Louis van Gaal rejected Belgium job in act of 'revenge' so Manchester United would have to keep paying him
He would have forfeited his United pay-off had he accepted the Belgium post
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Your support makes all the difference.Louis van Gaal has revealed he rejected the Belgium manager’s job in an act of “revenge” towards Manchester United so his former club would have to continue paying up the remainder of his contract after sacking him.
The Dutchman was removed from his post at Old Trafford after winning the FA Cup in 2016 and was approached to take over from Marc Wilmots at Belgium following their Euro 2016 display only months later.
He rejected the offer though to punish United, who were still paying off the final year of his three-year contract, leaving Roberto Martinez to get the job instead. Should Van Gaal have taken the job, he would have had to give up a portion of his pay-off.
“It would have been really great if I had become Belgium national coach, but I was so resentful and vindictive that I let that job go by,” Van Gaal told De Volkskrant. “It was stupid, really, because the sporting value should always come in the first place. That should have been the most important thing. But that's how I looked at things. It was not about money. It was all about the act of revenge.
“I went for my instinct, not the rational. I just have to live with that. I've been a really successful manager, so I don't want to slag the world of football down. I have had a lot of good times.
“The way Manchester United have treated me was terrible. They have been mean and low. In contrast, the way president [Joesp Lluis] Nunez of Barcelona treated me was fantastic.
“That proves that the world of football is not full of false people. There are also straight and warm people among those people.”
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