Sandor van der Heide (born 30 March 1978) is a Dutch football manager and former player.
Born in Ysbrechtum, Friesland, Van der Heide joined Cambuur, signing a professional contract in 1997.
He made his Cambuur debut in a 4âÂÂ1 Eerste Divisie win over Telstar on 23 August 1997, coming on as a substitute for René van Rijswijk.
In March 2012, it was announced that Van der Heide would retire from professional football and join ONS Sneek as a playing assistant manager.
In May 2014, van der Heide returned to Cambuur as assistant manager to Henk de Jong, while also remaining active as an advisor at ONS Sneek. On 10 November 2015, he stepped down as assistant manager at Cambuur and continued in a scouting and analysis role for the club. A few days later, he left the club entirely and was appointed manager of IJsselmeervogels.
On 23 January 2017, Van der Heide also accepted a part-time role as assistant manager to Henk de Jong at De Graafschap, as he was still managing IJsselmeervogels at the time. However, on 17 August 2017, he decided to leave IJsselmeervogels with immediate effect, citing the difficulty of combining both roles. He was subsequently appointed full-time assistant manager at De Graafschap.
Ahead of the 2019âÂÂ20 season, Van der Heide once again returned to Cambuur as assistant manager to Henk de Jong. In the autumn of 2020, and again during the spring of 2021, he suffered from burn-out symptoms, which led to prolonged periods of absence during the 2020âÂÂ21 seasonâÂÂa campaign in which Cambuur won the Eerste Divisie and secured promotion to the Eredivisie.
After stepping back from day-to-day football coaching after leaving Cambuur in 2021, Van der Heide became active as an entrepreneur. Outside football, he owns several escape rooms as well as a beach club.
Cambuur