Tuesday, April 2, 2024 at 9:41 PM
Breaking Merijn Zeeman goes Visma | Leave Lease a Bike for an adventure in the football world, namely at AZ. BNR journalist Jaap de Groot released this news on Tuesday evening. Zeeman has been working as a team leader, coach and sporting director at Visma | for several years Lease a Bike and predecessors, and is partly responsible for the successes that made Jumbo-Visma the best cycling team in the world.
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CyclingFlits has now confirmed that the news of Zeeman’s impending departure is correct. According to our source, Zeeman will finish this cycling season with Visma | Lease a Bike and will only switch to AZ at the end of the year. The news has not yet been communicated within the team.
At BNR Zeeman did not want to respond in an initial response (“It is not possible to respond to that now”) on his possible transfer. In the past, Zeeman has often been associated with a management position within football. This is how his name was mentioned at FC Twente in early 2023. Last month, the name of the sporting director of Visma | Lease a Bike has also been linked to AZ. General director Robert Eenhoorn will leave the club from Alkmaar after this football season.
In mid-March, Zeeman spoke to CyclingFlits indicated that he had ‘not yet been called’ by AZ, despite those rumors. “I haven’t been approached yet. They can always call me, but whether I answer is another matter. It doesn’t matter,” Zeeman said during the documentary presentation about Jumbo-Visma’s successful year 2023. “I definitely think that I would like to make the move to football at some point, but that is not current at the moment,” he added last month.
