's position at Heerenveen. By 1978, he had become the manager for Drachtster Boys. He then moved to ACV in 1980, and to Steenwijk in 1983. In 1985, de Haan re-joined Heerenveen, this time as an assistant coach. He continued to spend the next 20 years with the club—the longest time a coach worked for a Dutch professional football club. De Haan was promoted to become the head coach in 1992. In 1993, he led the club back to the Eredivisie. They finished in the Eredivisie with Heerenveen in 2000, as the second place. Thus, they qualified for the UEFA Champions League for the first time in the club's history. He was successively appointed as coach of the Netherlands U21 national team , with whom he won the 2006 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship and 2007 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship.

De Haan had announced that he would retire from football at the end of the 2008–09 season, when his contract with the KNVB expired. De Haan left his post after the tournament to rejoin Heerenveen's youth programme.

On 20 October 2015, De Haan became interim coach of SC Heerenveen after the team had a disappointing start of the season and Dwight Lodeweges left as head coach. Under De Haan the team went on to win four of their first six games, drawing and losing one.

Honours Netherlands UEFA European Under-21 Championship: 2006, 2007