In Vloggertje, presenter Mounir Boualin visits famous faces from football. This time he is a guest of Danny Koevermans, who was a feared striker at AZ and PSV, among others, and even managed to get to the the Dutch squad. In the interview, the four-time international talks about his experiences with Louis van Gaal and the irreparable break with Fred Rutten.
He had not foreseen that Koevermans would eventually make it that far. “I never really dreamed of becoming a professional football player. It’s kind of originated. It has come to me. I wanted to stay with my amateur club and go out. At the time I was still working at the PTT and I stopped after three months. Then Sparta came for the second time and I thought: let me try. At Sparta I started as an amateur in the second half and within five weeks I had a four-year contract. After that it just went up. I never expected to make it to where I’ve kicked it all.”
AZ and Louis van Gaal
Moved after five years at Het Kasteel the kuf to AZ. During his period there, he even made it to international level, which he found difficult to comprehend. “It was kind of disbelief. I had just mentioned that everything kind of happened to me. The transfer from Sparta to AZ happened to me. Louis van Gaal became a trainer there and in my second year at AZ I became top scorer. Then the Dutch suddenly joined… How is that possible? I was selected and had to pinch myself.” His highlight in the Dutch came on November 17, 2007, when he would score the only and therefore winning goal in the European Championship qualifier against Luxembourg.
At AZ, Koevermans was part of the team that lost the championship on the last day of play in 2007. The Alkmaarders had to win ‘a while’ at Excelsior to win the title, but eventually lost 3-2 to Woudestein. “The first two or three chances were ours”, Koevermans recalls. “After that Boy Waterman got red and we had to continue with ten men. In the end we made it an exciting game, but in the 94th minute the curtain fell because Excelsior made the 3-2. I can still remember a lot from that day. The sadness, the disbelief, the missed opportunities… I really thought that would be my only chance ever to become champion.”
“Everything fell to pieces”, Koevermans continues. “That was really terrible. The following week we had to play the cup final and I remember that Van Gaal was angry in the dressing room. Shouting, cursing… He started to involve everyone: ‘It’s your fault! you counted!’ “He was really blazing. And to be fair: we played the cup final against Ajax a week later and then AZ was just there again. Only yes, we lost that one too, after penalties.”
Koevermans can still recall the necessary memories of Van Gaal. “Koevermans: a three. We played with ten men again today’. That’s how it went then.” The current national coach of the Dutch is the best trainer he has had for Koevermans. “Absolute. Especially on the field. Then I ignore the message I received from him that I was actually not good enough, because that was not so much fun. After the last game in the play-offs, I heard that from him in a personal conversation, and I remember it very well. ‘Your level is here, and the level AZ wants to go to is here. You’re not good enough.'”
Van Gaal’s message eventually led to Koevermans’ departure from AZ. Van Gaal said: ‘It’s unbelievable what I’m going to say after so many goals and assists, but you can look forward to another club. But, you’ve done so well this season, we’re going to extend and upgrade your contract. I can still look forward to another club, because I think I should be honest with you as a person.” Then I suddenly became a commodity from a valued player of AZ. Then they suddenly had to earn as much money as possible from me over my back.”
PSV
Koevermans then moved to PSV, where his relationship with former trainer Fred Rutten eventually broke down. “He said, ‘You’re off tomorrow and you have to join the second on Monday. Then I walked in on a trainer for the second time in my career and said I disagreed. At Fred Rutten I did something that made our relationship unbearable. I’ve said, ‘I can’t refuse work, so I’ll go on the field at the second and, it’s very sad, but then I won’t do anything. Marco Roelofsen was the trainer at the time and Erik ten Hag was the assistant. It became a kind of power play. Then the bond between Rutten and I was finished.”
Mounir Boualin is a freelance football vlogger, video journalist and presenter. For Voetbalzone he makes interviews about matches.