![\"Fussball\"](\"http:\/\/cfbayern.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/VanGaal-Portugal25.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nA sports journalist needs two attributes most of all: patience and tenacity. Everyone who wants to talk to Louis van Gaal needs a great deal of both. But you also have to know another thing about Louis van Gaal: he is a man of his word — If he promises something, he will keep his word. You just have to be persistent.<\/p>\n
I last interviewed Louis van Gaal in October 2012, when he was still Netherlands national team coach. The next interview I asked for was in the summer of 2014, immediately after he took charge of Manchester United. But United\u2019s press officer wasn\u2019t interested in giving any German media a chance to talk to their head coach. Not even the English media were allowed. After his sacking in May 2016, I contacted him again, but the former Bayern coach was taking a sabbatical and not giving any interviews. Just a few days after the official end of his United contract, I contacted van Gaal again, who was amused by my perseverance. In fact, he is officially an old-age pensioner since the 1st<\/sup> of July, but he lets me know that he first wants to talk to the Dutch journalists and ask for my understanding. \u201cNew year, new luck\u201c, I start in my mail to van Gaal at the beginning of January \u2013 and, three and a half years later, he agrees. He confirms the date very quickly: \u201c1 pm, reception, Vale do Lobo Resort.\u201c<\/p>\n He bought a villa here in 2008 and has since made his home in Portugal. I know this resort, because I watched several games on a big screen here during the 2004 European Championships. I was reporting on the German national team, who were staying only a few kilometres up the road near Faro. Van Gaal picks me up and drives from reception to the restaurant, where we do the interview. On our way, he tells me that he discovered this restaurant, just like me, during the European Championships that summer. Together with his wife, he is now enjoying retirement on the Algarve coast. But will we ever see Louis van Gaal coaching again? Recently, Wolfsburg were interested, I start the interview\u2026<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n