Rinus Michels

Marinus "Rinus" Jacobus Hendricus Michels OON (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈmɪxəls]; 9 February 1928 – 3 March 2005) was a Dutch association football player and coach.^[1] He played his entire career for the club AFC Ajax, which he later coached, and was a member of the Netherlands national team both as a player and as manager.

Michels became most notable for his coaching achievements, having won the European Cup with Ajax and the Spanish league with Barcelona, and having had four tenures as coach of the Netherlands national team, which he led to reach the final match of the 1974 FIFA World Cup and to win the 1988 UEFA European Championship.^[1] He is credited with the invention of a major football playing style and set of tactics known as "Total Football" in the 1970s,^[1] and was named Coach of the Century by FIFA in 1999.^[1]

Playing career

Michels was born in Amsterdam and grew up at the Olympiaweg, a street near the Olympic Stadium. He celebrated his ninth birthday on 9 February 1936, when he received a pair of football boots and an Ajax jersey. Moments later he was playing with his father at a small field near their home.^[2] Via Joop Köhler, a friend of the family who was commissioner at Ajax, Michels was introduced to the club and became a junior member in 1940.^[2] When World War II started, and specially during the Dutch famine of 1944, Michels' career was set on hold.^[2]

French club Lille OSC had also wanted to contract Michels, but a playing career abroad didn't materialize as the Royal Netherlands Army did not allow him to go because he had to serve on active duty.^[2]

Ajax first team

Rinus Michels (1954)

On 9 June 1946, Michels was invited into Ajax' first team squad to replace the injured Han Lambregt. In his debut, Ajax beat ADO 8–3 and Michels scored five times.^[2] That season Ajax won their fourteenth division championship and a year later they won the Dutch national championship.^[2] Although there were doubts about Michels' technical skills, team members like Cor van der Hart and captain Joop Stoffelen were enthusiastic about his strength and heading capabilities.^[2] Indeed, Michels was characterized for his hard work rather than for his technical qualities.^[3]

He went on to become a regular for the club, and between 1946 and 1958, he appeared in 264 league matches for Ajax, in which he scored 122 goals.^[2] In 1958, four years after the introduction of professional football in the Netherlands and one year after winning his second league title he was forced to end his career due to a back injury.^[2]

National team

Michels' international playing career with the Netherlands national team lasted five matches, making his debut on 8 June 1950 away to Sweden, losing 4–1.^[4] He also lost all of his remaining matches as an Oranje player, 4–1 to Finland, 4–0 to Belgium, 6–1 to Sweden and 3–1 to Switzerland.^[4]

Coaching career

Michels returned to Ajax as head coach in 1965. Under his tenure and along with great players such as Johan Cruijff and Johan Neeskens, Ajax went from relegation candidates to a team that won the national championship four times and the KNVB Cup three times in the following six years. In 1969, they reached the final of the European Cup for the first time, being defeated 4–1 by Italian side A.C. Milan. In 1971, he managed Ajax's to the first of three consecutive European Cups, a feat only achieved previously by the great Real Madrid team of Alfredo Di Stéfano and Ferenc Puskás. While at Ajax, Michels modernized the game by introducing what became known as "Total Football" and using the Offside trap. He then moved to Barcelona in the second part of 1971, being joined by Johan Cruijff in 1973. With Michels and Cruijff, the team won the Primera División title in 1974, before Michels became manager of the Dutch national team.^[1]

1974 World Cup

Michels was appointed national coach by the KNVB after the Netherlands had qualified for the 1974 FIFA World Cup. His first game as the Netherlands' coach was on 27 March 1974, in a 1–1 draw against Austria. At the finals tournament in Germany, their third ever World Cup participation, the Dutch impressed many observers with their style of play which was backed up by their results; they won their first round group, then in the second round group they defeated Argentina and the defending world champions Brazil, and reached the final after five wins and one draw, with 14 goals scored and only one conceded in six matches. At that point, Michels was undefeated in nine matches as the Netherlands' coach. The Netherlands scored first against West Germany in the final, but the host team came back to defeat them 2–1, ending their run. That match was the last of Michels' first tenure in charge of the Dutch team, which he would return to coach ten years later.

Later years

Michels later moved on to the United States where he coached in the ill-fated North American Soccer League. He ended his club coaching career with Bayer Leverkusen in 1989. He had his jour de gloire however, when he coached the Dutch team to European glory at the 1988 UEFA European Championship.

European Champions

Rinus Michels (right) with his assistant manager Nol de Ruiter at UEFA Euro 1988

Michels returned to coach the team for the Euro '88 tournament. After losing the first group match against the Soviet Union (1–0), the Netherlands went on to qualify for the semi-final by defeating England 3–1 (with a hat-trick by the tournament's top scorer Marco van Basten), and Republic of Ireland (1–0). For many Dutch football supporters, the most important match in the tournament was the semi-final against West Germany, the host country, considered a revenge for the lost 1974 World Cup final (also in West Germany). Michels said, after the match,"We won the tournament, but we all know that the semi-final was the real final". Marco van Basten, who would later become national team coach, scored in the 89th minute of the game to sink the German side. The game is also remembered for its post-match shenanigans, including Ronald Koeman, who, in front of the German supporters, provocatively pretended to wipe his backside with the shirt of Olaf Thon as if it were toilet paper, an action Koeman later did not regret. The Netherlands won the final with a convincing victory over the USSR, a rematch on the round robin game, through a header by Ruud Gullit and a remarkable volley by van Basten. This was the national team's first major tournament win and it restored them to the forefront of international football after almost a decade in the wilderness for almost three years to come.

