Danny Blind Biography

Danny Blind, born 1 August 1961 in Ost Sauburg, Vlissingen, is a Dutch former footballer and national team player from 1986 to 1996 and current football coach. Blind is one of six players to win the Champions League, UEFA Cup and Cup Winners' Cup as well as the UEFA Super Cup and the Intercontinental Cup.

Danny Blind is a famous Dutch defender, known for winning three European Cups with Ajax: UEFA Cup Winners' Cup in 1987, UEFA Cup in 1992 and Champions League in 1995. Blind scored the winning goal in the penalty shoot-out for the Intercontinental Cup against Brazil's

.

Blind served as head coach at Ajax between 14 March 2005 and 10 May 2006 when he took over from Ronald Koeman. Throughout his 422 days of coaching Blind guided Ajax to Cup and Super Cup victories in the Netherlands.

In 2007, Danny was made technical director at his first club, Sparta Rotterdam. He rejoined Ajax as director in the summer of 2008. Danny became a member of the Dutch national team coaching staff in 2012 to assist the national team's head coaches, Louis van Gaal from 2012 to 2014 and Guus Hiddink from 2014 to 2015.

The 53-year-old Blind replaced Guus Hiddink as coach of the Dutch national team on 1 July 2015. The contract of Blind, who was Hiddink's assistant, was until 1 August 2018. The Dutch football federation opted to terminate the 55-year-old's contract on 26 March 2017 after losing to

in the 2018 World Cup qualifying.

The Dutch team had a poor start to the qualifying round, picking up 7 points in 5 matches under Blind. The team was in 4th place in the table after 5 games, 6 points behind leading France.

All You Need to Know About Danny Blind Biography

Danny Blind is currently working as assistant coach to Luis Van Gaal since early August 2021, with the two coaches who had previous experience as managers of the Dutch national team to qualify the team for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

Danny Blind Information

Now that we know the Dutch coach much better, in this section of

Danny Blind biography

we will share more general information about him such as

Danny Blind nationality

to let you know him even better.

Danny Blind Bio

• Full Name: Dirk Franciscus Blind

• Nickname: N/A

• Profession: Professional Football Coach

Danny Blind Physical Stats

• Weight: 68 Kg

• Height: 1.76 m

• Eye Color: Blue

• Hair Color: Light Brown

Danny Blind Football Information

• Position: Defender

• Jersey Number: 3

• Professional Debut: 1979

Danny Blind Date of Birth and Personal Info

• Date of Birth: 1 August 1961

• Birth Place: Oost-Souburg, Netherlands

• Zodiac Sign: Leo

• Nationality: Dutch

Now stay tuned to this section of

Danny Blind biography

as we want to share some info about

Danny Blind childhood

.

Danny Blind Early Life

When he was nine years old, Blind's football career was launched at the youth ranks of RCS. Blind made his debut in the first team of RCS when he was sixteen years old, and in 1978 he won the championship in the Sunday Fourth class H.

He made it to the UEFA-youth level while with the club. At first, Blind was to join FC VVV, but because of his failure in the high-school exams, his parents decided not to allow him. However, one year later, when Blind did pass his high school exams in 1979, he transferred to Eredivisie club

.

Now stay tuned to this section of Danny Blind biography as we want to share some info about his Sparta career.

Sparta Rotterdam

Starting in the

on 29 August 1979, Blind made his debut as a substitute for Wolfgang Schwarz after 49 minutes in the away match against AZ. Blind was frequently played as a rising right back at Sparta. In 1983/84 and 1985/86, Sparta Rotterdam played European football.

Altogether, Blind played seven seasons for Sparta and made 188 official appearances in which he scored 18 goals. While at Sparta, Blind played alongside Louis van Gaal, who later became his coach at Ajax.

Ajax

Blind joined

in July 1986, having been recruited by technical director Johan Cruijff. His signing made Marco van Basten, who would have preferred a world-class libero, very angry. In the end, Blind was to become the key figure in the defence and, along with Frank Rijkaard, the big brother of the new generation of youngsters who had been brought up by Louis van Gaal. T

While in Amsterdam, he accumulated a list of achievements that is unique in international football. In fact, Blind won everything there was to win at club level. Together with Ajax, Blind managed to win five national titles, four national cups, the Dutch Supercup three times, the UEFA Champions League, the European Cup II, the UEFA Cup, the UEFA Super Cup and the Intercontinental Cup. Blind retired as a player of Ajax on 16 May 1999.

