Oranje 1974: Arie Haan

There are as many opinions as there are fans. Some like the 1998 squad best, others dote on the current team, but for most connoisseurs the 1974 team will always be the best football has seen.

We’ll have a look at the players…

Arie Haan was not an obvious choice for the starting line up. Haan was still young and played midfield at Ajax. Rinus Michels had a choice of the best libero’s in the world for the WC1974 (Rinus Israel, Aad Mansveld, Epi Drost, Barry Hulshof) but they all got injured.

Michels needed to improvise and only weeks before the WC, he decided to play Haan ( a midfielder) and Rijsbergen ( a debutant) in the heart of defense. Many people claim, that it was Johan Cruyff who came up with the idea. “We wanted to press forward and therefore had a huge space behind our defense. We needed young and fit defenders to cover the area. Also, with Jansen and Nees on midfield, we felt we could cover the center position and by adding a more football-player type libero we could get the upperhand of the games,” JC would later explain.

Arie (Arend (Dutch word for Eagle) Haan is an Aquarius, born in Groningen. He scored 6 goals in 35 internationals. A player with a tremendous amount off silverware and a remarkable number of nicknames. Arie Bombarie ( Arie Mayhem), Golden Cock ( Cock = Haan ), Haantje de Voorste (meaning someone who will always go “me, me, me!” ), shrewd Arie… The media in those days: “Wherever there’s trouble, Haan appears. And whereever Haan appears, there’s trouble.”

He himself would say: “I perform best under stress, in a hostile environment…”

Arie Haan operated in a hostile vibe his whole career. At Ajax he clashed with Rinus Michels. Haan came from a socially active background in the North, where communism amd poverty reigned, and was an intellectual and free-thinking spirit. Michels had difficulties getting Haan to get with the program. At Anderlecht, Haan clashed with Rob Rensenbrink, who’s a labrador really… And he fought wars with Willem van Hanegem, Eric Gerets, Hans Kraay…well..with everyone.

But he will be remembered as the formidable midfielder with the tremendous right foot. In 1978, he made headlines all over the world with that twice. He hit the ball from an extreme distance behind Sepp Maier – not a slouch – and some days later he repeated the feat, this time with Italian legend Dino Zoff. No one who saw those goals will ever forget them and it brought Oranje into another WC finals.

It was Johan Cruyff who made Kovacs at Ajax – and the public – aware of Haan’s qualities. “That lad has gunpowder in his shoes. Watch him, he’ll develop himself tremendously and he will demonstrate his rockets from distance.”

With Rinus Michels, Haan was told to pass and move. Receive the ball and play it into a player who can do something with it. Which meant: play it to Muhren or Cruyff. But later on it appeared that Haan was not a workhorse in midfield – although he was that too – but a playmaker. He didn’t get the chance to demonstrate that in Amsterdam, where left when the players couldn’t decide who’d be their new leader after JC left for Spain.

His libero position at the WC was a gamble. “I’m honest about this, they may or may not work out,” Michels said in those days. But it worked. Behind the tough-as-nails Wim Rijsbergen Haan demonstrated his multiffunctionality. He could defend, build up, score, give assists and organize.
He wasn’t the most elegant of players (stiff in the hips, didn’t have the typical football players’ legs and always run with a slump in his back), but he sure could play ball.

At Ajax however, he was even used as a striker, when JC left for Barcelona.

Haan left for Anderlecht and there he became the leader, the playmaker, the skipper… The big Sir, as they say in Belgium. He won championships in a row in Belgium, first with Anderlecht, later with Standard.

Haan would return to Holland to play for PSV Eindhoven, which he did with great gusto. His last stint as a player was in Japan where he played for Seiko.

Haan played two WC finals, and seven (!) European Cup finals, winning five. Apart from the WC finals he only lost twice with Oranje. Haan: “I actually lost three international games with Oranje. The Argentina finals ended in a draw!”

Haan should have played more games for Oranje. He retired twice and twice he decided to return.

Haan kept on surprising the world and at a certain point he was the Dutch player with the most silverware, something he’d always drop in interviews. “Cruyff may have been the best, but I won more. And that’s what football is about.” The biggest stain on his career was the bribing-debacle in Belgium. Standard bought a game (against Waterschei) and mist players and staff were caught and charged. Except Haan. He was the only one who claimed to not know about it. Later he’d admit he did know, but he quickly announced that his words were taken out of context.

And that was also Haan: he used and played the media like no other. When he was coach at VfB Stuttgart, he launched a new plan. No more free interviews. “People pay for a newspaper and the newspapers don’t pay us. We will handle our press-activities ourselves and if a journalist wants an interview, he’ll have to pay.”

After his active career, he wanted to start a business (in carpets) but he decided to become a coach. At first, he was successful, at Anderlecht, Feyenoord and VfB Stuttgart. With Stuttgart, he reached the UEFA Cup finals but lost against Maradona’s Napoli. He would make more enemies with the way he operated and he started to take on more obscure coaching jobs. He was team manager of China and Albania and worked as club coach in Greece, on Cyprus, for Persepolis and in Austria. Today, he works for Chinese side Chonqin Lifan. He still officially resides in Stuttgart.

Thanks to Matty Verkamman’s book “The Internationals” from 1999 ( published by Thomas Rap)

Omdat ie zo lekker is… (Because it’s so yummie…):