Visma mastermind Zeeman bids farewell to cycling for Dutch soccer: "These things aren't very developed in soccer yet"

Merijn Zeeman worked with the current Visma | Lease a Bike team for twelve years, but that came to an end on October 1st. The Dutchman has moved on to the Dutch soccer club AZ Alkmaar, where he faces a new challenge. In an interview with L'Équipe, Zeeman discusses his transition and draws some interesting connections between soccer and cycling.

He first explains why he wanted a change. "Mainly because I worked in cycling for sixteen years, twelve of those with Jumbo-Visma. I want to see if what we achieved there can also be achieved in football. I needed a new challenge in a different sport." The choice for AZ aligns well with his ambitions. "It’s a very modern club that uses a lot of data. The club is known for bringing in people from other sports. The two directors before me came from volleyball and baseball backgrounds."

While cycling may not resemble soccer much, Zeeman believes he has a lot to offer the Alkmaar club. "It’s about a group of people working together to make a club better, to create a vision, to develop, to achieve goals." He also sees similarities with cycling. "You’re surrounded by athletes and coaches. Together with them, you figure out how they can work together, what their vision is. The type of sport doesn’t matter much. It’s more about how you think about the organization."

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"I think a lot of people in soccer don’t like outsiders coming in," Zeeman warns

"My experiences in cycling show that not many teams are open to learning new things," continues the Dutchman, who is well aware of what he can contribute at his new job. "The performance aspect, and also things like nutrition, aren’t very developed in soccer. But the sport is becoming more intense with more matches. This is precisely where cycling has advanced rapidly over the past five years."

In the future, more people from cycling might bring their knowledge to soccer clubs. "It’s interesting for many clubs that don’t have the biggest budgets but want to compete with the best. They have to be smarter than their opponents," Zeeman adds. However, he notes that something will have to change in soccer. "I think a lot of people in soccer don’t like outsiders coming in. They still need to warm up to the idea."