Chris van Puyvelde

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Chris van Puyvelde (born on 5 December 1959), is a Belgian football manager who is currently the technical director of China.

Career[]

Van Puyvelde was born in Belgium on 5 December 1959.

Van Puyvelde gained his first experience as a coach at Standaard Wetteren, which then he coached in the Third Division. Van Puyvelde, a sports teacher by training, then took care of Sint-Niklaas, where he coordinated the youth ranks. In the early 1990s, Van Puyvelde moved to KSC Lokeren as an assistant coach. The club had just been relegated to the Second Division when he was promoted to head coach. Van Puyvelde was eventually succeeded by James Storme during the 1994/95 season. After Lokeren he ended up at Eendracht Aalst. Van Puyvelde became a technical director and brought players such as Peter van der Heyden to Eendracht. During the 1997/98 season, coached Urbain Haesaert was sacked, and van Puyvelde succeeded him for a short period.

In 2000 René Verheyen, coach of Club Brugge, became an auxiliary trainer again. Norwegian Trond Sollied became the new head coach. He brought van Puyvelde to Brugge as his second assistant. Van der Heyden also made the switch to Club Brugge in 2000. Sollied's passage turned out to be a golden affair. Van Puyvelde and the Sollied's relationship got along well and Club Brugge's results were also good. In 2002, Club Brugge won the Belgian Cup and a season later the team played champions. In that order, Club Brugge also won the most important prizes in the next two seasons. In 2005, Sollied announced via a video message that he was leaving. Together with van Puyvelde he traveled to Olympiakos Piraeus in Greece.

Sollied and van Puyvelde propelled Olympiakos to the league title and Cup of Greece. There were no results in the UEFA Champions League. Sollied and van Puyvelde were dismissed during the second season. In the summer of 2007 he returned to KAA Gent together with van Puyvelde and second assistant Čedomir Janevski. At the end of the season, Gent reached the final of the Belgian Cup, but were defeated. Sollied resigned and went to Heerenveen.

Van Puyvelde followed him again, and Heerenveen went through a changeable course, but reached the final of the KNVB cup. In the final Heerenveen defeated opponent FC Twente after penalties. A few months later, Sollied's contract was terminated. Van Puyvelde also had to look for a new club. At the beginning of 2010, Van Puyvelde returned to KSC Lokeren, where he became the assistant of coach Emilio Ferrera. However, after the end of the season, Ferrera was replaced by Peter Maes. Van Puyvelde himself then went to work as head coach of FC Brussels. After his resignation at FC Brussels at the end of January 2011, he succeeded Gunther Hofmans as technical director at Beerschot AC.

In 2013, van Puyvelde was appointed as a sports advisor at the Jupiler Pro League to lead the consultations between the professional football clubs in Belgium on a sports and technical level.

In 2019, he was appointed as technical director for China.^[4]

Media[]

He was invited as a guest on a YouTube Football Show titled " THE VAR SHOW " , where he discussed his experiences and his methodologies.

References[]