Arnold Muhren looks back at the 1988 EC

February 8th, 2010 | by: Jan | Comments (18)

The name Muhren is a famous one in the little fishing village of Volendam, just north of Amsterdam. Along with names like Tol, Veerman and Tuyp. You were either a famous musician ( The Cats) or a famous football player, if you were born with that surname.

Focusing on football here, the most famous Muhren was Gerrie. The older of the two brothers was picked up by the Ajax youth system when young, but when the Muhren family negotiated with Ajax, their claim was clear. If you want Gerrie, you have to take Arnold as well. In that way, the shy and humble brothers would find it easier to survive in the big smoke. Well, at Ajax – arrogant at best – Gerrie didn’t need his ego, mouth or personality to survive, his feet were good enough. Arguably the most technically skilled player ever – in the same vein as Vanenburg, Edgar Davids and Ronald de Boer – Gerrie Muhren quickly made a name for himself. Add to that the workrate of aforementioned Davids and you have the ideal left midfielder, ready to support the hot/cold Piet Keizer and the drifting Johan Cruyff. Gerrie Muhren became immortal in the annals of Ajax by humiliating Real Madrid in the Bernabeu by keeping the ball up his foot a number of times, taunting the Madrid players to take him on. No one did.

Classic stuff, although Richard Witschge’s keepie-uppies against Feyenoord are sensational as well

Younger brother Arnold was slower in his development. Wasn’t able to football his way into the Ajax 1 team and simply didn’t have the apparent skills and work-rate of his brother.

Arnold left Ajax, to play for FC Twente. The rest is history of course. In those days – like today – Twente was a force to be reckoned with. Frans Thijsen, Theo Pahlplatz, Jan Jeuring, Epi Drost…. Famous names in Dutch football. When Muhren left Holland to join Ipswich Town, he’d become a sensation in England, alongside his buddy Thijsen.

The Dutchmen brought continental football to England and their intelligence and passing skill changed the way English football would develop, opening the door for players like Ardiles and Bergkamp to add more cosmopolitan ingredients to the mix.

Manchester United recognized the brilliance of the 30+ years old leftie and signed him to add intelligence and composure to the team. Muhren would be the first Dutchman to win the FA Cup. In 1985, the 34 year old was in his last year at the Red Devils and Mr Ajax Sjaak Swart wanted to commit Arnold Muhren to play for Old Ajax ( Lucky Ajax). Muhren remembered the phone-call well: “I said, what to do you mean “Old Ajax”? I’m still playing my games for Man United, Sjaak! I could probably play for Ajax before I join the oldies….”. Sjaak Swart took the bait and told Arnold that he’d whisper it in Cruyff’s ear, who was Ajax’ head coach at the time.

Muhren: “Johan was thrilled. He called within 10 minutes and jumped at the opportunity. With Ajax, I had wonderful peak at the end of my career, resulting in my selection for Oranje in 1987.”

After winning the European Cup, in 1988, Muhren did a typical Muhren thing. The team would meet the Royal Family for celebrations and festivities at Paleis Soestdijk, but Muhren bailed. “I hadn’t seen my family for weeks. I decided I’d rather spend time with my own family.”

Muhren should have been one of the key people to celebrate. The midfielder was the oldest player ever to win the European title ( 37 years and 23 days old) and he is one of those players who was able to retire at a high. He only played 23 international games in his career and his last was a victorious finales, in which he gave the assist for the winning goal, most probably among the finest goals ever scored. He will always be seen as the Man of the Cross.

Muhren chuckles: “That was probably my worst cross ever, haha… I didn’t hit the ball right. I needed to give it more sideways spin, with my inside foot. The idea was for the ball to curve away from the goal, for Marco to take it and do something smart with it. The ball was too high and didn’t have enough curve. Any other player would have tried to control the ball and probably drift to the side of the field, to pass the ball back onto a midfielder and re-position. Not Marco though. He decided to do what his mind saw: score a sensational goal. If he would have hit the ball out of the stadium, right into the center of Munich, everyone would have said: Well, what do you expect with such a terrible cross, hahaha….”.

