Once in Oranje: Rene Hofman

We discuss the big names of Dutch football here regularly, but we’ve seen many bit-players wearing the orange jersey. Some only once… In our series, this time it’s former Roda JC and Feyenoord winger Rene Hofman.

It’s December 19, 1982. Oranje plays and EC qualification game against Malta. It’s an away game. But Malta would like to see a full house and decides to play the home game in…Aachen. Only 5 kilometers from the Dutch border. Never before were there 17.000 fans at a Malta home game. For Rene Hofman, it’s really a home game. His home is only five minutes away from the Aachen stadium.

Highpoint
This would be the highpoint in Hofman’s career, which mainly plays out in Limburg. The right winger plays ten seasons for Roda JC and two seasons for Fortuna Sittard. In between, he’d play three seasons for Feyenoord. He can’t remember a lot of that particular match. “I do remember it was horribly cold. We had a friendly against France earlier on. I was selected for that game too, but didn’t get any minutes. I loved to, they had big name players, like Michel Platini. Two years later they’d win the EC in France. I started against Malta. I was surprised by that. I wasn’t that good you know. I’d become a better player with aging, like wine, haha… It’s weird that I was called up then, and never when I was more experienced.”

During his stay with Oranje, he was timid and humble. “I was a dominant lad at Roda. I would always pick my socks as the first player. Call it superstition, but that was the pecking order. At Oranje, I would wait till the rest did their thing, and then I would pick my socks. Little things. My type of playing resembles Robben’s. I wasn’t that good, haha, but I was selfcentered and always looking out for a solo or dribble. In Oranje, I was a bit too timid, I think. Like Robben, I wasn’t tall and a tad lean, so it was easy for defenders to get me off balance. I was fast and light, so I’d be on the ground a lot of the time.”

Crosses
He wasn’t too satisfied with his game in Oranje. “We won, 6-0. My task was to service striker Kees van Kooten, well…I didn’t have one assist that game. I was distraught when I won 2-0 and I wasn’t involved with the goals, so you can imagine how I felt after this game.” After 66 minutes, team manager Kees Rijvers would replace Hofman by a very young Ruud Gullit. “That was pretty special, looking back. I never ever played another international game and Ruud would become this world class superstar…”

“I’m happy with my career, although I think I could have made more out of it. But in those days, it wasn’t as easy as now. With internet and all that tv coverage, players like Drenthe and Bruma are being signed by big clubs. I think I played a couple of seasons in Roda’s first team, scoring prolifically, before some foreign clubs came to inform. Not that I was keen to move. I loved playing in my home region. Feyenoord was a big step for me already, but it was great. Not an easy time, but I was a tad older and more in balance. When things go well in Rotterdam, it’s a players’ paradise. When it’s not, it’s hell. The fans are loyal, but also very critical. If you work hard, they’ll accept you. And although I was a technical and speedy winger, I also had a good work rate.”

Today, Hofman works as sports instructor with mentally disabled people. He still has his match shirt in the cupboard somewhere. “I didn’t frame it. Nah…I’m not sentimental like that. I have a shirt of all the clubs I played for, and also a Dutch Team jersey.”

Statistics:

19 december 1982

Malta – Nederland 0-6 (0-4).

Score: 21. Ophof (pen.) 0-1, 24. Van Kooten 0-2, 34. Hovenkamp 0-3, 39. Schoenaker 0-4, 50. Schoenaker 0-5, 71. Van Kooten 0-6.

Referee: Dieter Pauly.

Holland: Piet Schrijvers; Michel van de Korput, Bennie Wijnstekers, Hugo Hovenkamp, Edo Ophof; Peter Boeve, Dick Schoenaker, Gerald Vanenburg (66. Jurrie Koolhof); René Hofman (66. Ruud Gullit), Kees van Kooten, Pierre Vermeulen.