Van Basten keen to emulate Van Gaal's coaching path

Van Basten, who scored 24 goals in 58 matches for the Dutch national side and coached them for four years, said he wanted to use his job at AZ Alkmaar as a springboard to emulate Van Gaal, whose own career was revived after he took the provincial club to the league title in 2009.

Van Gaal, who is taking the Netherlands to next month’s World Cup finals in Brazil, was on Monday named as Manchester United manager for the next three seasons.

"I’d like to follow the path of Van Gaal. He is a top coach who did really well at AZ," he told a news conference in Alkmaar.

Van Gaal’s league success with AZ led to his appointment by Bayern Munich the next season, where he claimed a league and cup double in his first term.

"I’m still a coach in the beginning phase of his career even though I had a strange start to my coaching career," Van Basten, a former European Footballer of the Year, added.

Van Basten, 49, retired prematurely in 1995 due to an ankle injury.

His coaching career began with Ajax Amsterdam's reserves in 2003 and a year later he became Netherlands manager, staying from 2004 to 2008, after which he spent a year at Ajax before taking a three-year break.

He joined Heerenveen before moving to AZ.

(Reporting by Mark Gleeson; editing by Josh Reich)