Muhren was selected before, for Oranje, when still at Man United. “Kees Rijvers was the team manager then and he decided not to select players playing in foreign competitions anymore. Can you imagine Van Marwijk saying that now? He later admitted that that was a grave mistake.”

Arnold Muhren was supposed to have played a World Cup tournament, back in 1978. “Willem van Hanegem decided not to go. I was the only other leftie in the preliminary squad and I expected Happel to pick me. Apparently, Ruud Krol – the captain – intervened and advised Happel to pick Ajax midfielder Dick Schoenaker instead. Dick was a tremendous midfielder and I like him as a person and all that, but I still don’t understand that decision.”

At the 1988 EC, Michels started with 4-3-3, with Bosman in the striker’s role and John van ‘t Schip on the left wing. After the defeat in the first game, Michels switched to 4-4-2 and dropped both Johnny’s in favor of Marco van Basten and Erwin Koeman. “But the victory in 1988 was the victory of the whole group. The dynamics and cohesion in the squad were great. The subs played a great part in it. We trained every day at match-level. Players like Schip, Bosman and Kieft were totally supportive of the starters and also the staff around the squad was great and focused. Take it from me, eleven great players will never win a title. It’s the whole you need.”

Muhren explains more: “We had five leaders: Gullit, Rijkaard, Van Basten, Koeman and Wouters were the top dogs. They wanted me assume such a role too, since I had my age and my Man United experience, but I was always a servant in football and I like that role. Everyone accepted their leadership and we were all totally focused. In the past, stuff happened with Oranje. Arguments, money-issues or sponsor issues… Not this time around. We all felt it was an honor to play and we wanted to win a title.”

“After the finals, the KNVB organized a formal party. It was horrible. We were led to this room where all the officials were and the sponsors, but we didn’t even have a table. As if they forgot about us. We were hungry, is what I remember. We slipped into the kitchen and there were those chairs, stackable chairs. We grabbed our chairs there and had dinner in the kitchen. We then slipped away and had a proper party in some discotheque. Only when we came back in Holland did we realize the madness, the sheer joy and celebrations that were going on. We missed all that totally in Germany. That boat trip in Amsterdam was a high point. I couldn’t believe what I saw. And the funny thing is, three days later, in Volendam, I was honored by the mayor. Right before I would go onto the balcony for the ceremony, my little son said: dad, we’re famous now…. And the door to the balcony opened and when we walked on, there were exactly two people on the square. One was simply walking past, on his way to the bakery and the other was sitting there, feeding the birds…”

Where are they now:

Ronald Koeman was head coach for AZ until recently. He’s in between jobs now.

John Bosman is wordwide scout for AZ.

Wim Kieft is coach of AFC’s A1 junior team, assistant coach of Young PSV and tv-analist for Sport1.

Wilbert Suvrijn lives in France and runs a bed&breakfast and deals in antiques.

Joop Hiele is the head of Feyenoord’s keepers’ academy.

Hans van Breukelen is a public speaker and motivational trainer.

Hendrie Kruzen is assistant coach at Heracles Almelo.

Frank Rijkaard is coach at Galatasaray

Sjaak Troost has a company in relationship-marketing.

Wim Koevermans is International Performance Director at the Irish Football Federation.

Ruud Gullit currently is the ambassador for the Dutch bid to get the WC2018 or 2022.

Marco van Basten retired.

Adri van Tiggelen is assistant coach at Sparta Rotterdam

Berry van Aerle is scout at PSV and supporters coordinator for his old club.

Jan Wouters is assistant coach at FC Utrecht

Aron Winter is project ambassador at the KNVB.

Arnold Muhren is youth coach at Ajax.

John van ‘t Schip is head coach at Melbourne Hearts in Australia

Gerald Vanenburg is between jobs.

Erwin Koeman is team manager of Hungary.