A former Manchester United boss made a surprise appearance at an Ajax training session on Tuesday.
Ajax's most promising youth stars reportedly entered the training pitch at De Toekomst, the club's training centre, and were greeted by a club legend.
According to De Telegraaf, the training would be supervised by a specialized coach or a member of the Ajax first team staff.
The outlet reported that the academy products will receive a session from first-team staff once a month as part of an initiative overseen by football director Marijn Beuker.
However, the first team coaches were not present at the session, with Louis van Gaal acting as a surprise coach.
The 73-year-old appeared as a one-off and reportedly allowed other coaching staff to oversee the session, but observed and spoke to the players involved.
Jan Faberski, Aaron Bouwman and Mark Verkuijl were among the players from Ajax Jong – the Dutch giants' reserve team – who attended the session.
The 19 stars included Damian van der Vaart, Levi Acheampong and Luca Messori.
Van Gaal previously coached Van der Vaart's father Rafael, with the Dutchman giving him his Dutch debut in 2001.
Van Gaal had also briefly served as Ajax's technical director during Van de Vaart's time at the club, before coaching him again during his second spell as Dutch boss between 2012 and 2014.
The 73-year-old head coach would eventually return for a third stint as national coach of the Dutch national team from 2021 to 2022, leading them to the quarter-finals of the World Cup in Qatar.
The former Ajax, Barcelona and Manchester United boss resigned after the tournament.
He then broke the shocking news that he had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer.
Van Gaal spoke about his health problems in August, revealing that he regularly requires radiation therapy and urine bags.
However, he struck an optimistic tone when discussing his condition during a TV appearance.
Van Gaal told RTL: 'My health? I'm doing well.
'After three years of radiation, kidney infections and prostate operations, I can finally cope. I can urinate naturally again, that's important.'
Then he joked: 'But I can't make love anymore, that's a problem.'
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