Mitch van Gellekom is Technical Director of Adelaide United FC. We spoke with him about his role in Australia and everything he wants to achieve there.
Four days in the Netherlands.
For Mitch van Gellekom, that's enough to feel fully back again. Seeing family, meeting old colleagues and walking familiar ground once more. "It feels like coming home."
Yet his future now lies thousands of kilometres away. In Australia, where the Limburg native has been working as technical director since the start of 2025. What began as a visit to take a look around grew into an adventure he's far from finished with.
"I went for the first time in January 2025. Officially I was still at PSV back then. I just wanted to drop by and have a look. In the end I liked it so much that I stayed."
From a boy from Limburg to a technical director in Australia. It may sound like a remarkable route, but Van Gellekom has since found his stride. And more importantly, he sees plenty of opportunities to develop Australian football further.
A different level of football
Van Gellekom knew beforehand that football in Australia would be good. That the level would genuinely surprise him was something he hadn't expected.
"I was pretty arrogant myself when I headed over there," he admits with a laugh. "But it's really good football. The opposition is just different."
That mainly has to do with the enormous distances across the country. For youth teams it's simply not feasible to play against the best academies in, say, Melbourne or Sydney every week. The costs and travel times run too high for that.
That's exactly where Van Gellekom sees an important opportunity. With his young team he wants to experience what the highest level demands.
"We want to expose our boys to the kind of opposition they can expect here. They need to see what happens at the highest level. The result isn't even that important. It's mainly about the experience."
Because ultimately it's all about development. As at PSV, the focus is on developing your own players, preparing them as well as possible for the first team and eventually making the step to Europe possible.
"If you want to make that step to Europe, you have to play against European level. Then you know where the gaps are and what you need to work on."
Putting in the hours
On a technical level, Van Gellekom sees another important difference between the Netherlands and Australia. Within a professional youth academy, development in the Netherlands begins much earlier. At PSV, players come in at a young age and put in considerably more training hours.
"In Australia they start really developing within a professional club much later. At PSV you're sometimes in from around the age of eight. in Adelaide we train about 4.5 hours a week, whereas here at PSV it's heading towards ten. That's quite a lot of ball hours you miss out on."
It's precisely that technical refinement where he believes there's still a lot to gain. At the same time, Australia has qualities that European players don't simply bring with them.
"Being physically fit and the intensity — that's very high in Australia. And the temperature naturally makes it extra tough."
He notices that too with players who come to Australia from the Netherlands or Europe. They're not automatically an asset from day one. The conditions demand adaptation.
The Dutch hand in Australian football
However great the differences, the Netherlands is never far away. Australian football, according to Van Gellekom, has been strongly influenced by Dutch coaches and football thinkers. Names like Guus Hiddink and other Dutch football minds have left their mark on the country.
Van Gellekom doesn't see himself belonging in that list any time soon. "I'm just a very simple Limburg lad," he says matter-of-factly.
But ambition he does have. "If we can bring in a bit more structure and approach it slightly differently, then we can carry that further again."
An important partner in that is Ernst Faber, with whom Van Gellekom previously worked at PSV. Faber ultimately brought him to Australia. The collaboration has since grown into a relationship that goes beyond just being colleagues.
"Ernst is really my mentor. I learn a huge amount from him and we still spar pretty much every week."
That contact has remained, even now that the two no longer work side by side day to day. Matches are discussed, points for improvement analysed and situations examined from different angles.
"You spot a certain point for improvement and then I ask him: how can we best trigger this? So that the boy develops the way we think he should develop?"
It's precisely in those details that Van Gellekom sees the strength of developing players. And with someone like Faber alongside him, he has someone with an impressive amount of experience to fall back on.
"He's played Champions League. You can't learn from anyone better."
Increasingly professional
Although Van Gellekom has only been working in Australia for a relatively short time, he already sees clear changes. The project he started together with Faber has now been running for about two years. Especially organisationally and in terms of individual development, he says big steps are being made.
The central question is a simple one: where does a player's unique talent lie, and how can you develop that further?
"We really hammer on what your standout ability is and how we can improve it. Then we set up the training sessions so that you, as an individual, grow the most."
That approach is visibly starting to bear fruit. The organisation is becoming more professional, the way of working tighter, and players are developing faster.
Van Gellekom is quick to stress that he doesn't want to claim the credit for himself alone. "That's really the team we now believe in and are working with."
One of the key links in that is Paul Vanis, who now works as Head of Development. "He has fully embraced our ideology and our material and is implementing it completely. We really have a fantastic team in place."
And yet there is one box that Van Gellekom, with a smile, does dare to tick for himself. In his first season as technical director, the Champions League was reached — for the first time in ten years.
"That one I'll just claim," he says, laughing. "Because it was actually Ernst's work."
An adventure that continues
As Van Gellekom sets foot on Dutch soil again these days, it's clear that Australia has become more than a temporary destination. He has found a role there in which he can combine his experience from the Netherlands with the challenge of professionalising a football culture further.
And that's exactly what makes the adventure interesting: not only developing players, but also building an organisation.
For a boy from Limburg who once "just went to drop by" in Australia, that's quite a big step. But judging by his enthusiasm, it now feels surprisingly natural.
Australia may be far from Eindhoven, but the ambition is the same: making young players better, getting them ready for the highest level and ultimately opening the doors to Europe. Van Gellekom is determined to play his part in that.