Alex de Crook is 51 years old and has been active in the football world for over 36 years already. Alex has a UEFA A license and has worked for several football clubs. His coaching career began at a young age. Due to several injuries, he was forced to quit his active football career. In 2007 Alex became coach of the youth academy of the Dutch professional football club De Graafschap. For six and a half years he coaches the U-17 team, after which he became responsible for the club’s football academy.
In January 2014, Alex moved to the Dalian Aerbin Football Club in China, where he’s started as trainer/coach of the youth academy (U-17). In 2015/2016 he’s employed as head of youth academy and became assistant coach under head coach Mikael Stahre. In 2017 he is reserve team coach of Dalian Yifang and the U20 coach of the Liaoning province. With this team he won the bronze medal in the Chinese Olympics. In 2018 he is the assistant coach of the San Jose Earthquakes (US). Headcoach of this team is Swedish coach Mikael Stahre. The same coach De Crook worked with during his stay in China. The last few years De Crook worked for the Chinese Olympic team and the national team of Curacao. Both led by one of the greatest Dutch coaches ever Guus Hiddink. In 2020 en 2021 he worked for the 1st team of De Graafschap as a game analyst. After Bengaluru FC in India with Marco Pezzaiouli, he went to Thailand, where he managed Uthai Thani FC together with Mikael Stahre. His most recent job was head coach at Heilongjiang Ice City FC in China.
As a coach, the Crook specializes in team and individual trainings (focusing on structural intensity developments), has been educated via the FootballCoachModel of Van Zwam & Vlemmings, has great knowledge of- and experience in video- and data analysis, worked with GPS tracking systems and furthermore has been providing team and individual trainings for various age groups for over 35 years already. He has developed a methodical coaching program focused on football technical and tactical level of the U-9 up to the senior football teams, whereby cohesion on all areas is achieved between the different age groups.
During the years at De Graafschap, Alex de Crook has written policies for De Graafschap’s football academy under the Quality & Performance model of the KNVB (Dutch national football association). This model is the successor of the certification system, the model which the KNVB has worked with for many years. De Crook is able to develop tailored youth academy education plans and football related policies for any amateur or professional football club. All his plans are in Dutch, English and Chinese.
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