Peter Bosz has won the Rinus Michels Award for best coach of the season on Wednesday. The PSV coach beat Paul Simonis, among others, in the election, who gave Go Ahead Eagles their first cup win in history.
Bosz was crowned national champion with PSV last season, although that was also thanks to an implosion of Ajax. Five games before the end of the Eredivisie, PSV was still nine points behind Ajax. Bosz also received the Rinus Michels Awards last year.
Due to his election, Bosz is on equal footing with Erik ten Hag, who was the record holder with three elections until Wednesday. The Rinus Michels Award has been presented since 2004. Bosz received the prize from former national coach Guus Hiddink, who is chairman of the professional association Coaches Paid Football.
“I didn’t expect it,” Bosz said after his election. “I myself had counted on Paul Simonis, who has delivered a great performance by winning the cup with Go Ahead Eagles. But I am very happy with it.”
The coaches from the Eredivisie, Keuken Kampioen Divisie and national coach Ronald Koeman were all allowed to cast a vote. They therefore preferred Bosz over Simonis, who led Go Ahead Eagles to the historic cup win and the handsome seventh place in the Eredivisie. Simonis is now coach at VfL Wolfsburg. Francesco Farioli (Ajax) and Ron Jans (FC Utrecht) were also nominated.
Rick Kruys was surprisingly elected coach of the year in the Keuken Kampioen Divisie. The coach of champion FC Volendam was preferred over, among others, Telstar coach Anthony Correia, who made history with promotion to the Eredivisie. Joran Pot of FC Twente was named best coach in the Women’s Eredivisie.