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Would we have become world champions with Jan van Beveren in goal? This is a frequently asked question by older football fans. According to many, Jan Jongbloed was responsible for the lost World Cup final in 1974. He was pierced by the two West German goals. And in the 1978 final, even if he was not guilty, he had no chance with the three Argentine goals.
No, then Jan van Beveren. The Sparta and later PSV goalkeeper dived for each ball, if necessary moved laterally to one side to collect the ball from the top corner on the other side. ‘The Beef’, also known as ‘The Float’. First with bare hands, then with woolen gloves. A great goalkeeper (spectacle) for whom the public – remarkably feminine – went to the stadium. Another nickname: ‘Butterfly in the sixteenth century’.
Van Beveren, who made his debut in 1967, bogged down in 1977 on the paltry number of 32 international matches. He won the UEFA Cup, two KNVB cups and three domestic titles with PSV. But he never played in a European championship or a World Cup. Partly due to injuries, partly due to feuds with his tormentor Johan Cruijff, who only played 43 international matches due to disinterest, sponsor interest or often faked injuries.
In his thick biography Van Beveren: Guardian of Complex Wonders Ruud Doevendans paints a pretty comprehensive picture of the tragic sporting life of the late Jan van Beveren, who would have turned 75 this month. Of his sensational talent, his complicated character, his dramatic relationship with Cruijff and his flight to the United States.
Anyone who reads the book better understands why it failed to live up to its name and fame. The image of the aggressor Cruijff and the victim Van Beveren is nuanced by Doevendans. It was a biting nerf that, even when Cruijff wasn’t around, kept anything but spotless.
“Great Sense of Justice”
Two Amsterdammers born with their hearts on their sleeves. The confident and money-hungry Cruijff who enthralled the press, the public, the teammates – not to mention the many (national) coaches – against the seemingly arrogant but deeply anxious Van Beveren. The Sparta and later PSV keeper has also been busy making money all his life. His transfer from Rotterdam-West to Eindhoven in 1970 involved one and a half million guilders – he was then the most expensive goalkeeper in the world and earned more than Cruijff at that time.
In 1974, there was a first serious collision, when the almost rehabilitated Van Beveren was subjected to grueling recovery training by national coach Rinus Michels (read: Cruijff) on the eve of the World Cup in the Zeister wood. As a result, his knee problems started playing again.
There was a trade dispute going on behind the scenes. Van Beveren denounced Cruijff’s preferential treatment. “We have to get rid of this guy, he’s too difficult, he’s getting way too dangerous,” Cruijff told Michels. Exit Van Beveren.
Thus, Michels and Cruijff were able to put in goal Jan Jongbloed of FC Amsterdam, the less talented but “playing the game”. As a glorified libero, he was a better fit for Orange’s total football than Van Beveren, mistakenly labeled as a line-keeper. With high balls, he gracefully leapt into the air. He only pushed the ball away in an emergency, he preferred to catch the ball. “It’s the choreography as it should be,” was a lyrical report during its promising early years.
Loudmouth of the Amsterdammers
But the stylish keeper did not have an inflexible character. In 1975, on the eve of a qualifying match for the European Championship against Poland, he complained about the big mouth of the Amsterdam team and asked for more votes from the PSV players, who had, after everything, overwhelmed the players of Ajax in the Eredivisie. It seemed like a reasonable request. With celebrities like Willy van der Kuijlen and twins René and Willy van de Kerkhof, wasn’t he as good as the ‘Ajacied’ Cruijff, Johan Neeskens (also in Barcelona), Ruud Krol and Wim Suurbier? The pundits agreed with the PSV players. According to others, they suffered from the Calimero complex: “They are big and I am small”.
A new riot is born. Cruijff, unaccustomed to contradiction, was furious and resentful. He got his revenge when Van Beveren was partly responsible for the 4-1 loss to Poland the following day. “I didn’t play well and made mistakes,” Van Beveren watched NRC. He didn’t mention that Cruijff was completely out of shape. He didn’t admire the man, but he admired the footballer. Despite their bickering, he remained the best for him.
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Read alsoWilly van der Kuijlen’s obituary
Cruyff demanded an apology
Conversely, there was less admiration. Cruijff demanded an apology for the comeback against Poland – which he didn’t get. Cruijff fanned the fire and mobilized the suburban football press. Tired of all these intrigues, PSV players Jan van Beveren and Willy van der Kuijlen decided to leave training camp on the eve of the comeback against Poland (3-0 victory, with Piet Schrijvers in goal).
“Even if you think you’re within your rights, you can’t beat Cruijff,” Van Beveren said decades before Louis van Gaal explained the unequal battle in almost the same words. The many harassments have left deep marks. “Of course, there were only a few [Ajacieden], they controlled my life,” Van Beveren writes in his biography. “A lifelong frustration,” her father said.
After refusing the World Cup this time for “private reasons”, he was invited to Hilversum in the summer of 1978 to commentate on the group match against Peru. But when the Dutch TV audience (from above the rivers) became aware of this, many threats followed Sports in the studioboss Bob Spaak has called PSV manager Ben van Gelder. The guest commentator was kindly but urged to return home.
traitor
He had been denounced as a coward, hypocrite, swindler and traitor. He would stay for PSV for another two years – and be whistled in away games or (at Ajax) pelted with bicycle chains. “That’s it” , he expressed his decision to emigrate decades later in an NOS documentary by Mart Smeets.
After a short-lived and successful adventure with the American professional club Fort Lauderdale Strikers, he led a fairly anonymous existence in Dallas and its surroundings for nearly thirty years. He worked in the stamp trade during the day and gave training (goalkeeping) in the evening.
He was quite happy there, with his (grand) children and his second American wife. The homesickness he didn’t know. He visited his parents at most once a year. And said: “If they let me down in the middle of the Netherlands, I wouldn’t know where to go. Yes, at Schiphol, for the first plane back to the United States.
Van Beveren died in the summer of 2011 in Texas at the age of 63 from a heart attack. He was found hanging over his laptop with a cigarette between his fingers. He received a fine tribute from the youth teams he had coached there. They had adored him, the parents praised his gentle nature and his attentive ear.
How different the reactions were in his native country. In his first club Emmen – he made his debut there at the age of fourteen in the first – a stand still bears his name. And at his last Dutch employer, the PSV hangs a “bad taste” wall sculpture. At the national office in Zeist, nothing reminds of the best potential goalkeeper the KNVB has ever represented.
And yet, he was proud of every international match in which he was not injured or passed. So proud that in 1999 he took part in the “match of the century” organized by Cruijff in the Arena. Other former internationals saw him quietly sitting alone in the back of the team bus en route to the stadium. It wasn’t Cruijff’s fault this time, he acted remarkably well. Danny Cruijff, on the other hand, would have looked at him badly. And that woke up the hypersensitive Jan van Beveren.
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