AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) — Leo Beenhakker, the Dutch soccer coach who led two national teams at World Cups and won three league titles with Real Madrid, has died. He was 82.
“Beenhakker was a coaching icon and a truly unique figure at Ajax,” the storied Amsterdam club said in a statement announcing his death late Thursday. The cause of death was not given.
He coached Ajax in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s — winning two Dutch league titles, and a third with its fierce rival Feyenoord — and three straight La Liga titles with Madrid from 1987 to '89.
In the Netherlands he is credited with calling the iconic European Cup trophy “the cup with the big ears” though it was a title that eluded him.
Beenhakker took his teams to four European Cup semifinals but lost one with Ajax in 1980 and in each of his three seasons during his first spell with Madrid.
“Real Madrid would like to express their condolences and affection to his family, clubs, and loved ones,” the club said in a statement Friday.
Beenhakker also had two spells with the Dutch national team, briefly in 1985 then taking the gifted European champions to the 1990 World Cup. With dissent in the camp, the team did not win a game and lost a famously bad-tempered round of 16 clash with eventual champion West Germany.
He later steered Trinidad and Tobago through qualifying to its first World Cup in 2006.
Beenhakker also coached the national teams of Saudi Arabia and Poland. He led Poland to a first European Championship in 2008. His teams never won a game at a finals tournament.
He coached clubs in Mexico, Switzerland and Turkey, and returned to Ajax as technical director in 2000 where he was an influence on a young Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
“What he saw, I became. And that is the best,” Ibrahimovic once said of his early-career mentor.
Former Ajax captain Jan Wouters, a member of the 1990 World Cup squad, said Beenhakker "could really motivate a group. A very human coach who understood things beyond football.”
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FILE - Trinidad and Tobago's coach Leo Beenhakker listens to the national anthems before their World Cup Group B soccer match against England in Nuremberg, Germany, Thursday, June 15, 2006. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, File)
FILE - England's David Beckham shakes hands with Trinidad and Tobago's coach Leo Beenhakker, right, during their World Cup Group B soccer match in Nuremberg, Germany, Thursday, June 15, 2006. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev, File)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A South Korean court sentenced former President Yoon Suk Yeol to five years in prison Friday in the first verdict from eight criminal trials over the martial law debacle that forced him out of office and other allegations.
Yoon was impeached, arrested and dismissed as president after his short-lived imposition of martial law in December 2024 triggered huge public protests calling for his ouster.
The most significant criminal charge against him alleges that his martial law enforcement amounted to a rebellion, and the independent counsel has requested the death sentence in the case that is to be decided in a ruling next month.
In Friday's case, the Seoul Central District Court sentenced Yoon for defying attempts to detain him, fabricating the martial law proclamation and sidestepping a legally mandated full Cabinet meeting.
Yoon has maintained he didn’t intend to place the country under military rule for an extended period, saying his decree was only meant to inform the people about the danger of the liberal-controlled parliament obstructing his agenda. But investigators have viewed Yoon’s decree as an attempt to bolster and prolong his rule, charging him with rebellion, abuse of power and other criminal offenses.
Judge Baek Dae-hyun said in the televised ruling that imposing “a grave punishment” was necessary because Yoon hasn’t shown remorse and has only repeated “hard-to-comprehend excuses.” The judge also restoring legal systems damaged by Yoon’s action was necessary.
Yoon, who can appeal the ruling, hasn’t immediately publicly responded to the ruling. But when the independent counsel demanded a 10-year prison term in the case, Yoon’s defense team accused them of being politically driven and lacking legal grounds to demand such “an excessive” sentence.
Prison sentences in the multiple, smaller trials Yoon faces would matter if he is spared the death penalty or life imprisonment at the rebellion trial.
Park SungBae, a lawyer who specializes in criminal law, said there is little chance the court would decide Yoon should face the death penalty in the rebellion case. He said the court will likely issue a life sentence or a sentence of 30 years or more in prison.
South Korea has maintained a de facto moratorium on executions since 1997 and courts rarely hand down death sentences. Park said the court would take into account that Yoon’s decree didn’t cause casualties and didn’t last long, although Yoon hasn’t shown genuine remorse for his action.
A supporter of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol shouts slogans outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Supporters of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hold signs and flags outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
A supporter of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol waits for a bus carrying former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Supporters of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hold signs as police officers stand guard outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Supporters of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hold signs and flags outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
Supporters of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hold signs outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
A picture of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is placed on a board as supporters gather outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
