Wednesday, March 15, 2023 at 6:39 PM• Mart Oude Nijeweeme • Last update: 18:40

FC Twente has turned to Merijn Zeeman in vain in the search for a new general manager. The people of Enschede are looking for a successor for the departing Paul van der Kraan, but have not yet proved very successful. Zeeman is currently responsible for the Jumbo-Visma cycling team and has declined the job at the Eredivisionist. According to club watcher Leon ten Voorde, he was ‘honoured’.

It has been known for some time that Van der Kraan will stop at FC Twente after this season. The driver also left the number five in the Eredivisie in the summer of 2021, but was flown in again not much later when it turned out that his successor Jan-Willem Brüggenwirth was not the right man. The latter only lasted 4.5 months in the Grolsch Veste. Twente hoped to replace Van der Kraan with Zeeman this summer, but that will not happen.

“I believe he was honored, but thought it was a little too early,” Ten Voorde explains the situation in the podcast The Balls Mind from newspaper Tubantia. “He has had a lot of contact with Erik ten Hag. In his time at Ajax, Ten Hag looked into the kitchen at Jumbo-Visma and Zeeman the other way around, also during the time at Ajax. So Zeeman has something to do with football.” Zeeman had a successful career as an amateur cyclist and has been team leader at Jumbo-Visma since 2013.

Ten Voorde thinks it is now becoming a ‘soap’ that Twente does not yet have a new general director. “Our friend Paul van der Kraan doesn’t know yet, but he will be the director of FC Twente until he is 75,” he says cynically. “Maybe they should throw out a line to Alkmaar, to Robert Eenhoorn. You can say that he is stuck at AZ, an example club, but it is also a bit of a babbling brook.”

Twente will undergo a complete transition within the club next summer. In addition to general manager Van der Kraan, technical director Jan Streuer and trainer Ron Jans are also leaving. A successor has now been found for Streuer. His duties will be taken over by Arnold Bruggink. The former midfielder of the club is assisted by Streuer in his first months and will be on his own two feet from the summer.