Enlarge image
Wim Jansen in the Elftal jersey
Photo:
Work / IMAGO
He hardly ever gave interviews, so others had to speak for him.
Or even sing.
"Willem de Zwijger" was called Wim Jansen, you don't have to translate that, or "quiet Willem", there's even a song about him that's called that.
And the great Amsterdam singer-songwriter and football fan André Hazes, who is no longer alive either, once made a famous appearance in the stadium in front of 60,000 fans, singing the praises of the country's celebrities.
The song begins like this: »Hans van Breukelen, van der Sar, Neeskens and Wim Jansen.«
He was undoubtedly one of the greats, this Wilhelmus Marinus Antonius, Wim Jansen for short, in Team Oranje, for which he played 65 times and held the national record with 14 World Cup appearances for many years, but above all for Feyenoord Rotterdam.
There he let his actions speak, for 15 years he did his work in midfield, half left, half right, where the coaches wanted him to be.
Modern football under Happel
Jansen was born in Rotterdam, grew up with Rotterdam, this city, which is so different from the other Dutch cities, badly damaged by the German bombings in World War II, then rebuilt from scratch and became the most modern of the country's cities.
Feyenoord in the 1960s and 1970s was a symbol of this new beginning.
Modern football was played here.
Ernst Happel was the coach, also one who really didn't waste many words, he and Jansen hit it off straight away, the serious young midfielder became one of Happel's favorite students.
Jansen was able to deal with such guys who seemed gruff on the outside, and Bond coach Rinus Michels also took him to his heart.
They probably recognized each other as like-minded people.
He had the best time with Feyenoord, his own and that of the club.
In 1970 he won the European Cup under Happel.
Feyenoord were the first Dutch team ever to win a European Cup, and that 2-1 win over FC Celtic at Milan's San Siro marked the start of the great Dutch period in football.
Looking back, you always associate them with Ajax Amsterdam, with Johan Cruyff and Michels, but Happel and Wim Jansen laid the foundation for that with Feyenoord.
Four years of flowering
The coach and his extended arm worked together for four years, only four years, one has to say, but these four years were Rotterdam's heyday: Feyenoord won the World Cup, celebrated the championship in 1971, Happel did not finish worse than second.
The Austrian left the club in 1973, but the working relationship between Jansen and him did not end there.
As Bond coach, Happel led Oranje to the final in 1978, which the Netherlands lost to hosts Argentina in extra time because Rob Rensenbrink hit the post and missed the goal just before the end of regulation time.
For the worker Jansen it was the second big disappointment, which four years earlier was perhaps even harder to digest.
That big elegant Dutch team, soaring through the tournament, with Cruyff at the helm, but then losing to Germany in the final - and Wim Jansen had his special role in that.
Hölzenbein fell over Jansen's leg
In the 25th minute, Bernd Hölzenbein entered the penalty area with the ball at his feet, Jansen tried to get in his way and scrambled into the German's path.
Hölzenbein accepted the invitation with presence of mind, fell over the leg of the prone Jansen, the referee whistled for a penalty, Paul Breitner ran and scored to make it 1-1.
Dutch dominance ended at that moment and the final found a deserved winner.
The Dutch public didn't blame Jansen, but the quiet Willem later felt the anger of the fans - namely when he was at the end of his playing career, after a year with the Washington Diplomats in the USA with Cruyff , returned to the Netherlands once more – but not to Feyenoord, but to their hated rivals Ajax.
Hit by the snowball
A sacrilege for someone who had previously played 476 competitive games for Rotterdam, for someone who was suckled into Feyenoord with his mother's milk.
When the two clubs met for the first time afterwards, Jansen was snowballed from the Feyenoord curve before the game.
It hit him in the eye so badly that he had to be substituted after a quarter of an hour because he felt dizzy.
He became champion with Ajax anyway.
But that was only a brief episode of cheating.
Feyenoord remained his life, "I left once, but I always came back," says Jansen.
When the club was at its worst, when there seemed to be nothing left of the old glory and relegation threatened, Jansen took on the task and became the coach of his old love.
And of course he brought success back, just a year later Feyenoord won the cup.
Technical director, advisor, scout, youth coach, Jansen later did all of that for and at Feyenoord.
In between there were stations abroad, for a year he coached FC Celtic, the club that Feyenoord had beaten in the 1970 final.
He ensured that the club became Scottish champions for the first time in ten years in 1998, signing club legends Henrik Larsson and Paul Lambert as team managers.
They never forgot him at Celtic either.
Johan Cruyff said of Wim Jansen, who died on Tuesday at the age of 75 of complications from dementia, that he was one of the four people he listened to when they talked about football.
Quiet Willem didn't need big words for that.
