Marco van Basten 1988

Double Dutch…Rijkaard and Van Basten celebrate

been playing with Italian clubs at the time of their poll success.

The 1988 campaign is also only the second one in which one nation has managed a clean sweep across the awards board with the Netherlands’ European title-winning boss Rinus Michels scooping the World Manager of the Year award and then the Dutch taking the World Team of the Year crown. The only previous instance was, coincidentally, in the last European Championship year in 1984 when Michel Platini, Michel Hidalgo and the French national side took the plaudits.

Second this year behind Michels in the Manager vote was Jack Charlton, whose success in steering the Republic of Ireland to the brink of the semi-finals

in their first-ever appearance at a major event was appreciated worldwide – just as Arrigo Sacchi’s managerial role at Milan was not overlooked by our readers, for all the publicity granted to Van Basten and Gullit.

PSV, as European club champions, are obvious runners-up to their own national team with Liverpool’s consistency again earning a top three place.

MARCO VAN BASTEN PROFILE

Born in Utrecht, Van Basten joined Ajax from amateur side Elinkwijk in 1981, quickly making his Ajax firstteam debut at the age of 17 as a substitute for Johan Cruyff.

He first came to international attention in the 1983 World Youth Cup finals in Mexico. He scored 128 league goals for Ajax at a rate of almost one a game before being sold for £1.5 million last summer to Milan.

Van Basten’s potential was so obvious in his teens that Ajax were able to sell 1982 Golden Shoe winner Wim Kieft a year after he was crowned Europe’s top marksman. Van Basten’s most remarkable spell was at the start of the 1983-84 season when he scored 12 goals in his first seven league games, including a hat-trick in an 8-2 win over Feyenoord. He went on to total 28 goals that season and finished as Golden Shoe runner-up to Ian Rush.

In 1984-85 he scored 22 league goals and hit five in a single European

Cup tie against Red Boys of Luxembourg. In 1985-86 he won the coveted Golden Boot himself thanks to 37 goals in 26 league games. Last season he collected another 31 and not only captained Ajax to victory in the European Cup Winners’ Cup but scored their winner in the final against Lokomotive Leipzig.

Milan bought him, despite competition from Barcelona, Roma and Werder Bremen, to replace Mark Hateley. He missed most of the season because of injury but returned for the run-in to score several vital goals as substitute. To top that, Van Basten then ended the European Championship finals as the top scorer with five goals as well as the top player’s crown. Keir Radnedge

Van Basten’s decisive contribution to Milan’s thrilling Italian league title takeover was followed by his even more spectacular

influence on the Netherlands’ European Championship triumph

Top 10 Players of 1988

Player Club

Country % of vote 1) Marco van Basten Milan Netherlands 43 2) Ruud Gullit Milan Netherlands 21 3) Frank Rijkaard Milan Netherlands 7 4) Ronald Koeman PSV Netherlands 6 5) Alexei Mikhailichenko Dynamo Kiev Soviet Union 5 6) Diego Maradona Napoli Argentina 2.3 7) Gianluca Vialli Sampdoria Italy 2.2 8) Alexander Zavarov Juventus Soviet Union 2.1 9) John Barnes Liverpool England 2 10) Romario PSV Brazil 1.2

Top three…numbers 8, 9 and 10 – Rijkaard, Van Basten and Gullit

Other World Soccer Award winners 1988

European champions… Dutch delight

TEAM OF THE YEAR: Netherlands

Managerial masterclass… Michels

MANAGER OF THE YEAR: Rinus Michels, Netherlands/Bayer Lever kusen