Willem van Hanegem, working class hero

Last week, Willem van Hanegem’s biography was published. The first print was sold out in one day! As you read this, the second print is being published. Johan Derksen, co-author of the book, on Van Hanegem in his vi-column.

“When I gave Johan Cruyff’s biography to Willem, he immediately went to sit in a silent corner of the RTL Studio (where Willem and Derksen tape their Voetbal Insite tv-show) and he silently enjoyed the old photo’s. Like the team photo of the world team in 1975, when Willem played with players like Pele, Amancio, Altafini, Eusebio and Johan Cruyff.

It always strikes me as odd that great players like Johan and Willem don’t collect stuff on themselves. As active players they weren’t interested in memorablia, but now, while in their sixties, they highly enjoy those old pictures. In my view, Cruyff and Van Hanegem were the best Dutch players ever. This unique duo put us on the world map in the 1970s. Of course, Abe Lenstra, Faas Wilkes…they were greats too. But in those days, Oranje had great difficulties winning against Luxembourg. And the heroes of the 1980s, Gullit, Rijkaard and Van Basten, can’t even stand in the shadows of their famous role-models.

Cruyff is seen as the best Dutch player ever. There is no doubt, although it does seem to be a bit of an injustice towards Van Hanegem. Willem had charisma. And because of that, he still is an incredibly popular working class hero. Even Cruyff still speaks of Willem with full adoration. If our Number 14 had an off-day, the team suffered. If that was the case, Willem stepped up to the plate with creative of physical solutions. A flying tackle, a header-duel. Willem had the power and the character and mentality Cruyff lacked. Not only was he an extremely gifted player, he was also as strong as an ox.

Willem never went to school, but life was his university. He is a 100% intuitive person. He was as a player, as a coach and as man. And his strength is, he always remained the uncomplicated Utrecht kid. I never met anyone with a personality so strong and well-balanced.
You just gotta love Willem. Whether on tv, during training, on the golf course or at his home. He may annoy you now and then, but you can’t ever get mad at him.

Willem was born in February 1944 in Breskens, Zeeland.
Seven months after his birth, the English bombers by mistake bombed Breskens and decimated his family. As a player, he started his career at Velox in Utrecht. Via Xerxes he came to Feyenoord. He would return there after adventures at AZ Alkmaar, Chicago Sting and FC Utrecht. As a coach, he worked at all levels… Amateurs (Holland), Feyenoord (champions in 1993), Al Hilal (dollars), AZ (great football), Sparta, Oranje and FC Utrecht. He would be the only person to have coached all the teams he played for (both Velox and Xerxes don’t exist anymore).

His life is a life of ups and downs. He was a millionaire and then lost it all. He was kicked out of clubs and asked back in as a hero. He divorced the most famous football wife (Truus) but is in the mean time happily married for years with Marianna, his manager. Marianna is a successful artist (painter).

The first book is handed out to cancer specialist Ben de Pauw, connected to the Radboud hospital in Nijmegen. He was a baby in Breskens, in 1944. Willem’s dad shielded the baby off the bombs. After the dust settled, baby Ben was unharmed. Willem’s dad Jacobus was hit by a grenate-shrapnel and died.”