 Van Hanegem in 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Willem van Hanegem | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Date of birth | (1944-02-20)20 February 1944 (age 81) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Breskens, Netherlands | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Position | Midfielder | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Youth career | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Velox SC | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Senior career* | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 1962–1966 | Velox SC | 109 | (39) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 1966–1968 | Xerxes | 68 | (32) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 1968–1976 | Feyenoord | 247 | (88) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 1976–1979 | AZ'67 | 75 | (10) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 1979 | Chicago Sting | 27 | (6) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 1979–1981 | FC Utrecht | 54 | (3) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 1981–1983 | Feyenoord | 51 | (2) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Total | 631 | (180) | |||||||||||||||||||||
| International career | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1968–1979[1] | Netherlands | 52 | (6) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Managerial career | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1990–1992 | USV Holland | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1990–1991 | FC Wageningen (assistant) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1992–1995 | Feyenoord | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1995–1996 | Al-Hilal | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1997–1999 | AZ | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2001 | Sparta Rotterdam | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2007–2008 | FC Utrecht | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
| |||||||||||||||||||||||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Willem "Wim"van Hanegem (Dutch pronunciation:[ˈʋɪləɱˈʋɪɱvɑnˈɦaːnəɣɛm]; born 20 February 1944) is a Dutch formerfootball player and coach who played as amidfielder. In a playing career spanning over 20 years, he won several domestic honours in the Netherlands, as well as both theEuropean Cup andUEFA Cup withFeyenoord. He was also part of the Dutch national team that were runners-up in the1974 FIFA World Cup.
Widely considered one of the greatest Dutch footballers in history,[2][3][4][5] he earned the nickname 'De Kromme' ('The Crooked One' or 'The Bent One'), initially due to his posture as a consequence ofbow legs and later because of his trademarkbent passes and contrarian commentary.[6] Known for his aggressiveness, intelligence and technical playmaking abilities,[7][8][9] Van Hanegem was often praised by contemporaries likeJohan Cruyf.[10] For his significant contributions to the club's rise to domestic and European success, Feyenoord honored Van Hanegem in 2014 by naming one ofits stadium's stands after him.[11]
As a manager, he won the league and cup with Feyenoord and spent a period as the Dutch national team's assistant coach. His most recent job as manager was forFC Utrecht, from 2007 to 2008. He writes a regular column about football forAlgemeen Dagblad, one of the Netherlands' principal daily newspapers.[12]
Van Hanegem was born on 20 February 1944 in Breskens, the son of Lo van Hanegem (1905-1944) and Anna van Grol. During an Allied bombing raid on Breskens on 11 September 1944, his father Lo, brother Isaac and his sister were killed.[13] After the war, he moved to Utrecht with his mother.
During a training session of Velox, he stood on the sidelines and every ball that went wide of the goal, he shot back so accurately that coach Daan van Beek asked him to come and play for the club. Six months later, he played in the club's first team.
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Van Hanegem spent six years at Velox, playing 109 games and scoring 39 goals. After six years with Velox, Van Hanegem moved from Utrecht toRotterdam, where he played forXerxes, which had just won promotion at the Eredivisie. In the 1967-68 season, Van Hanegem was the second best top scorer in the Eredivisie, scoring 26 goals.
Ajax was interested in Van Hanegem's services, but coachRinus Michels refused to buy the player, believing that he was not suited for "modern football" due to his lack of pace and "one-dimensional" playing style. Van Hanegem would instead sign for Ajax's rivalsFeyenoord, where he would enjoy his greatest successes, and play alongside players such asWim Jansen,Franz Hasil,Coen Moulijn,Ove Kindvall,Ruud Geels,Theo Laseroms,Rinus Israël,Theo de Jong,Johan Boskamp andWim Rijsbergen. He also established a father-son relationship with club coachErnst Happel. With Van Hanegem's playmaking skills, Feyenoord won three Eredivisie titles, aKNVB Cup, aEuropean Cup and an International Cup in 1970 and a UEFA Cup in 1974.
Van Hanegem left Feyenoord in 1976 to joinAZ Alkmaar, where he played for three seasons alongside strikerKees Kist and midfieldersPeter Arntz andJan Peters, winning theKNVB Cup in 1978. He had a brief stint withChicago Sting in 1979, until he returned to the Netherlands the same year to play forFC Utrecht (a merger of clubs VV DOS, USV Elinkwijk and Velox, the club that he played for in his younger years). He returned to Feyenoord in 1981, playing for two seasons.
