Where are they now: Bryan Roy

Bryan Roy played 32 caps for Oranje. Developed at Ajax, he played for Foggia, Nottingham Forest and Hertha BSC. The former left winger tells us about past, present and future.

PAST
“My first game for Holland was in September 1989 and I can’t say I have great memories. We played Denmark at home and right before the game manager Thijs Libregts walked up to me and criticized me a tad. I was still a young lad and I remember I was trembling. Frank Rijkaard saw what happened and came over to me, and said: “It’s only a game, Bryan, relax…”. That was pretty cool and it did help. I’ve played great games with Oranje, like the homegame against England, qualifying for the EC. My absolute highs are the WC1994 and the EC1992. There’s nothing bigger than that for a player, I think.”

PRESENT
“I retired in 2001. I was only 32 years old, pretty young actually. I returned from Germany and I played for NAC for one season. I actually wanted to close off my career at Ajax or PSV, but they weren’t interested. I had a nice year with NAC. Whether we won or lost, the fans were always singing and dancing. I wasn’t used to that. I didn’t really enjoy the “whatever” mentality and decided to quit. I now play an occasional game with Lucky Ajax or the Ex-internationals. That’s really fun.”

“Becoming a coach is not so much an ambition, but I did get my license. Leo Beenhakker asked me in 2002 to become a youth coach at Ajax. I started with the Ds, did the Es and got the B and C youth after that. As a coach, I’m emotional, passionate, critical and enthusiastic. I want them to become better players. Details are everything and I use emotion a lot in my coaching. Whether it’s anger or joy… I think I resemble my old coach at Foggia - Zeman - the most, but Van Gaal and Cruyff were also influential. I’m not sure if I ever want to be a head coach… For now, I’m at the perfect spot at Ajax.”

FUTURE
“I watch every game Oranje plays. We play good, fresh football and with cracks like Sneijder and Van Persie it’s a joy to watch. I don’t want to make any predictions for the WC, the qualifications are still on, you know… At tournaments, you need a flow. We had it in 1992, we had a tremendous group and still we dropped the ball. We could have and should have won against Denmark, but hey…that’s life. Any team can lose against any team at that level. It’s hard to say where Oranje is… We always have it tought against nations that refuse to play… And you know, we Dutch…anything worse than the finals is a disappointment, right? We’re just a small football nation, but we played a WC finals twice and won the EC once… We can be proud of ourselves…”