Dutch Masters: Adrie van Tiggelen

Adrie now…

EC1988 winner Adrie van Tiggelen is assistant coach at Sparta and is a happy trooper. “Head coach Foeke Booy allows me to do the training often. He just observes, while I do the work. I keep track of progress and discuss the program with him. When Aandewiel was coach, the board asked me to become assistant but I refused. I didn’t click with Aandewiel, and that was my main reason to say no. But with Booy, it works out just fine.”

Adrie is born and raised in Oud Beijerland, one of the islands of the Zuid Holland province, close to Rotterdam. “I played in the first team of OSV Oud Beijerland when i was 15 years old. I was a fast right winger. I played on all positions in the team and even played one game as goalie.” Sparta scouts Tiggel when he’s 20 years old. Why did it take so long? Van Tiggelen: “That’s a funny story. My cousin Adriaan van Tiggelen also played in the first team. He was a big boy, a center striker. Slow and not too skilled technically. When scouts came to our games, they’d ask which player was A. van Tiggelen and depending on who they asked, they’d either point at me or my cousin. That’s why Sparta and other clubs had lots of puzzling and conflicting scouting reports on me. Some would say I was slow and the next week a report came in saying I was very fast. Sparta decided to ignore those reports. It took years before they realized what the situation was….”

Van Tiggelen was given a spot in Sparta 1 in his first year. The jump from Oud Beijerland to Eredivisie club Sparta wasn’t that big for Van Tiggelen. “Meutstege was the preferred left back but he suddenly left the club. I played one friendly and everyone was happy, so I had my spot. I scored in my first competition game and that was it. I never lost my spot.”

Van Tiggelen demonstrates his speed, ruthlessness and concentration for Sparta for 5 seasons. He plays at all positions in the back and played with the likes of Louis van Gaal, Dick Advocaat, Wim Suurbier, Edwin Olde Riekerink and Gerard van der Lem. Adrie had a special relationship with Van Gaal. “Louis was a great guy. He was a real captain. Organized all sorts of stuff. Fun stuff with the group and wives or contractual issues with the board. And if you’d work extra hard for him on the pitch, you’d have a friend for life. Louis did have his clashes with Rene van der Gijp whenever he did something stupid, but he always had to laugh about it. When I see him nowadays on the telly, I sometimes think: come on, man, act normal…”

Van Tiggelen received several offers and decided to move to FC Groningen. In that period, Van Tiggelen is invited for Oranje for the first time, for a match against Belgium. He is 26 years old already, but would still play 56 international games. Groningen coach Han Berger would give Adrie his nickname, the Nail. Not only because of his tough play, but also because of his lean and mean posture. In 1986, Johan Cruyff calls him. He wants the Nail to come and join Ajax. “I was really honoured by that and my heart wanted to go, but Anderlecht also contacted me and their offer was substantially better than Ajax’. Arie Haan was coach at Anderlecht and they were doing better than Ajax in those days.
I’ve played 5 years for Anderlecht and won many prizes there. I loved it there, although Anderlecht wasn’t a warm club. They celebrated their 100 year existence recently and I expected to get an invite but I didn’t hear a thing.”

Van Tiggelen is in superb form in 1988 and is part of Michels’ squad for the EC1988. “I never actually realized how big that event was for Holland until that celebration tour in Amsterdam. I don’t think I played a remarkable tournament. I did what I had to do, and that’s it.”

The EC1988 was a peak in Adrie’s career, the WC1990 was a disappointment. Van Tiggelen is extremely annoyed with the shenanigans of the KNVB officials, denying the internationals the preferred Johan Cruyff as their coach. In a VI interview, Van Tiggelen says: “If we become the world champs and the KNVB honchos show up at the party I will personally kick them out of the venue.” The KNVB puts pressure on team manager Beenhakker to send Van Tiggelen home. Don Leo refuses and uses the Nail in his starting line up. “I respected Beenhakker. He backed me in that discussion. Man, what a bunch of clowns, these officials. But the WC was a disaster. There was no unity whatsoever. Beenhakker later claimed that 75% of what happened never came out. Well, I’ll tell you…there was no 75%. That’s all Leo’s bullshit. The 75% that went wrong is probably Leo himself.”

After 1990, Van Tiggelen has a couple more successful seasons in Brussels. “I played with some top players there. Scifo, Munaron, Degryse, Grun and later Luc Nilis. Our chairman was like the pope. You weren’t supposed to talk to him. When I got an offer from France, I approached him, Constant Vandenstock, with it. He listened to me and was very nice. But at Anderlecht, players didn’t talk to the chairman. The next day, the assistant coach told me that I was never ever supposed to do that anymore. My transfer to France was not on, hahahahaaa….”

Van Tiggelen would clash with Aad de Mos at Anderlecht and he decided to move to PSV. “I was to be the replacement for Stan Valckx, who was very popular in Eindhoven. But the fans quickly turned around when they saw I could still cut it. Bobby Robson was our coach. A lovely guy. He would sometimes snooze off during team talks, but we didn’t care. He was a very nice bloke.”

Tiggel was also part of the EC1992 squad with Rinus Michels. Oranje is beaten in the semis - totally unexpected - by the Danes. We’d won 3-1 against Germany in a great game. Some boys went out to party and had a couple of drinks. I think we lost the tournament in the bar.” He retires from international football after that tournament. Advocaat wants to convince the Nail to come back but he refuses. “I was 35 years old. I’m not the come-back kid. It was enough.”

Hans Westerhof becomes PSV’s coach and the current Vitesse coach clashes with superstar Romario. In the next season, Aad de Mos is signed. He decides he won’t be needing Van Tiggelen and Wim Kieft. “He is not straight. When I was injured, he pleaded me to work hard to come back and when I was fit he never used me. He will tell you what you want to know, but he’s never honest.”

Adrie moves to FC Dordrecht but that adventure wasn’t successful. “I knew it was a step back, but this was something I hadn’t expected. The training complex, the pitch, the coach even…they couldn’t care less there. I played my last game away against Volendam. Not quite a grand farewell. On the same day, Frank Rijkaard retired from Ajax, in a different fashioin.”

But, Van Tiggelen is satisfied with his career. “Of course! I wasn’t the best player, but I had my added value. I played in the top of Europe, in Oranje, I won an EC… .What more can you ecpect? And nowadays, my type of player is rare. Boulahrouz is the only one iin the Dutch squad that I can see. Most defenders want to solve problems in a football-way. I always wanted to play as simple as possible. You don’t see that anymore.”

Any more goals for the Nail. “Not really. I’m happy. I don’t have the ambition to become head coach. I live my life, on Saturdays I have a beer at the club in Oud Beijerland, and watch my sons play in the first team of Strijen with the wife… No, I’m good.”

When Anderlecht - with Adrie - was European top: versus Barca….

Sources: VI, Wikipedia, Internet, YouTube