The Dutch ambivalence towards modernity in football
The Dutch ambivalence towards modernity in football
By Nick Lichtenberg
The Barcelona-Arsenal tie made me consider the importance of the Dutch football tradition, but it wasn’t until this week that the prominence of Dutch players and coaches in the Champions League became tangible, in contrast to the complete absence of English footballers. At least half of the remaining clubs are dominated by the Dutch, either in the form of players or ideas. Bayern Munich looks to have settled under legendary manager Louis Van Gaal, formerly of Ajax and Barcelona, and in turn his countryman Arjen Robben is increasingly influential (a “talisman,” one might say). At Inter Milan, Jose Mourinho has entrusted the creative role in central midfield to Wesley Sneijder, whose departure from Real Madrid along with Robben last summer is fast becoming infamous.
Finally, although Barcelona features no Dutchmen in its starting lineup, the club’s style of play is directly descended from the Dutch club (Ajax) and national teams of the 1970s: Ajax and Dutch manager Rinus Michels coached the star player Johann Cruyff at Barcelona later in the 1970s, and then Cruyff managed the team in the 1990s, which included current mastermind Pep Guardiola. The current Barcelona’s unusually nationalistic composition (Guardiola is Catalan, as are five to six of the usual starting XI) marks a sort of historical culmination: the Dutch style of play has become an integral part of Catalunya’s football culture.
Nationalistic stereotypes are legion in soccer: the English are physical and aggressive, the Germans tough and efficient, the Italians defensive and disciplined (some might say cynical), the Brazilians are exuberant. But what is this elusive Dutch “style”? Why did this relatively small country fall in love with football and become a worldwide influence on the game?