Van Hanegem played 52 times for theDutch national team, scoring six goals in total. At the1974 World Cup, he formed a formidable midfield with fellow Feyenoord teammateWim Jansen and Ajax midfielderJohan Neeskens; English football writer and novelistBrian Glanville named him his player of the 1974 World Cup.[14][15] He also played in theUEFA Euro 1976, winning a bronze medal. He was initially selected to play for the Netherlands in the1978 FIFA World Cup, but after his AZ teammateHugo Hovenkamp suffered a knee injury, Van Hanegem declined to go. He last played for the national team in 1979.
Van Hanegem has one advantage over me. When I have a bad game, I’m useless. When Van Hanegem has a bad game, he rolls up his sleeves and starts tackling.[16]
Willem is a player who can make the game, break the game, can play fast, can play slow. For me, he's a perfect player.[17]
Van Hanegem is widely considered one of the greatest Dutch players of all time, and by some as one of the finest midfielders in football history. Capable of playing as anattacking,central anddefensive midfielder, Van Hanegem was renowned for his tactical insight and was well known for his fantastic passing range and his ability with the ball at his feet. Both his way of sprinting (he had bandy legs), and his skill to give the ball a curve (achieved by striking the ball with the outside of his left foot) gave him the nicknameDe Kromme (The Crooked). Whilst being known for being a playmaker, he was capable of scoring goals (being the second top scorer in the 1967-68 season of the Eredivisie) and also excel in defensive duties such as breaking up plays through tackles. In some occasions, Van Hanegem played as a sweeper whenever his fellow Feyenoord teammateRinus Israel was injured, and would later play the same role in his last years at Feyenoord. Van Hanegem was also known for his leadership skills, workrate and tenacity. His primary weakness was his lack of pace.[18]
After retiring as a player, Van Hanegem joined Feyenoord as assistant manager in 1983 and stayed in the post until 1986. He then joinedFC Utrecht as assistant, before moving toFC Wageningen. He returned to Feyenoord as manager in 1992, winning the league in 1993 and the Dutch Cup in 1994 and 1995.
In 1995, he had a spell as manager with Saudi Arabian clubAl-Hilal, then took the post at AZ'67 in 1997. He joinedSparta Rotterdam in 2001. His stay was short-lived, and afterwards he became assistant manager of the Dutch national side. He was appointed manager ofFC Utrecht in July 2007 and was fired on 23 December 2008.[19]
Van Hanegem was known for rough, passionate play against German sides (before the 1974 final, he exhorted the Dutch side to "stuff the Germans").[20] "I don't like Germans. Everytime I played against German players, I had a problem because of the war."[21] His hatred was summed up after the 1974 final, "The important thing was to beat the Germans by any score, as long as we humiliated them. They murdered my father, sister and two brothers. I am full of angst. I hate them." After the game (with Germany winning 2–1) Van Hanegem was the only Dutch player that left the field in tears.[22] In later years, however, Van Hanegem used a more conciliatory tone, when commenting on the war.
He married Truus de Nijs in 1963 and divorced her in 1983. Willem's son, Willem van Hanegem Jr., is an internationalelectronic dance music artist and DJ. Together with Ward van der Harst, he forms the DJ/producer duoW&W. His other son, Gert van Hanegem, played football professionally at FC Utrecht. Van Hanegem was diagnosed withprostate cancer in January 2018, but recovered in March. He received theOrder of Orange-Nassau in 2024.[23]
| National team | Year | Apps | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|
| Netherlands | 1968 | 4 | 1 |
| 1969 | 4 | 0 | |
| 1970 | 4 | 0 | |
| 1971 | 4 | 0 | |
| 1972 | 5 | 1 | |
| 1973 | 5 | 2 | |
| 1974 | 14 | 0 | |
| 1975 | 4 | 1 | |
| 1976 | 2 | 0 | |
| 1977 | 3 | 1 | |
| 1978 | 2 | 0 | |
| 1979 | 1 | 0 | |
| Total | 52 | 6 | |
| No. | Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 September 1968 | Rotterdam, Netherlands |  Luxembourg | 2–0 | 2–0 | 1970 FIFA World Cup qualification |
| 2 | 3 May 1972 | Rotterdam, Netherlands |  Peru | 2–0 | 3–0 | Friendly |
| 3 | 22 August 1973 | Rotterdam, Netherlands |  Iceland | 1–0 | 5–0 | 1974 FIFA World Cup qualification |
| 4 | 29 August 1973 | Deventer, Netherlands | Iceland | 7–1 | 8–1 | 1974 FIFA World Cup qualification |
| 5 | 17 May 1975 | Frankfurt, Germany |  West Germany | 1–1 | 1–1 | Friendly |
| 6 | 31 August 1977 | Nijmegen, Netherlands | Iceland | 1–0 | 4–1 | 1978 FIFA World Cup qualification |
Feyenoord
AZ'67
Netherlands
Individual
Feyenoord
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