Fighting Spirit: The Autobiography of Fernando Ricksen by Fernando Ricksen & Vincent de Vries

Author:Fernando Ricksen & Vincent de Vries [Ricksen, Fernando & Vries, Vincent de]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Autobiography, Biography, Non-Fiction, Soccer, Sports, Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 9780857908124
Google: AK28BQAAQBAJ
Publisher: Birlinn
Published: 2014-05-13T23:00:00+00:00

TEN

ORANGE

UNLIKE BACK HOME AT Rangers, I wasn’t a top dog in the Dutch national squad. There were ten main faces, the rest were more or less hangers-on. I was one of the latter. No worries, I was just happy to be there! I could see that guys like Frank de Boer, Phillip Cocu, Jaap Stam and Edwin van der Sar had an awful lot more experience than me.

The big shots acted accordingly, as I soon found out in Huis ter Duin, the luxury hotel in the seaside village of Noordwijk where we always gathered before an international match. There wasn’t actually such a thing as a hierarchy, but it was obvious that the important players made the rules. Take the seating arrangements: they made it quite clear that I couldn’t just sit wherever I wanted. In order not to behave like a rebel, I always waited for the last available chair.

I almost immediately sensed a few difficulties within the group. Irritations. Lots of them rotated around Edgar Davids, an unconventional chap, it’s true, although I quite liked him. The majority didn’t like the fact that he kept to himself most of the time; they thought he should be more involved in group activity. Well, my view was: different characters, different habits, boys! Edgar was a loner by nature and simply wasn’t a social animal like, for instance, Arthur Numan and Pierre van Hooijdonk. But did that make him a bad guy? Edgar was a phenomenal footballer – and that’s what counted. Same with Clarence Seedorf. A lot of players couldn’t handle his attitude, couldn’t stand the fact that, despite his tender years, he always had an opinion about everything. Well, so he should, he was an incredible footballer!

The coaches didn’t always like his attitude either. One day he clashed with Andries Jonker, trainee of Louis van Gaal at the national squad. But then, Jonker always acted like a schoolmaster who has to do everything by the book, so I could understand Clarence’s point of view.

It was Jonker’s first day as an apprentice when he said, ‘Clarence, you should walk differently.’

I thought, here comes trouble! And, boy, was I right.

Seedorf, undisputedly world-class at that time, couldn’t believe his ears. So he went towards this snotty kid – who was actually older than him but looked younger – and asked him who he was.

‘My name’s Andries Jonker.’

‘Aha. Played any football yourself?’

‘Eh, yes.’

‘At the top?’

Jonker shook his head.

‘Then shut up, will ya?’

And off he went, the only Dutch footballer who would win four Champions Leagues. But not before telling Jonker that he shouldn’t forget to put the plastic cones on the training field ‘as far away from us as possible, please!’

(To his credit, in 2014 Andries Jonker would end up as head of Arsenal’s youth division.)

I never found out why, at a certain moment, coaches decided to leave Clarence Seedorf out of the Dutch squad. Maybe they felt threatened by the enormous amount of knowledge the kid had. But it’s a shame. He ended up with a lousy 87 caps and should have had at least 150.

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