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.”
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
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)
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Nadia Comaneci, Apolo Ohno, Bart Conner and Cullen Jones were among the more than 300 Olympic and Paralympic athletes who gathered Tuesday under the peristyle at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, where the Summer Games will open in 2028.
In an effort to promote Wednesday's registration launch for tickets to the Los Angeles Games, the athletes representing 28 different Olympics dating to 1960 joined Janet Evans in a short countdown to the lighting of the Olympic Cauldron against a clear blue winter sky.
“LA is committed to delivering an athlete-centered games and that can only happen if athletes are actually at the center of our planning,” said Evans, the Olympic champion swimmer who is chief athlete officer for the LA28 organizing committee.
The get-together felt like a homecoming to Ohno, the most decorated U.S. Winter Olympian ever with eight short track speedskating medals.
“I walked in and I literally saw like 50 of my friends that I'd grown up in the Olympic training center with for many years,” he said. "I haven't seen some of these people for 10 years or more."
The athletes met with LA28 officials beforehand, with several offering suggestions on how to improve the athlete experience.
“We have the athlete voice in the areas that really need to be heard,” said Jones, the retired swimmer who joined the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee last summer as associate director of athlete marketing. “I'm really excited to see what LA28 looks like.”
Conner noted that with the majority of venues already built in Los Angeles and Oklahoma City, which will host softball and canoe slalom, organizers can focus on the competitors. The three-time Olympic gymnast capped his career at the 1984 Los Angeles Games.
“The athletes know that they're the center of every decision,” he said. “It's not just like, let's call the athletes and see what they think about it. The athletes are already in all the board meetings. I understood today that there's more athletes involved in leadership here in the Olympic organizing committee than there are at the IOC.”
Nearby, Comaneci twirled for photographers under the peristyle. The Romanian gymnast became a teenage superstar at the 1976 Montreal Games, where she earned the first perfect 10.0 mark in Olympic history. She and Conner will mark their 30th wedding anniversary in April.
Registration opens at 10 a.m. EST on Wednesday at Tickets.LA28.org. It's the first step for a chance to secure a time slot to buy tickets starting in April. After registering, fans will be randomly assigned time slots to buy tickets throughout future ticket releases.
Individual tickets, hospitality packages including tickets and packages involving travel and accommodations will also go on sale later this year.
The Olympic cauldron is lit at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum ahead of the launch for ticket registration to the 2028 Summer Olympic Games Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Former Olympians gather for a group photo at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum ahead of the launch for ticket registration to the 2028 Summer Olympic Games Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
The Olympic cauldron is lit at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum ahead of the launch for ticket registration to the 2028 Summer Olympic Games Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Former Olympian Jane Evans, LA28 Chief Athlete Officer, center right, stands next to Casey Wasserman, LA28 Chairperson and President, at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum ahead of the launch for ticket registration to the 2028 Summer Olympic Games Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
The Olympic cauldron is lit at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum ahead of the launch for ticket registration to the 2028 Summer Olympic Games Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
