Saturday, April 10, 2021 at 6:58 AM• Daniel Cabot Kerkdijk • Last update: 07:01

Fred Grim dares to set the bar high and hopes to return to Ajax one day. The club from Amsterdam is without a doubt the common thread in the career of the former goalkeeper and now head coach of RKC Waalwijk. Grim was active at Ajax for a quarter of a century as a youth player, reserve keeper, first keeper, youth coach and goalkeeper coach. As a trainer of a smaller club, Grim does not deny his Ajax background and lets RKC play well-groomed football.

“It is satisfying when your team can play the football you have in mind. We have had many compliments for that ”, says the former interim and assistant national coach of the Dutch national team in an interview on Saturday. The Telegraph. “Last season it remained too much with compliments and we did not get enough results. That is going better this season, while we have retained the good football. ”

“You can see that the team is one year further in its development,” says Grim. The 55-year-old former coach of Jong Ajax and Almere City FC knew very early on that he wanted to become a trainer after his active career. He experienced both Johan Cruijff and Louis van Gaal at Ajax. “On the bench at Ajax I was always close to Louis van Gaal and the other trainers and I listened to the discussions they had and paid close attention when Van Gaal gave directions to the team. That has been incredibly educational. ”

“Just like I always made notes of the training methods, game systems and tactical solutions that Van Gaal had. It was very educational that I experienced Cruijff and Van Gaal up close, two of the greatest trainers in Dutch football. ” Grim has a contract for a fourth season with RKC, but he dares to set the bar high. “As a trainer I also have a point on the horizon. You want to achieve the maximum, get everything out of it. A great goal is to become Ajax’s trainer one day. ”

“Of course you have to stay sober and you don’t know if that will ever be discussed, but I think you should have such ambitions.” Grim has been trainer of RKC since mid-2018. In his first season, he immediately led his team from the Kitchen Champion Division to the Eredivisie. In the Eredivisie, RKC had a difficult time last season. The Waalwijkers were firmly in last place, but escaped relegation when the competition was stopped due to the corona crisis and the KNVB decided not to implement relegation.