Maurice Steijn winds up at the table on Monday evening Veronica Offside make no bones about it: the Sparta Rotterdam trainer thinks Pierre van Hooijdonk is ‘an asshole’. In this way, Steijn hits back at the analyst, who has not had a good word for the Sparta coach since their collision at NAC Breda. “I definitely think Pierre van Hooijdonk is a dick,” says Steijn after a question from presenter Wilfred Genee.
Steijn worked as a trainer of NAC for exactly one year from the summer of 2020. In that period, the coach did not always have a starting place for Sydney van Hooijdonk, the son of former striker Pierre, who is a member of the Supervisory Board at the Bredanaren. From May 2022, Steijn has been working as a trainer at Sparta, where he has achieved unparalleled results ever since. The club currently occupies sixth place in the Eredivisie with more points than the club ever had at this stage of the season.
Van Hooijdonk joins in Studio Football, where he is a regular guest, never positive about Steijn. “You can also be successful in football if you are just a six as a trainer and you have good players,” said Van Hooijdonk recently, when Sparta’s excellent performance was discussed. In another broadcast of the talk show, Steijn was fully praised by Van Hooijdonk’s colleagues. “I’m silent”, was the only thing that the former striker himself added to that discussion.
Steijn hits Monday when he visits Veronica Offside back. “Pierre is of course super resentful towards me because two years ago I didn’t always line up his son, which didn’t always happen either before or after me. He feels called to bring me and Sparta down on television at all times. It’s getting a bit laughable and pathetic when you see him busy at the NOS. You expect people who sit at the table to give their opinion independently. Pierre of course has double agendas and can never say anything independently. Again, it is getting a bit sad. At some point it has to be finished. NAC has moved on, I’ve moved on. But Pierre can’t let it go.”