Man Utd legend turned down chance to return to Old Trafford under Ed Woodward

Martin Macdonald

• 24 Feb 2026 05:01 CST
• 4 min read

News

Former Manchester United star Edwin van der Sar has revealed that he turned down the opportunity to return to Old Trafford in an executive role.

After the departure of Peter Schmeichel in 1999, United looked for a long-term successor and the majority of his heirs didn't work out - the likes of Fabien Barthez, Tim Howard and Roy Carroll.

In 2005, though, they secured a Champions League winner in the form of Van der Sar who had been quietly impressing at Fulham.

The Dutchman was the Schmeichel replacement Man Utd had been waiting for and he ended up having a stellar career with the Red Devils, winning four Premier League titles, one Champions League and one Club World Cup.

He saved the losing penalty from Nicolas Anelka in the Champions League final between United and Chelsea.

"He reminds me a little bit of you!" 💎

Edwin van der Sar with big praise for Senne Lammens! 👏 pic.twitter.com/uPZF4hJRyI

— The Overlap (@WeAreTheOverlap) February 23, 2026

Following his career, he looked at the business side of football instead of entering coaching and acted as Ajax's Chief Executive Officer between 2016 and 2023.

During that period, he was approached by Man Utd director Ed Woodward to take up a role with the club.

"Yes, I spoke to Ed [Woodward] twice about taking up a role here but at that point, I didn’t think my job was finished at Ajax with the path we were going on – we were not there yet," the Dutchman said on the Overlap.

"I had two good conversations with him on two separate moments about a role, probably it would have been alongside him. Ed did a great job of leading the club. Mainly on the commercial side, of course he was involved in the sale of the club.

“On that point and also I have been with him in meetings with the ECA [European Club Association] many times and the quality of certain aspects from him isn’t great but you would probably say it would be nice to have something on the football side beside him. Now I think the last two or three years United have tried to work to organise the football side and not only have that by the CEO, David Gill, and Sir Alex Ferguson. That is not going to cut it anymore, it’s not going to come back.”

As for future plans, Van der Sar didn't give anything away but revealed he has had conversations with clubs about returning to the game.

"I’m undecided yet. I have had some conversations with some head-hunters, some parties, some multi-club ownerships but I have not found the right project yet or made the decision," he added.

“I think my life that I lead at the moment, I travel a lot and do a nice thing with some commercial stuff in Asia. But at a certain point you feel the knowledge that I gained, to take a step, I’m 55, so I think I still have four or five years to give to the game or to an organisation. It doesn’t have to be a football club, it can be an organisation that goes around football but it has to be something to do with sports."

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