Jan Van Winckel


Jan Van Winckel is a Belgian football coach, UEFA and AFC Pro License Instructor and a FIFA Technical Expert. He is Technical Director at the United Arab Emirates Football Association.
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 and is the author of various book and academic articles
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.
At Olympique de Marseille, Van Winckel acted as Marcelo Bielsa's right hand and first team assistant.
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.
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 divisions and has launched projects to privatize 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 Ddvisor. He was technical director at the club from 2014 to 2015 and became vice-champion of Asia. The club was promoted back to the Saudi Pro League.
In 2023, Van Winckel was re-appointed as Technical Director of the United Arab Emirates Football Association. He appointed the Portuguese manager Paulo Bento as head coach of the national team.

Career

As Player

  • 1994-1995: Belgian Champion University football
  • 1996-1997: Belgian Champion University football
  • 1994-1997: Belgian National University team
  • 1996-1997: Belgian National University futsal team
  • 2001-2002: 7th most valuable player Belgian Futsal Association
  • 2001-2002: 5th best goal scorer Belgian Futsal Association
  • 2001-2002: Final Belgian Cup Belgian Futsal Association
  • 2001-2002: Selected for the national futsal team

As Coach

As Technical Director

Others

Honours