- Henk Houwaart
Henk Houwaart (born in
the Hague onAugust 31 ,1945 ) is a Dutch football manager and a former football player.He began his career in 1963 as a footballer playing for
ADO Den Haag until 1967, when he left the club to play forFC Twente . After being selected few times for the Dutch national team, he continued his career in 1969 in Belgium to play forClub Brugge K.V. and in his first season his team won theBelgian Cup and the championship in 1973. He was transferred toRoyal Antwerp FC in 1975 but 6 month later, he sustained an injury in a UEFA Cup match againstŚląsk Wrocław that ended his career.Coaching career
However he did not stop his football career and began to work as a trainer. Beginning his career as a trainer of
K.S.V. Roeselare in 1977, the following season he became trainer of K.S.C. Eendracht Aalst.K.V. Kortrijk was his next club in 1979 and after finishing second inBelgian Second Division his team promoted to First Division.In 1983 he moved to
Cercle Brugge K.S.V. ; however, Houwaart's aim was to become trainer of Club Brugges and one year later he moved there. He won his first trophies with this club, theBelgian Cup in 1986 and theBelgian Supercup the same year. He also won his first Championship as a coach in the season 1987-88 and the same season his team played in UEFA Cup and reached the semi-finals, when they were eliminated byRCD Espanyol in extra time.He was fired in 1989 after bad results and he returned to his former club
K.V. Kortrijk . He then moved toGreece to be the coach of AO Xanthi. After one year in Greece, he returned to Belgium and returned for two years to Cercle Brugge K.S.V. until 1993. His next team wasSporting West Ingelmunster-Harelbeke , and he helped them to promote to the first division. He stayed there six years, from 1994 until 2000. After six years coachingK.R.C. Harelbeke , he went toK.A.A. Gent , but few months after, he was fired after a home defeat of the team inUEFA Cup byAFC Ajax .For the second time in his career he left Belgium, this time he moved to Cyprus in November 2000 and became coach of
Omonia Nicosia . Despite that Omonia was the most successful team in Cyprus, they had not won theCypriot First Division in eight years. Omonia were seven points behindAnorthosis Famagusta , who were champions the previous four years and another year seemed lost for Omonia. After Houwaart's departure, Omonia performance changed rapidly and they won the championship after 8 years and a few months later they won theCyprus Super Cup . After a bad beginning in the 2001-02 season, Houwaart quit as coach and went back to Belgium and toRoyal Antwerp FC for the remaining season. He coachedSporting West Ingelmunster-Harelbeke in 2002-03.He moved to Cyprus again, this time for
AEL Limassol FC during the middle of the season 2003-04. Since the day he began coaching AEL Limassol, his team was unbeaten and reached theCypriot Cup final. The unbeaten record ended in that final againstAEK Larnaca , when his team lost 2-1. Six months later, he returned to his first Cypriot team, AC Omonia and won theCypriot Cup after beatingDigenis Morphou in the final 2-0. A few months later, they won theCyprus Super Cup again. In the Super Cup, Omonia beat Anorthosis Famagusta 5-4 on penalties after a 2-2 result. The 2005-06, Omonia was contenter for the Championship title, however the team performed badly and he resigned again from Omonia. Since then, he moved toK. Sint-Truidense V.V. in February 2006, where he saved them from relegation. He is now Head Coach from Belgian lower division teamRoyal Knokke F.C. .
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