Van Basten: "Coaching a team is bad for the health".

Netherlands

legend

Marco van Basten

has asserted that being a manager is terrible for your wellbeing. 

As a player, Van Basten was one of the exceptional strikers of his age, scoring a critical goal for the Netherlands in the 1988 European Championship last against the USSR and playing for giants like

and

. 

Injury made him quit football as a player and, but he still wanted to be a part of football so, in 2004, he moved into managerial and coaching positions. He had run with the Netherlands, Ajax, Heerenveen, and AZ, yet concedes that the employment wasn't for him and he is happy to no longer doing it.

“I’m not a good manager,” he told The Guardian. “I can train players and talk about football. But losing as a manager was so painful, I couldn’t live with it.

"As a manager, you have to be positive to your guys, as a father to his sons, and that was one thing I really didn’t have.

“The profession is also bad for your health. When I became an assistant, I was intelligent and helpful. I had patience. As the head coach, I was completely the opposite.

“I made a good decision to get out. I’m now doing other things and feel much freer. I do some business and work for television, talking about football. I still have a nice wife, nice children, two grandchildren. We’re all healthy. So I’m enjoying life.”

At the same time, he accepts he was fortunate enough and enjoyed his career, despite his retirement at the

age of 28

.

“I don’t have any pain but I am limited,” he said. “I can’t play tennis or football. But I play squash and I am thankful.

“Looking back I was feeling it was a pity I couldn’t finish my career after winning more [Champions League titles]. I wanted to show more of myself.

“Some players have 18 years in football. But some players are injured before they start. When I thought like that I said: ‘If I compare with that, I have been very lucky. At least I had 10 years of a beautiful experience that changed my life forever."