Danny Koevermans looks back with a special feeling on an Eredivisie match in 2006 against Feyenoord in De Kuip. The striker, who has since retired, played with AZ against the team from Rotterdam at the time, who took a 3-2 lead just before time. “I was standing in the center circle at that moment, and then, as I felt the ground shake, one second went through my head: this is mighty beautiful, isn’t it?”, says Koevermans Football zonereporter Mounir Boualin, who looked back on his career with the former striker of AZ and PSV, among others.
Boualin and Koevermans talk about De Kuip, which Louis van Gaal called ‘old junk’ last year. Koevermans disagrees. “Isn’t it the most beautiful stadium in the Netherlands?”, responds the born Schiedammer. “It was a pleasure to play in De Kuip. I had a match there with AZ on Saturday evening, in which we were really better than Feyenoord. But then Feyenoord scored 3-2 fifteen minutes before the end. I was standing somewhere in the center circle at that moment, and then, as I felt the ground shake, one second went through my head: this is mighty beautiful, isn’t it? Ooh no, shit, we’re 3-2 down, we’ve got to make 3-3. That was really not normal, I’ve never felt that anywhere else. That thing exploded. Of the big three, Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord, I think De Kuip breathes football the most.”
During his active career, Koevermans played for Sparta Rotterdam, Toronto FC and FC Utrecht in addition to AZ and PSV. If it had been up to Koevermans, Ajax would also have been in that list. Koevermans replies to the statement ‘I would have liked to come out for Ajax’, put forward by Boualin: “Yes. If you are a professional football player and a club like Ajax comes… Of course, I have been at AZ and PSV and I come from the Rotterdam area. I understand that you have a certain club feeling, but when you get older, you think: it’s your profession, you’re a professional… And if a club makes a nice offer, why wouldn’t you?‘”
In total, Koevermans came to almost three hundred official matches in a club context. In addition, he played four international matches, in which the Koef scored once. Should he have played more international matches in his opinion? “No”, Koevermans answers honestly. “My international career ended just before the 2008 European Championships. I then dropped out in the last four, and I could live with that completely. If I wanted to be there, I should have delivered in the league, but I didn’t play well and didn’t score enough. I thought it was an incredibly beautiful privilege that I was allowed to participate in six games and that I was even allowed to play four times. That remains incredibly special, and I am more than satisfied and proud of that.”