Jan_Van_Winckel
Jan Van Winckel (born March 26, 1974) is a Belgian football coach, UEFA and AFC Pro License Instructor and a FIFA Technical Expert. He is senior technical consultant at the United Arab Emirates Football Association and technical advisor of Al-Ahli Saudi.
Van Winckel holds a UEFA Pro-licence and graduated with a Master in Sport Sciences and a Master in Business Economics from the University of Leuven. He remains faculty of the Movement Control & Neuroplasticity Research Group[1] and is the author of various book and academic articles[2]
Van Winckel was Assistant Coach at Al-Hilal Saudi in 2004. He held the same role at the national team of the United Arab Emirates in 2005.
In 2002, he was at the heart of Belgium's footballing renaissance with Michel Sablon, Marc Van Geersom, Werner Helsen, and Bob Browaeys.[3]
At Olympique de Marseille, Van Winckel acted as Marcelo Bielsa's right hand and first team assistant.[4]
After resigning at Olympique de Marseille, Van Winckel became the technical director of the Saudi Arabian Football Federation in 2015. As technical director, Van Winckel led the Saudi Arabian football team to the World Cup in Russia in 2018.[5]
In 2019, Jan Van Winckel signed as a senior technical consultant to the United Arab Emirates Football Association. He set up the UAE FA 2nd and 3rd division and has launched projects to privatise football clubs in the United Arab Emirates. In 2022, he extended his contract.
In 2022, Van Winckel signed an agreement with Al-Ahli Saudi as technical advisor. He was technical director at the club in 2014-2015 and became vice-champions of Asia. [6]
