Jupiler Pro League
After this season, AA Gent and trainer Hein Vanhaezebrouck (60) part ways. That has now been established. We will just have to wait until after the competition to make that known to the world.
If there are any AA Gent supporters out there who still hope that the expiring contract of Hein Vanhaezebrouck (60) will be extended in the Planet Group Arena: unfortunately. Both parties will say goodbye to each other in June. That has been established for some time now, but since AA Gent is still in full battle for a European ticket in the Europe Play-offs, no one has any interest in communicating this now. The agreement is to do this later, regardless of whether Ghent can participate in the preliminary round of the Conference League next season or not.
But Vanhaezebrouck wouldn’t be Vanhaezebrouck if he didn’t hint something sometimes. Like on Monday, when he was asked in the run-up to tonight’s match against STVV how the contract negotiations with 16-year-old Jorthy Mokio are going. You should know: AA Gent is doing everything it can to get the talented defender to sign a first professional contract. But his father Thierry asks for more sporting guarantees and waits.
However, the fact that Mokio still has not signed in Germany, the Netherlands or France – which has been possible since February 29 – gives the Buffaloes hope. But Vanhaezebrouck says he knows nothing about that: “I am not involved in that. Malick Fofana (who moved to Lyon, France this winter, ed.) does, but now they want to do it alone,” he said yesterday. “No problem, let them do it. There are more things I don’t understand here. I could go on for a few more hours,” it sounded razor sharp.
New structure
It immediately indicates the distance between trainer and employer. It is these kinds of injections that the board of AA Gent, led by new owner Sam Baro, has had enough of for some time. The latter himself lashed out at Vanhaezebrouck earlier this year in an interview with Het Laatste Nieuws. For example, he said that his trainer always has “the first and the last word in all transfers”. In polite terms, Baro also made it clear that his trainer takes up too much space in the new structure that the owner has in mind.
That is why, in addition to chairman Ivan De Witte and CEO Michel Louwagie – who will have a purely advisory role – a third heavyweight of AA Gent will also disappear this summer. Vanhaezebrouck led Ghent to cup victory in 2022 in his second spell at the club, but failed to reach the Champions’ Play-offs once. In his first period in Ghent, Vanhaezebrouck had led the club to its first ever national title in 2015. After 3.5 years and more than 350 matches, he will soon close the door behind him. In the meantime, work is being done behind the scenes on a new structure, with new sporting managers.
