Netherlands

Edgar Davids: active in integraties issues

Seventeen years in a row, Edgar Davids spent his days on a football pitch. Last season, he was no longer. Retired? And then suddenly, yesterday, a piece in the news on him, in which he said he wanted to see where he was, physically. “I want to train again. I haven’t really played for a year and I want to see where I stand…” A come-back? Probably not.

Davids has had busier days last year than in the years he was an active player for clubs like Ajax, AC Milan, Juventus and Barcelona.

Instead of pushing forward with the ball, last year Edgar Davids walked with Secretary of Integration Ella Vogelaar through the “development suburbs” of The Hague. Or he was in his office from 9 to 5. Meetings, phone-calls, workshops and brainstorming with the Street Football Association (SVBN), an initiative he founded with sports journalist Humberto Tan.

Davids: “I think Mrs Vogelaar was doing a tremendous job. She was really pro-active in the so-called problem suburbs. And there’s not a lot of people who’d dare to do it her way. She went in head first, instead of just talk. Her goal is our goal, so we had a connection. We even played street football together in The Hague! Whether she was any good? Well, she was quite talented, haha…”.

Her successor Eberhard van der Laan also found his way to Edgar Davids. The politicians know that Edgar Davids serves a purpose as figure head of street football. Through him, the government can address and access the problem youth.

Tomorrow, Rotterdam is the hosting city for 64 teams from all sorts of “problem suburbs” to play for the National Title of Street Football. The area around suburb Alexandrium will be turned into a social meeting place for young, old, male, female of all walks of life. Other than football, it will be music, dance, food, drinks and parties all day long.

There were qualification rounds in 55 regional competitions, in total 500 teams competed. And Edgar Davids was able to convince Oranje skipper Gio van Bronckhorst, Andy Slory, Wesley Sneijder and Klaas Jan Huntelaar to act as ambassador for Street Football in Holland.

“Honestly, I busier now with this than I was as player,” says Davids, still fit as a young God. Apart from the national competition, Davids also interacts with Dutch schools, with the aim to stop the exodus of youth out of the schoolsystem. Students can use Davids’ and Tan’s association to organize apprentice jobs in companies or institutions and there’s a project to help the semi-illiterates in society.

The official slogan of the Street Football Association is “Make a goal, don’t make trouble”. Davids translates this into his own motto: “I aim to let Kees and Mohammed play together. Both lads need to experience that they have more in common than that they don’t….”

Davids himself grew up in one of the problem areas in Amsterdam. In a time when Kees and Mo did play together. “In football, it’s easy. You want the best team, so when the muslim kid is the best player, you want him in your team, whoever his God is…. Football looks at skill and talent, not at color or religion. That makes football a strong integration force. Kids grow up like that, they don’t care what your race, color or creed is. Only later, when you realize “the world” says they’re different is when they start to make that distinction. As if we need to enlarge our differences instead of strengthen what we have in common.”

Davids always wanted to be involved in worthwhile projects. “I knew I’d do something like this after my professional career. And with the same passion with which I played football. When our first competition in 2008 appeared to be a huge succes, I knew enough. I wanted to be the role model for our organization.”

“It’s as Barack Obama says: it starts at home. In your community, in your suburb and street. That’s where you need to engage people and give them a purpose. We do this for the youth through street football.”

“And it’s good as it is, you know. I played for the biggest clubs in the world. Now I’m going to pay back. Football was great for me, 17 years long. Wonderful. Now, I want to do something meaningful with my life. I thought I’d do this when I was 40 years old, you know, but the opportunity was here so I took it.”

The 74 times capped international didn’t see a lot of games last season. He visited Italy once and saw a couple of Ajax games. What’s the matter with Ajax, now? “Well, it’s the same old song. Every season, the new coach has to work with a group of youngsters. The more experienced and binding players are sold. So, every season you have to start all over. In football, it’s about team. And teams get stronger due to the build up of young talents, players in their prime and some veterans.”

“I don’t follow football that much. I won’t stay home for a game on tv. I sometimes catch the news. That Zidane returns to Real Madrid is a nice peace of news.” Zinedine Zidane, Davids’ former team mate, would be a good ambassador for street football in France. “Zidane also grew up in a backward suburb and the issues in France, Italy and Germany are similar to ours. I’d love to take this initiative internationally.”

Another old team mate- Lilian Thuram - is part of David’s network. “Lilian also likes the idea. He’s on a mission as well. He’s part of the High Council of Integration. I don’t have political ambitions. I like to speak my mind and I don’t think politicians can or will do that. You need to be subtle, and understand how the alliances work. That’s not me.”

The finales tomorrow in Rotterdam are the crown on David’s year of hard work. But his moment of satisfaction already came.

“We had just started our football association. We were talking for days about our mission, strategy, values and all that. We needed big words to package our message. And one day, we’re at somebody’s house, the telly is on and we see the Youth News, with a Morrocon kid, really young, who said it in three simple statements. He basically said: when we play football, we dont fight. We bond together and it keeps us from using drugs.”