NOS Football•yesterday, 10:24 PM
Maurice Steijn returns as a trainer in the Premier League after a year’s absence. The 50-year-old coach has signed a contract until the end of the season with Sparta Rotterdam, where he will succeed Jeroen Rijsdijk, who was dismissed on Friday.
“I look back on a great first period at Sparta,” Steijn said on the Sparta website. “I am happy to be back at this club, which has made great strides in recent years. The warmth I felt at Sparta during my coaching career is still present. That is why it feels good to be back and to achieve maximum performance together. supply.”
Period at Ajax
Steijn thus starts his second period at the club from Rotterdam. He was without a club after being fired as head coach of Ajax last year after seven league matches. At that time, Ajax was penultimate in the Premier League.
The native of The Hague had come into the spotlight at Ajax because he had guided Sparta to a surprising sixth place in the Premier League a season earlier. At Sparta he was succeeded by Rijsdijk, who served as assistant coach under Steijn.
Sparta is currently in twelfth place in the rankings, with eleven points from ten games. The team only won twice, drew five times and lost three times. The last competition victory dates from the end of September, when they won 2-1 at RKC Waalwijk.
In the first round of the KNVB Cup, Sparta only defeated amateur club Hercules in extra time on Thursday evening.