Blind has played a total of 537 matches in the Eredivisie and has scored 45 goals. With Sparta, he appeared in 10 European Cup matches and with Ajax he played 79 matches (including 4 European Super Cup matches and 1 World Cup match), which is a record.

Now stay tuned to this section of

Danny Blind biography

as we want to share some info about his career as a player in the

.

Dutch National Team

He debuted with the national team in 1986 and, while more or less regularly called up for ten years, he featured in the team that played in the 1990 and 1994 World Cups and the 1996 European Championship, but not the team that won the 1988 European Championship in

.

In total he played 42 games, scoring 1 goal, in the orange jersey, his last match being at

in the quarter-final loss to France in the 1996 European Championship.

Danny Blind Profile

When Blind ended his football career, he was hired as Director of Player Development at Ajax on 18 April 1999. Blind handed in his resignation on 8 February 2000, just nine months after his appointment.

However, it was only a few months before Blind made his return to Ajax. He was appointed youth coach on 11 May 2000, a role he would hold for five years. He managed to impress as a youth coach, winning two championships in four and a half years. He was promoted to Head of Youth Development on 1 February 2003, while also continuing to look after the youth team.

Ajax

On March 14, 2005, he was appointed to the bench of the Dutch team to replace Ruud Krol, who had already succeeded Ronald Koeman who had moved to Benfica in

, and finished second in the Eredivisie. One year later he won the Johan Cruijff Schaal, the KNVB Cup and finished fourth in the league. After the friendly match against Hierden on 23 May 2006, he resigned from the team.

Later career

He was the Technical Director of Sparta Rotterdam, his former team, from 1 July 2007 until 15 May 2008.  He served as Sports Director, Technical Director and Head of the Youth Development of Ajax, coached by Marco van Basten, since 15 May 2008. He was assistant coach to Martin Jol from 1 July 2009 to 29 June 2011 before clashing with him, and then with Frank de Boer with whom he became Dutch champion on 15 May 2011.

The Supervisory Board of Ajax stated on 16 November that they were planning to appoint Louis van Gaal as general manager. As part of this structure, Blind would become the technical director. Blind, together with interim director Martin Sturkenboom, began his new position on 18 November.

After the appointment of Van Gaal, Sturkenboom and Blind were overturned by a court ruling, in a lawsuit brought by Johan Cruijff and some youth trainers against the other members of the Supervisory Board, Blind agreed with the Supervisory Board and Sturkenboom to step down immediately.

Dutch national team

In 2012, Blind was made assistant to then-national coach Louis van Gaal at the Dutch national team. Upon Guus Hiddink succeeding Van Gaal, the KNVB made it known that Blind would replace him again after the 2016 European Championships. Because Hiddink was put on hold, Blind joined early as of 1 August, and made his debut as national coach on Thursday 3 September 2015, in a European Championship qualifier against

.

The game played at the Amsterdam Arena was lost 1-0 following Arjen Robben's sending-off, a red card for Bruno Martins Indi and a penalty against. Consequently, after seven matches the Netherlands was in third place in the qualification pool, with 10 points. Blind used his son Daley in the match against Iceland. This was something unique in the Dutch national team.

A second unique event followed three days later when he simultaneously lost his second international match as coach, against Turkey (3-0). He managed to win his third international match, against Kazakhstan (2-1). He also lost the last match of the European Championship qualification series against the

on 13 October 2015 (2-3).

The Netherlands finished in fourth place in the group with this result, which meant they did not qualify for the 2016 European Championship in France. The qualification for the 2018

was also troublesome. Following five of ten qualifying matches, the Dutch team was in fourth place in the qualifying group on 25 March 2017. The Dutch had lost 2-0 to Bulgaria that day.

The following day, Blind was dismissed. He was the national coach for 17 international matches. During Blind's tenure, the Dutch team went down from 14th to 32nd in the world rankings, their lowest position ever.

