Lee-Roy Echteld

Lee-Roy Echteld (born 30 September 1968) is a Dutch professional football manager and former player who is the manager of Eredivisie club AZ. He most notably played for Heerenveen as a midfielder.

Playing career

Echteld started playing football in youth departments of Ajax and DWS in Amsterdam. He broke through to senior football in 1988 at HFC Haarlem and then played for Heerenveen during a five-year spell. He also played briefly abroad with the French Ligue 1 club Cannes and the Austrian club Austria Lustenau. In 2001, he retired from football at Heracles Almelo.

Echteld also played with the Suriprofs, where he was allowed to participate because of his Surinamese descent. Because his father is of Chinese Surinamese descent, and this was also clearly visible when Echteld was a baby, the Chinese name 'Lee' was added with a dash before 'Roy', which his parents originally wanted to call him.

Managerial career

Echteld became a coach after his playing career and began managing the amateur branch of FC Omniworld. He did an internship at Ajax for the KNVB diploma. In the 2006–07 season he was a youth coach at DoCoS. From 2007, he became active at Blauw-Wit Amsterdam, first as a youth coach and in 2009 as head coach. He then took over as manager of DWV in January 2013. In 2014, he started working as a youth coach at AZ. He took over as manager of Zeeburgia in January 2015, but left that position at the end of 2015, when he was appointed assistant coach of the first team where succeeded Marco van Basten in that position. In the summer of 2018, Echteld left for Paris Saint-Germain to become manager of the reserves competing in the Championnat National 2. In 2019, however, PSG decided to dissolve the second team and Echteld's contract was not renewed.

Echteld was added to the staff of PEC Zwolle in July 2020, where he became responsible for coaching the first-team strikers as well as overseeing the transition of players from under-21 team to first team.

On 5 July 2022, Echteld was appointed the new head coach of Tweede Divisie club De Treffers. On 14 July 2023, he was appointed assistant coach to Michael Reiziger for the Netherlands U21 team, while continuing as head coach of De Treffers.

On 20 January 2024, Echteld was appointed head coach of Jong AZ. On 18 January 2026, he was appointed as head coach of AZ's first team for the remainder of the season, following the dismissal of Maarten Martens. In the Conference League, Echteld managed to get his team to the Quarter-finals, beating Noah 4–1 on aggregate in the Playoffs, and Sparta Praha 6–1 on aggregate in the Round of 16, before losing to Shaktar Donetsk 2–5 on aggregate.

In the KNVP Cup, Echteld managed to bring his team to a final against NEC, after beating Twente and Telstar in the Quarter-finals and the Semi-finals respectively. AZ managed to win their 5th KNVB Cup after beating NEC 5–1 on the 19th April 2026, securing a European spot for the Dutch side. AZ later appointed Echteld on an permanent basis on the 8th May 2026.

Career statistics

Managerial

As of match played 17 May 2026

Honours

Player

AZ

• Eerste Divisie: 1997–98

Manager

AZ

• KNVB Cup: 2025–26