Adrie Koster is 71. So am I. He is a manager again. Me, I read my weekly at the friterie (chip shop). Each to his own.
He takes over the Schouws elftal. A one-off side, local amateurs who play professional clubs in pre-season. Volendam, Groningen, NEC, Dordrecht, in recent years. People who work all week against people paid to run. In 1980, we called that a match. Nobody gave it a name.
What I appreciate is the path. He was born on Schouwen-Duiveland. In 1977 he played for the Zeeuws elftal (the Zeeland XI), a selection of the same kind, and he was spotted during a match. Not on a four-minute video. On a pitch. Someone was watching, and that was enough. Then more than a hundred matches at the top level, three caps for the Netherlands.
Then the dugout. Willem II, Roda JC, Excelsior, RKC Waalwijk, Ajax. And Club Brugge, in 2009, up to second place. I’m not criticising. I’m comparing. He has gone all the way round and come back to where he started. That is rare. Stadiums change their names and never come back.
He said, according to Voetbalkrant: “You obviously have years of experience in football as a coach. Then you hope to give those players something they might be able to use in the future. That’s really the driving force.” No project. No new dynamic. Giving something to players. I read it twice. I hadn’t heard that sentence in a long time.
Silly question, but… how did people get recruited back then?
There is one thing I don’t have from my time. According to the source, the idea came from a joke: the team was looking for a coach, someone mentioned his name. In 1980, nobody joked about a bench. Note that I’m not against humour. I’m against that humour. Except it worked.
Well. It’s the times.
It’s true, we checked: Voetbalkrant.
