Willem van Hanegem

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 an attacking, central and defensive 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 nickname De 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 teammate Rinus 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.

Van Hanegem spent six years at Velox in the Eerste Divisie, playing 109 games and scoring 39 goals. After six years with Velox, Van Hanegem moved from Utrecht to Rotterdam, where he played for Xerxes, 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 coach Rinus 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 rivals Feyenoord, where he would enjoy his greatest successes, and play alongside players such as Wim Jansen, Franz Hasil, Coen Moulijn, Ove Kindvall, Ruud Geels, Theo Laseroms, Rinus Israël, Theo de Jong, Johan Boskamp and Wim Rijsbergen. He also established a father-son relationship with club coach Ernst Happel. With Van Hanegem's playmaking skills, Feyenoord won three Eredivisie titles, a KNVB Cup, a European Cup and an International Cup in 1970 and a UEFA Cup in 1974. Van Hanegem left Feyenoord in 1976 to join AZ '67, where he played for three seasons alongside striker Kees Kist and midfielders Peter Arntz and Jan Peters, winning the KNVB Cup in 1978. He had a brief stint with Chicago Sting in 1979, until he returned to the Netherlands the same year to play for FC Utrecht (a merger of clubs VV DOS, USV Elinkwijk and Velox, the club that he played for in his younger years).…

Van Hanegem played 52 times for the Dutch national team, scoring six goals in total. At the 1974 World Cup, he formed a formidable midfield with fellow Feyenoord teammate Wim Jansen and Ajax midfielder Johan Neeskens; English football writer and novelist Brian Glanville named him his player of the 1974 World Cup. He also played in the UEFA Euro 1976, winning a bronze medal. He was initially selected to play for the Netherlands in the 1978 FIFA World Cup, but after his AZ teammate Hugo Hovenkamp suffered a knee injury, Van Hanegem declined to go. He last played for the national team in 1979.

Van Hanegem was born on 20 February 1944 in Breskens, Zeeland, 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. Whilst losing his own life during the bombing, father Lo saved the life of a baby by covering him with his body; the baby became a professor in hematology later in life and befriended Willem van Hanegem after the story of Willem's father became public in 1992. After the war, Willem 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 senior team.