 Jansen in 1978 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Wilhelmus Marinus Antonius Jansen[1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Date of birth | (1946-10-28)28 October 1946 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Rotterdam, Netherlands | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Date of death | 25 January 2022(2022-01-25) (aged 75) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Place of death | Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht, Netherlands | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.65 m (5 ft 5 in) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Position(s) | Midfielder,defender | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Youth career | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| –1965 | Feyenoord | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Senior career* | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1965–1980 | Feyenoord | 415 | (33) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1980 | Washington Diplomats | 27 | (0) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1980–1982 | Ajax | 49 | (0) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Total | 491 | (33) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| International career | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1967–1980 | Netherlands | 65 | (1) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Managerial career | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1987–1988 | Lokeren | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1990–1993 | Feyenoord | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1995–1996 | Sanfrecce Hiroshima | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1997–1998 | Celtic | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wilhelmus Marinus Antonius "Wim"Jansen[1] (Dutch pronunciation:[ʋɪmˈjɑnsə(n)]; 28 October 1946 – 25 January 2022) was a Dutch professionalfootball player and manager.
As amidfielder ordefender, he spent most of his career atFeyenoord, winning honours including theEuropean Cup in1970. He earned 65 internationalcaps with theDutch national team and played in the teams that reached the1974 and1978FIFA World Cup finals.
Jansen served in several roles at Feyenoord, including winning theKNVB Cup in consecutive seasons as manager in the early 1990s. He also won theScottish Premier Division atCeltic in1997–98.
He spent most of his playing career with his hometown team,Feyenoord, between 1965 and 1980. At Feyenoord, Jansen won fourLeague Championships, oneDutch Cup, oneUEFA Cup in1974, and theEuropean Cup in1970 when Feyenoord defeatedCeltic 2–1 inMilan.[2] He scored once in the1969–70 European Cup campaign, opening a 2–0 home win overA.C. Milan in the second leg of the second round, as Feyenoord overturned a 1–0 loss from the first game.[3] He was thecaptain of their 1974 team which defeatedTottenham Hotspur 4–2 on aggregate.[4]
After a brief spell in theNorth American Soccer League with theWashington Diplomats, he moved to Feyenoord'srivalsAjax, where he won a league title in1981–82.[2] His debut for Ajax was against his former club inDe Kuip in December 1980; a fan of Feyenoord threw an icy snowball at Jansen's eye during warming-up which finally resulted in Jansen being substituted within 20 minutes into the game.[4][5]
Jansen earned his first of 65caps for theNetherlands on 4 October 1967, in a 2–1 loss away to Denmark inUEFA Euro 1968qualifying. He scored his only international goal in his eighth game on 4 September 1968, a 2–0 win overLuxembourg in his hometown for1970 FIFA World Cupqualification.[6]
Jansen played all seven games as the Dutch finished runners-up to hostsWest Germany at the1974 FIFA World Cup, and repeated the feat in1978 as they lost to hostsArgentina.[6] He committed the foul onBernd Hölzenbein in 1974 which allowedPaul Breitner to equalise with apenalty as the Germans came from behind to beat the Dutch.[4] He also played both games of their bronze-medal finish atUEFA Euro 1976 in Yugoslavia.[6]
Jansen mostly played as adefensive midfielder orcentral midfielder, although he was also capable of playing anywhere in the defence, as afull-back, acentral defender or even as asweeper. A holding midfielder, Jansen excelled at breaking up attacking plays from adversaries, getting the ball from them, and covering for his teammates. Despite standing at 1.65 meters (5'5), Jansen's defensive skills along with his tenacity, pace, and incredible stamina allowed him to form a formidable midfield trio at Feyenoord withFranz Hasil andWillem Van Hanegem, and in the Dutch national team, with Van Hanegem and Ajax playerJohan Neeskens. Jansen described his relationship with Van Hanegem as a "blind communication". Van Hanegem remarked that he received all the "smart balls" from Jansen and praised him as a versatile player, noting: "Wim could play anywhere, just not in goal. He was too small for that."[7] Jansen also excelled in offensive duties, such as providing chances for his teammates to score goals.Johan Cruyff considered Jansen to be one of only four men worth paying attention to when they spoke about football.[4] Ajax teammateWim Kieft described Jansen as the "perfect professional".[8]
