Marc Overmars surprises the world

A member of the board of a football club putting on his jersey…. It seems Go Ahead Eagles has the world premiere of such a feat. Marc Overmars has decided to return to pro football at 35 years old.

Overmars ended his career abruptly in the summer of 2004. Shortly after the EC in Portugal he decided to call it a day after a very successful and lucrative career, taking him from Go Ahead to Willem II, Ajax, Arsenal and Barcelona. His knee didn’t want to cooperate anymore. Life as a world class pro player was too much and despite being under contract in Catalunya, the rapid winger gave his contract back to Barcelona. “No more” the body cried.

For four years, Overmars hardly touched a football. He trained once a week with ex-Feyenoord and Oranje player Paul Bosvelt with the Eagles group and would sometimes rock up with some benefit or tribute team.

“I am the most surprised,” Overmars smiles after having made his decision public. “This is a weird scenario. Maybe someone wants to make it into a movie or documentary. It really started to itch after Jaap Stam’s tribute game. I played against Ogararu, who’s not a shabby defender, of Ajax and I thought…hmmm…. I highly enjoyed myself in that game and was surprised everything went so well. The days after that game, it was a madhouse. The phone kept ringing. Clubs from Holland and even from Germany wanted to know if I wanted to make a come-back. People at Go Ahead started to ask me as well… I couldn’t stop thinking about it and my heart said YES… Now I only have to convince Paul Bosvelt to come back.”

Overmars doesn’t have a lot to win, only a lot to lose… He knows that. “I do feel the Eagles have something to win here. Maybe I can make the difference when it’s 0-0 or 1-0. And I have to wait and see what the body really says. After the Stam-match my body ached for two days, but funnily enough, I missed that feeling. When I told my eight year old son I’d return to the game, he was really worried. He wanted to know if people would kick me in the shins. So I told him people have been doing that for 15 odd years or so.”

This Friday, Overmars will return in an official match against Fortuna Sittard at home. “Well, that’s for the coach to decide, at the end of the day,” Overmars jokes. His coach, Andries Ulderink, is clear: “We have a separate trainings schedule for Marc. On training sessions he still shows he’s got the goods and then some. Overmars is a huge added value for us.”

Camp Nou in Barcelona, Anfield Road in England and now then De Lange Leegte in Veendam (the Long Emptiness)… Quite a difference. Overmars: “I don’t really care. Whether I play for 100,000 people or 200, for me it’s about the game. I never played for the money, always for the love of the game. The smell of the grass, the comradeship in the dressing room, the sound of the ball hitting the post or the net… I’ll see where this ends. To me, it’s just fun. And, I never officially retired as an international so I do expect to see the new Oranje team manager soon…” And with that trademark smile on his face, he walks away…