Ronald Koeman The Making of a Born Winner and the Influence of Cruyff

The Footballing Journey of Ronald Koeman Has Been Trophy-laden, Underpinned by a Fierce Will to Win as Is Revealed in This Exclusive Interview With Everton Magazine

- Brian Doogan

There is a black-and-white photograph that sits in the manager’s office at USM Finch Farm of a young Ronald Koeman wearing the shirt of his father’s club, FC Groningen, with his arm around the shoulder of his older brother, Erwin, in the colours of PSV Eindhoven. On several occasions over the years they played on opposing teams. This meeting was the first. He was 18, Erwin 19.

“Groningen needed a draw to avoid relegation from the Dutch Eredivisie,” the younger Koeman reflects with a smile. “We won.” Ger van Gilder, one of his youth team coaches, once described the young Koeman as having “a burning allergy to losing” but Guus Hiddink, who coached him when he, too, moved to PSV, put it another way: “Ronald had this extreme urge to win. He liked to go to the edge of what was permitted.” Even when it meant confronting his mentor, Johan Cruyff.

Cruyff was so instrumental in Koeman’s life that he says he “can never say enough” about him. “A few days after his passing, I posted an old pic on Twitter,” he reflects. “I did it daily as a tribute, but this pic is special. Johan is on the ball for Ajax and I’m the young FC Groningen player who will take the ball off him in that moment. We set up an attack and we got a penalty, which I scored. I scored two goals that day and, as a thank you from Soren Lerby, he elbowed me in the face – I was knocked out but no worries, I saw it as a compliment! It was my first encounter with Johan. And ever since he became my mentor. Funnily enough, Johan made his debut in Groningen for Ajax and was man-marked that day by my dad.”