It takes some getting used to seeing Lex in a different shirt than ADO Den Haag’s, after all. Of course he also played for Feyenoord, Cardiff City and Club Brugge in his career, but it now looked very much like the 34-year-old midfielder would end his career in the green-yellow jersey of his great love. Of course he’ll have to get used to playing in yellow-black from now on, but thanks in part to coach Maurice Steijn he got a good feeling at NAC Breda in no time at all.

By Kalum van Oudheusden and Chris Meijer

The parallels between After all and Steijn are not very difficult to discover. Both were born in Moerwijk in The Hague, both played for a club – after all for LenS, Steijn for VIOS, who merged into the now defunct fusion club HSV Escamp – and both grew up at ADO Den Haag, one from the age of seven in youth training and the other initially in the stands of Midden-Noord in the Zuiderpark. It should come as no surprise that Steijn and After all, who initially worked together between 2010 and 2012 before the latter left for Feyenoord. The two kept in touch, and when the club left Bruges in 2017, Steijn already tried to get him to VVV-Venlo. At the time their mutual love ADO put a stop to a new collaboration, but this summer the two found each other again. Only that happens 75 kilometres south of The Hague.

Steijn and after all in 2012 during their joint time at ADO.

“This was basically an abc’t. You get older and the expiration date of a soccer player runs out at some point. But it still fitted, I knew Maurice would still have me in the back of his mind and therefore expected something from this side. Eventually that came and I feel good about it, that’s why I made this choice”, explains after all in conversation with DAZN and Football zone his choice of NAC. In his own words, the feeling was the deciding factor. “You’re looking at the big picture. Some things have been shouted, you don’t have to do it for the money and that’s a thing for me, because that’s not interesting at all. It was all about the feeling I have at this club. I could have waited another week to make the most of it, but I had five weeks of preparation and I was fit. I wanted to get started right away.”

“Initially you look at quality and Lex and Dion Malone give the selection a great impulse”, Steijn responds to the observation that with After all, Malone, Thom Haye (who by the way only played half a year at ADO) and scout Lex Schoenmaker junior a small enclave in Breda has arisen. With managing director Mattijs Manders there is also someone at the helm with a past in the Hofstad at the moment. “Many clubs will be jealous of that. If those players are in stock and you’ve also enjoyed working with those guys, it’s absolutely ideal. But it’s not the case that we first look at The Hague and then at the rest of the Netherlands. No, we first look at quality or at certain players or positions”.

It was Manders who finally convinced Steijn to choose NAC. The 46-year old rehearsal master was without a club after he got his congé at Al-Wahda in Abu Dhabi after only three games in October. Subsequently, there were several clubs Steijn talked to. “But I didn’t get out of that. In the sense that I had a different idea about how I wanted to lead the team or the staff and get players or not. Well, that’s possible. I didn’t have that idea at NAC. I got a call from Mattijs Manders when I was on holiday and that felt right away. On top of that I have been here as a player and I think this is a wonderful club”, Steijn emphasizes. He pauses for a moment and then continues: “It’s not all that important what didn’t go through, the point is that NAC did go through with it.

Manders had to convince Steijn that peace and quiet had returned at NAC, where technical manager Tom Van den Abbeele and trainer Peter Hyballa were the last victims of the chaos that has gripped the club for years. Manders had only been working in Breda for two months at the time. “Of course we did talk about what kind of club I would join. Eleven trainers in five years, technical and general managers who fought each other out of the tent, Kitchen Champion Division: that was quite a thing. But I have the idea that Mattijs has managed reasonably well, he is a quiet driver. He dares to make tough decisions, but in the interest of the club. We sat down when I was back in the Netherlands and we thought the same about how to lead the club, put together the staff. In that respect, I am confident that things will go better under Mattijs”.

Maurice Steijn: “Of course we talked about what kind of club I would join.”

For Steijn, NAC is not an unknown club at the same time, as he was active as a player in Brabant between 1999 and 2002. “I came from ADO and wanted to play Eredivisie. From the moment I signed, I think I lost every game. I signed when they were ninth and NAC finished the season eighteenth, so then I had to go back into the First Division. Luckily we became champions after that and went back to the Eredivisie,” Steijn laughs. When he returned to Breda this summer, he quickly recognized the club he met twenty years earlier. “I don’t think the club has changed. The warmth, the fanatical supporters: it’s all stayed the same. If you sell twelve thousand season tickets in these difficult times, that says it all.”

“This is a club that belongs in the Eredivisie, especially if you look at the supporters and the stadium”, as his coach said. “I’m well taken care of, the people are warm and I’m starting to find my turn reasonable. Some guys you have to get to know, others I already knew from football. A new environment is always good, you get new insights and get to know new people. If you sit somewhere too long, it might become a rut. You often see that with trainers. You have exceptions, but usually after three years or so you have to see if you can start something new somewhere”.

After all, for the time being, NAC Breda played twice in the basic eleven.

When asked whether NAC is a champion candidate, the answer is somewhat cautious. “You’re playing for the highest achievable, so in this case that’s becoming a champion. But if we manage to promote through the play-offs, there’s no cock crowing at it,” says the midfielder, who made his debut in the game with Helmond Sport (0-2 victory) and was also kicking off in the match against FC Den Bosch (2-1 victory). Steijn understands what is meant after all. “We do want to participate for promotion. If we become second, that is also fine. A beautiful club like NAC has to radiate that. I think I know what Lex is aiming at, because we need to get some more return in the front. The moment we can add one or two more offensive impulses to the team, we can definitely go for promotion.”

A possible title could give NAC a place on the body of After all, as the stork of The Hague has had for years. “That’s a bit premature, a lot of people ask me that. I’m not that keen on it. But I have always said that if I win a prize at a club, I always want to be reminded of it. If I ever get to celebrate a championship with NAC, those are the things I’m considering. They’re beautiful things, as a human being you don’t win a prize like that every day and I do like the memories on my body.”

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