He has been a member of the Ajax management committee since 23 April 2018. He returned to the staff of the Dutch national team under Louis van Gaal on 4 August 2021, as his assistant coach.

Now stay tuned to this section of Danny Blind biography as we want to share some info about his coaching style.

Style of Play

Teams managed by Danny Blind play a very attacking and entertaining match, something that is obvious concerning the systems that his teams play. During his tenure with Ajax and Netherlands national team, his main playing system was 4-3-3 attacking. In Ajax, he also played with 4-4-2 and 3-4-3.

Reception

During his playing days, Danny was one hell of a leader. Danny Blind is one of the few players in the history of Ajax to have enjoyed two of the club's best periods as a player. Blind was a relatively anonymous defender from Sparta Rotterdam, not exactly young (25 years old), but he joined Ajax in 1986 because Johan Cruyff was looking for a solid defender who was also able to project himself forward and he managed to establish himself as one of the best in the history of the club.

Danny Blind is among the six football players who have been able to win all the European club trophies plus the Intercontinental Cup during his playing career. Arnold Mühren is the second Dutchman to do so. The other four are Italians Gaetano Scirea, Antonio Cabrini, Sergio Brio and Stefano Tacconi.

However, as a manager, he never was able to repeat his success as a player and at the moment, he is working as an assistant coach in the Dutch national team.

Danny Blind outside Football

Blind was involved in an accident in December 2006, when he crashed into a stopped car of a 48-year old woman who was carrying a 2-year old child, although he was not hurt. Blind has been charged with drunk driving three times.

Following the accident, Blind expressed his regret: “The fact that I was behind the wheel with alcohol is unforgivable and should never have happened. I am deeply ashamed and fully realize that someone in my position should have taken responsibility. That this has not happened makes the situation all the more painful.”

Danny Blind Personal Life

In this section of Danny Blind biography, we will take a deeper look into his personal life and share some information about things like

Danny Blind life story

and

Danny Blind religion

, stay tuned.

Family, Children and Relationships

The famous Dutch football coach Danny Blind has been married to Yvonne Blind for many years. The couple has two children: Daley Blind and Zola Blind. His son Daley is also a professional football player and currently plays for Ajax Amsterdam.

Yvonne Blind supported her son Daley among other things when he, along with father Danny and girlfriend Candy-Rae Fleur, flew in a private plane to Manchester to sign his contract with United. His sister Zola also went along.

Danny Blind’s wife became nationally known through an incident in a nightclub in Bussum, where the brunette got a glass pressed in her face. The son of John van den Heuvel, Joël, intervened and gave first aid.

Philanthropy

At the time of writing this article, there are no reports on any charity activities regarding Danny Blind either in Dutch or English media.

Legal Issues

In April 2008, Danny Blind appeared in a Dutch court for crashing a stationary vehicle while drunk driving. Danny Blind was sentenced to 180 hours of community service for causing an accident. After the accident, Blind already lost his driving licence for six months and can now keep it. The former Ajax player drove in an intoxicated state on 6 December 2006 and crashed a car that had broken down near the Amsterdam Arena.

Danny Blind Career Statistics

In this section of Danny Blind biography, we will take a look at his career stats on the international and club level.

Club

In a 20-year long playing career, between 1979 and 1999, Danny Blind played a total of 682 matches for his clubs including Sparta Rotterdam and Ajax and scored 54 goals, which is a great number since he was a defender.

International

Between 1986 and 1996, he was part of the Netherlands national team, where he played a total of 42 matches and scored a goal.

Managerial

During his managerial career, he has worked as head coach on two occasions. As of 25 March 2017, he has managed Ajax and Netherlands national team in 81 matches, and with 45 wins, 13 draws and 23 defeats he has a win ratio of 55.56 percent.

Danny Blind Honors

Blind has almost won all of his awards and trophies as a player and with Ajax, with the most notable of them including Eredivisie, Intercontinental Cup,

, UEFA Super Cup, UEFA Cup, UEFA

and some others.

As a coach, he managed to win the Johan Cruyff Shield in 2005 and KNVB Cup in 2006 with Ajax.

His notable individual awards and titles include Dutch Golden Shoe, ESM Team of the Year and Intercontinental Cup Most Valuable Player of the Match Award.

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