Death

Michels died, on 3 March 2005, in the City of Aalst hospital in Belgium after a heart surgery in the hospital of Gareth, Spain (his second since 1986).

Personality and legacy

Michels became known as a person who was keen on his money and did not want to spend much of it. A common joke in the Ajax changing rooms in these days was: "Does anybody actually know the color of Michels' wallet?".^[2] His IQ was high and during foreign trips he always brought a book with him, which he wanted to have read completely before coming home.^[2] He was known as someone who did not need anybody and who felt happy on his own, but sometimes he joined his team mates and shared their enthusiastic friendships.^[2] At the celebrations of Ajax' 50th birthday in 1950 he was the organizer of the humoristic show that was held and during traditional parties he and his friend Hans Boskamp climbed up the stages to sing some duets.^[2] After matches he was always soaping himself down in the showers of the changing rooms as well, even when the match was lost.^[2]

Michels was also known as a practical joker. At a hotel he once borrowed a fur coat of a lady and pretended to be a lady to his team mates.^[2] During a training session in Lille the players went fishing and Michels, who did not enjoy himself, jumped into the water.^[2]

Due to his authoritarian style as coach, Michels was called The General. He said, "Professional football is something like war. Whoever behaves too properly, is lost."^[5] This has often been misquoted as "Football is war." Michels felt the quote was taken out of context as he did not intend to equate war with football.^[6] Michels was named coach of the century by FIFA in 1999.^[1]

The Rinus Michels Award, which rewards the best managers in Dutch football, is named in his honour.

Quotes

• Professional football is something like war. Whoever behaves too properly, is lost. Often misquoted in the form "Football is war".^[1][6]
• It is an art in itself to compose a starting team, finding the balance between creative players and those with destructive powers, and between defence, construction and attack – never forgetting the quality of the opposition and the specific pressures of each match.^[7]

About Michels

• "Both as a player and as a trainer there is nobody who taught me as much as him. I will miss Rinus Michels. ... I always greatly admired his leadership." Johan Cruijff^[8]

Career statistics

Honours

Player

Ajax^[9]

• Eredivisie: 1946–47, 1956–57

Manager

Ajax^[9]

• Eredivisie: 1965–66, 1966–67, 1967–68, 1969–70
• KNVB Cup: 1966–67, 1969–70, 1970–71
• European Cup: 1970–71; Runner-up: 1968–69
• UEFA Intertoto Cup: 1968

Barcelona^[9]

• La Liga: 1973–74
• Copa del Rey: 1977–78
• Inter-Cities Fairs Cup Trophy: 1971

1. FC Köln^[9]

• DFB Pokal: 1982–83

Netherlands^[9]

• UEFA European Championship: 1988
• FIFA World Cup Runner-up: 1974

Other

• Named Knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau: 1974
• Named Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau: 1988
• Named World Soccer Awards Manager of the Year: 1988^[10]
• Named Dutch manager of the century: 1999
• Named FIFA Coach of the Century: 1999^[1]
• Named Knight of the KNVB: 2002
• UEFA Lifetime Award: 2002^[11]
• Best Manager in 50 years of professional football in the Netherlands: 2004

References

External links

• Sven Goran Erikson's tribute to Rinus Michels (3 March 2005)
• Rinus Michels profile and stats at Wereld van Oranje (Dutch)

Netherlands squads
Netherlands squad – 1974 FIFA World Cup Runners-up 1 Geels 2 Haan 3 Van Hanegem 4 Van Ierssel 5 Israël 6 Jansen 7 De Jong 8 Jongbloed 9 Keizer 10 R. van de Kerkhof 11 W. van de Kerkhof 12 Krol 13 Neeskens 14 Cruijff (c) 15 Rensenbrink 16 Rep 17 Rijsbergen 18 Schrijvers 19 Strik 20 Suurbier 21 Treijtel 22 Vos Coach: Michels Netherlands squad – UEFA Euro 1988 Winners (1st Title) 1 Van Breukelen 2 Van Tiggelen 3 Troost 4 R. Koeman 5 Winter 6 Van Aerle 7 Vanenburg 8 Mühren 9 Bosman 10 Gullit (c) 11 Van 't Schip 12 Van Basten 13 E. Koeman 14 Kieft 15 Koevermans 16 Hiele 17 Rijkaard 18 Suvrijn 19 Krüzen 20 Wouters Coach: Michels Netherlands squad – UEFA Euro 1992 semi-finalists 1 Van Breukelen 2 Van Aerle 3 Van Tiggelen 4 Koeman 5 Blind 6 Wouters 7 Bergkamp 8 Rijkaard 9 Van Basten 10 Gullit (c) 11 Van 't Schip 12 Kieft 13 Menzo 14 Witschge 15 Winter 16 Bosz 17 De Boer 18 Jonk 19 Viscaal 20 Roy Coach: Michels