Jakob "Jaap" Stam (born July 17, 1972 in Kampen) is a retired Dutch football player who was twice voted best defender in the 1999 and 2000 UEFA Champions League. He currently works as a scout for his former club Manchester United, responsible for scouting in South America. Stam spent three seasons at Manchester United, during which time United won three Premierships, one FA Cup, the Intercontinental Cup and the UEFA Champions League. During the 2001-02 season, Stam was controversially sold to S.S. Lazio in Italy, after Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson was reportedly furious with allegations Stam had made in his autobiography Head to Head about himself and the club. Stam made numerous statements in the book about his views on opposing players, and notoriously alleged that Ferguson's approach to buy him was done without the permission of PSV Eindhoven. Laurent Blanc was signed as his replacement. However, Alex Ferguson has since described the decision to sell Jaap: "At the time he had just come back from an achilles injury and we thought he had just lost a little bit. We got the offer from Lazio, £16.5m for a centre-back who was 29. It was an offer I couldn't refuse. But in playing terms it was a mistake. He is still playing for Ajax at a really good level."