[1] He started his playing career with an amateur team before joining the local professional side ADO Den Haag.

Jol returned to Den Haag in 1985, and won the 1985 Dutch Footballer of the Year award in the Eerste Divisie league.

Jol then moved to the leading local amateur side Scheveningen for one season, where he won the national non-league championship.

[7] In his first season in charge, Jol improved their league fortunes and scrapped the defensive nature of play that Santini had instilled.

After winning five league games in a row, Tottenham's best run of form since the 1992–1993 season, he won the FA Manager of the Month award in December 2004 and was strongly linked in the press with the then vacant managerial job at Ajax of Amsterdam.

Jol led Tottenham to the verge of European qualification but the season ended with a ninth-place finish in the Premier League after a final day draw at home to Blackburn Rovers.

On the final day of the season, however, Tottenham's squad was struck down by illness and Spurs were defeated by West Ham United, meaning they missed out on Champions League qualification and finished in fifth place.

A 4–0 FA Cup win away to Fulham, however, kick-started a run of form which saw Tottenham take 27 points from their final 12 league games, losing just once.

"[9] Because of the large amount of money that had been spent, Spurs were expected by the board to challenge for a top four place in the 2007–08 season.

[10] This undermined Jol's position, and he was eventually sacked by the Tottenham board on 25 October 2007 during their 2–1 defeat to Getafe in the UEFA Cup.

Jol rejected an approach from Birmingham City to discuss their managerial vacancy in November 2007,[12] but was reported at the time as interested in returning to Premiership football to manage one of the clubs outside the "top four.

On 26 May 2009, it was announced that Jol was to be the new head coach of Ajax, taking over from Marco van Basten, who resigned at the end of the season.

[16] After winning their opening two games of the season, Jol's Ajax lost away to PSV and then drew with Sparta Rotterdam at home, a result that saw them slip down to seventh place in the Eredivisie.

During the summer of 2010, Jol was the subject of an unsuccessful attempt by Fulham to make him their new manager; Ajax refused to let him leave the club.

On 6 December 2010, Jol resigned as manager of Ajax with immediate effect after a 1–1 home draw to NEC Nijmegen that left the Amsterdam-based club in fourth place, with a five-point distance from the top of the league, after 17 games.

On 7 June 2011, it was announced that Jol had signed a two-year contract to take up the vacant post at Premier League side Fulham, after Mark Hughes' departure.

They claimed some notable scalps during the season, including victories over Arsenal, Newcastle United, and Liverpool, plus a credible 2–2 draw against eventual league champions Manchester City.