Jansen began his managerial career at his old club Feyenoord, where he worked as a coach, and then as assistant manager, between 1983 and 1987. He also spent a season as manager of Belgian clubLokeren.[9] In 1991, he returned to Feyenoord as manager, winning theKNVB Cup in1991. The result was a surprise, as the club had been near bankruptcy in the preceding years.[10]
The team also won the cup in1992 and reached the semi-finals of theUEFA Cup Winners' Cup in1991–92.[9] He became technical director in 1992, and his old teammate,Willem van Hanegem, coached the team to the league championship in1993 and the Dutch Cup again thefollowing season. Jansen disagreed with Van Hanegem's physical tactics, and argued with chairman Jorien van den Herik when the coach was given a contract extension. He left to work as assistant manager ofSaudi Arabia alongside compatriotLeo Beenhakker, and also managed Japanese sideSanfrecce Hiroshima, where he struggled with the language.[11]
On 3 July 1997, Wim Jansen was appointedhead coach ofCeltic, replacing the sackedTommy Burns.[12] He was their first manager from outside Great Britain and Ireland,[2] and only the second to have never played for the club.[13] He went on to guide them to their firstScottish league championship in ten years, ending the hopes of rivalRangers to win atenth consecutive championship.[12] Despite winning the league and theScottish League Cup during his only season in charge, Jansen left the club less than 48 hours after the title was secured, as he was unable to work with general managerJock Brown.[14] His most notable transfer was the signing ofHenrik Larsson from Feyenoord.[15]
At the beginning of the2008–09 season, Jansen took up the position of assistant to the head coach of the Feyenoord first team,Gertjan Verbeek.[16] He resigned in solidarity when the coach was fired in 2009.[11]
Jansen was given a Latin name, as is the custom forDutch Catholics, because his family lived with Catholics in the first year of his life. He and his family were not religious, and he would practice kicking a ball at a pole on Sundays while all his neighbours were at church.[1] As a child, he lived on the same street (Bloklandstraat) as Feyenoord teammateCoen Moulijn.[1]
Jansen lived inHendrik-Ido-Ambacht from the 1970s. In late 2021, he released the biographyMeesterbrein ("Mastermind"), written alongside Yoeri van den Busken.[10][11] At the same time, he announced he had been diagnosed withdementia.[17]
Jansen died on 25 January 2022 at the age of 75.[18] His funeral was held four days later at Feyenoord's De Kuip stadium.[19] In January 2024, his son revealed Jansen died byassisted suicide.[20]
| Club | Season | League | Cup | Continental | Total | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Division | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | ||
| Feyenoord[a] | 1965–66 | Eredivisie | 2 | 0 | – | – | ||||
| 1966–67 | 34 | 2 | – | – | ||||||
| 1967–68 | 34 | 6 | – | – | ||||||
| 1968–69 | 33 | 3 | 2 | 0 | ||||||
| 1969–70 | 34 | 8 | 9 | 1 | ||||||
| 1970–71 | 34 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 | ||||
| 1971–72 | 34 | 2 | 6 | 0 | ||||||
| 1972–73 | 27 | 3 | 4 | 2 | ||||||
| 1973–74 | 30 | 0 | 12 | 0 | ||||||
| 1974–75 | 28 | 3 | 4 | 0 | ||||||
| 1975–76 | 26 | 1 | 2 | 0 | ||||||
| 1976–77 | 21 | 1 | 6 | 1 | ||||||
| 1977–78 | 32 | 0 | – | – | ||||||
| 1978–79 | 30 | 1 | – | – | ||||||
| 1979–80 | 16 | 1 | 5 | 0 | ||||||
| Total | 415 | 33 | 52 | 5 | ||||||
| Washington Diplomats | 1980 | NASL | 27 | 0 | – | – | – | – | 27 | 0 |
| Ajax | 1980–81 | Eredivisie | 17 | 0 | – | – | ||||
| 1981–82 | 32 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 36 | 0 | ||
| Total | 49 | 0 | 2 | 0 | ||||||
| Career total | 491 | 33 | 54 | 5 | ||||||
| National team | Year | Apps | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|
| Netherlands | 1967 | 3 | 0 |
| 1968 | 5 | 1 | |
| 1969 | 3 | 0 | |
| 1970 | 5 | 0 | |
| 1971 | 5 | 0 | |
| 1972 | 1 | 0 | |
| 1973 | 1 | 0 | |
| 1974 | 11 | 0 | |
| 1975 | 4 | 0 | |
| 1976 | 5 | 0 | |
| 1977 | 4 | 0 | |
| 1978 | 12 | 0 | |
| 1979 | 5 | 0 | |
| 1980 | 1 | 0 | |
| Total | 65 | 1 | |
| No. | Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 September 1968 | Rotterdam, Netherlands |  Luxembourg | 1–0 | 2–0 | 1970 FIFA World Cup qualification |
Netherlands squads | |||||||||||||||||||
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