“René has forged his career around the one important factor in his life – the ability to influence footballers on their ability to learn, and to give them skills which will make them better”
Rene Meulensteen has enjoyed success at the very highest level of the game. As First Team Coach
At Manchester United during the most successful period in the club’s history, he helped win many of the world’s most prestigious football trophies.
His coaching career began when he was appointed Youth Team Coach at NEC Nijmegen, tasked with working with the club’s U15 and U16 teams. After three seasons in the role, he joined Wiel Coerver at the Qatar FA to work in youth development. Coerver became very important in Rene’s development as a coach and during eight years in this job, he spent three years as Wiel Coerver’s assistant before taking charge of the Qatar national U16team in 1997.
In his final two years in Doha, Rene also took on roles in club management, first serving as Manager/Head Coach for Al-Etihad (now known
as Al-Gharafa). He helped them become the first Qatar club to win the Arab Cup Winners’ Cup in 1999, and under his leadership they also won the Qatar Crown Prince Cup in 2000. He took on the same role for city neighbours Al-Sadd, winning the Emir of Qatar Cup with the club in 2001.
Joining Manchester United as Skills Development Coach in June 2001, his brief was to develop and implement a technical program from a young age onwards, focusing on technical player development, coach education and parent information. The success stories from
this program includes Danny Welbeck and Tom Cleverly, who made it all the way to the
Manchester United first team and into the English national side.
Promoted in June 2005, Rene spent a highly successful season as Manchester United’s Reserve Team Coach, with a host of future stars such as Gerard Pique, Giuseppe Rossi and Johnny Evans to name just a few. In his one season in charge, the united reserve team won three trophies.
In June 2006, Rene left United to become manager of Brondby, spending six months in the role before leaving by mutual consent with the club in seventh place in the Danish Super-liga.
Returning to Manchester United in January 2007, he spent six months as Technical Coach for the first team before being promoted to First Team Coach.
In this role he helped the team to three Champions League finals in four years, seeing them lift the trophy in 2008. United won four Premier League titles in this period and were twice winners of the Carling Cup, also winning the FIFA Club World Cup in 2008.
Leaving Manchester United shortly after the departure of Sir Alex Ferguson, in June 2013 Rene became Assistant Manager to Guus Hiddink at FK Anzhi Mackhachkala in Russia. He was appointed Manager after Hiddink left the club. His spell as manager was short lived after the club experienced financial problems. In November 2013 Rene joined struggling Premier League club Fulham as assistant manager to Martin Jol. He was subsequently appointed manager after Jol’s departure less than a month later, remaining in the job until being released from his duties at the beginning of February 2014. He then joined Philadelphia Union in the MLS as a Technical consultant for 6 months.
In August 2016 He took up the Head- Coach position at Maccabi Haifa. Rene, joined the Socceroos (Australian Men's National Football Team) in July 2018 as the Assistant National Team Coach alongside Head-Coach Graham Arnold. Together they also took the Olyroos (Olympic Team) to the Olympics in Japan where they beat Argentina 2-0 in their opening group match. The Socceroos qualified for the World Cup 2022 in Qatar by beating Peru in a thrilling penalty shoot-out. During the World Cup the Socceroos went on to beat Tunesia and Denmark 1-0 which saw them qualifying for the last 16. A They lost 2-1 to Argentina who were crowned winners. Rene currently still works as the Assistant Coach for the Australian national Team. His contract runs until after the World Cup 2026 in USA, Canada and Mexico.