Comments on: Wondergoal+: Jari Litmanen

By: Jan

Jan — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:27:58 +0000

But who’d have to leave the team… In 1998, it was very crowded with great players: Dennis, Cocu, Patrick K, Ronald de B, Clarence, Davids…pffff… But in 1996, he would have won us the %^&* cup

By: s

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 16:45:10 +0000

@Jan. Completely agree. I started watching 90’s Ajax because of Litmanen. He was so involved in the game. A great scorer, Huntelaar reminds me of him in that aspect. Good in defense and stoic. If only he had played for Holland. Always thought that the dutch team of 90’s had one missing component …him. They would have won it all

By: Jan

Jan — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 09:24:51 +0000

I can really emphasize with that. This guy had skill, vision, goal-scoring abilities and a great work rate. It was all about the team. It was never tricks for the sake of trickery. A very smart and serious pro. Wish he was born a Dutchman.

By: Oriental Meteor

Oriental Meteor — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 02:32:21 +0000

Marc once said that he considers his former teammate Jari Litmanen as one of the greatest players ever.

By: Oriental Meteor

Oriental Meteor — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 02:29:15 +0000

@Jan: Marc suffered a serious right knee injury in 1996 in an Eredivisie game although he did not knock against anyone. He hit gainst an ad banner, if my memory serves me right

By: Jan

Jan — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 02:15:04 +0000

Good man, Jari! FC Lahti, that’s where it all began for the kid. After he had to chose between ice hockey or football.

I can see Jari join Dennis, Danny and Marco at Ajax as a youth coach one day…

By: dirk v.d.berg

dirk v.d.berg — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 14:44:01 +0000

He still plays for the Finnish national team too, and recently scored a goal against Bulgaria i believe.

By: finnster01

finnster01 — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:08:45 +0000

@Carlos: thanks, and I enjoy reading yours too. Sorry to hear that you have a soft spot for little men with red hair in skirts, but thats OK Joking aside, I spent 4 years in Glasgow at University and went to watch many a Celtic – Rangers derby. The old firm as they call it, is the scariest I have ever felt on a soccer ground. You literally had to watch everything you said, could not wear anything blue or green in case you walked into the wrong pub by accident etc. The passion of the fans, it was just incredible. Ajax – Feyenoord, even back in the hooligans days, was Sunday school compared to it. Never seen anything like it, and that includes Liverpool – Everton, Arsenal – Chelsea, and Barca – Real Madrid. Haven’t done Inter – AC yet, but hopefully that will happen also.

Jari Litmanen is still playing.

After a very unsuccessful 6 months stint at Fulham last season where he didn’t play a single game for the first team (injuries, including a bad pump of all things…), he now plays in the domestic Finnish league for FC Lahti.

He has scored something like 4 goals in 3 matches…I guess the old dog still knows how to bark

By: Jan

Jan — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:16:47 +0000

That’s right! What happened with Marc in 1996? Injury?

By: Oriental Meteor

Oriental Meteor — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 08:49:57 +0000

@Jan: Peter Hoekstra joined Ajax in 1996 in order to replace injuring Marc Overmars (and also replaced Marc’s position in Oranje squad at EURO ‘96).