It was announced on Tuesday the former Melbourne City head and assistant coach would be reunited with colleague and friend John van ’t Schip in Holland.

Valkanis was assistant to Warren Joyce with City at the beginning of the season, however it came to an end in November after the pair had differences in their football philosophy.

Since then he had enjoyed spending time with his family, but in January resumed his search for a new job.

The former Adelaide United defender said he was amazed about how the opportunity arose as he now looks to start a new life in Zwolle.

Australia has hardly exported managers internationally as Valkanis becomes the first to coach in the Netherlands.

“I was set on going overseas and to be quite honest, I was set on heading to the United States,” Valkanis told FourFourTwo.

“Along my journey I caught up with Pep (Joe Montemurro) and Roy Hodgson which was a lot of fun.

“I organised to go to Holland and it was unbelievable what happened – JvS’ assistant Ronald Koeman was moving on to coach the national team.

Valkanis coaching City

“I was asked to be interviewed, it went well and a few weeks later I was told I had the gig there. Since then I’ve had a big smile on my face because going to a country where my philosophy resonates with and I’ve always liked that type of football.

“I want to thank PEC Zwolle for this opportunity to go there.”

Valkanis worked alongside current Arsenal Women coach Joe Montemurro at City and he was hopeful these recent moves would do wonders for Australian coaches.

“I think it just goes to show there are people in the game that don’t necessarily have to be big names or famous ex-Socceroos,” he said.

“I think Australia tends to aim for that. Pepe (Montemurro) is a fantastic coach, he’s shown that with City and the work he’s done at Arsenal and the success he’s had this season.

“I just hope moves like ours and working overseas opens the doors for people who weren’t glamour names to work in the A-League.

“I’m not saying they need to be head coaches, it can be at any level. This could help our game, we need to be a bit more open-minded because if you look over the world, some of the best coaches didn’t have glamorous playing careers either.

Valkanis hails Pepe Montemurro for his success with Arsenal Women. Credit: Arsenal Women FC

“For the rest of the world, Australia is so far away geographically and it’s like ‘do they watch football there?’, Australia is almost disregarded a little bit and it takes people like JvS who’ve worked here to see there are coaches who are capable and worthy of getting opportunities.

“We might be far away, but I think there are really good coaches here. The amount of study we do to improve and the amount of work we do to become better coaches.

“It’s very hard to get opportunities, so I’ll definitely make the most of it.”

Valkanis also gave some insight into the amount of Dutch influence he had in the past eight years including former Reds coach Rini Coolen and FFA Technical Director Han Berger.

“I got a lot of influence from Han going over to Holland a few years ago to watch Ajax and FC Twente to see how things are done,” he said.

“I remember thinking back then ‘geez, imagine if I get to work here one day’, it’s unbelievable and dreams do come true, you should dream big and always believe things are achievable.


“Another Dutchman fell in my path and we formed a great relationship in the six months we worked and City played some of the best football during that period and we won the first trophy for the club.

“Even working with Josep Gombau and Guillermo Amor and the Reds, their influence was Johan Cryuff from Barcelona. So my whole influence has been very Dutch.

“It’s amazing how things align, people fall in your path and have become great teachers for me.

“Now I want to go there as an Aussie to show that we know more than just cooking a barbecue and having a beer. It’s just about having a good time working in a football nation and the philosophy I believe in.

“My mate Peter Cklamovski who’s now at Yokohama thought at that stage I had so much Dutch influence and he used to call me ‘van Kanis’. It’s funny to see where it’s ended up and how the world works.”

Valkanis and JvS in their City days

The season is now over in Holland as PEC finished ninth, leaving Valkanis excited about their goals next season.

Valkanis also spoke of the friendship he had with van’t Schip and was expecting the transition to be seamless because of their similarities.

“We want football to be attacking and we’re both risk-takers,” Valkanis said as he received a text from JvS.

“We both know we’ll lose games sometimes, but the philosophy is the process of getting to win things, we saw that even at City and it showed when we won the FFA Cup.

“Maybe if it was continued, it probably could’ve led to something else.

“Looking at it now, it’s about continuing the work they’ve done there at PEC, they’ve done an amazing job already in terms of where they took PEC with the coaching staff.

“Before Christmas there were in the top three, but seeing the football they’ve played, you can see they’re a good team.”