Van Basten can’t stop winning

Marco van Basten is on top of everybody’s world.

Wor ld Soccer’s readers voted him World Footballer of the Year: Milan president Silvio Berlusconi has tied him to a new contract which will keep Van Basten at the San Siro until 1996 and reward him with a basic £1.2 million a year; he is top of the Italian league with Milan; and he is the leading scorer both in Italy and in the Champions’ Cup.

But what makes Van Basten even more remarkable is his apparently limitless ambition. At 28, many players who have earned only a fraction of the £20 million which has gone Van Basten’s way are thinking of reducing their commitments. Van Basten, however, still thinks of the achievements around the comer.

He says: “It would be wonderful to win the World Cup in the United States in 1994. England are our big rivals in the qualifying competition. But I think we will qualify. In the finals our coach will be Johan Cruyff and that, for me, would be a dream come true. He was my original tutor at Ajax and I consider him one of the best coaches in the world. He is also my best friend in football and it would be wonderful to win the World Cup with him.

“A lot of players win the World Cup and immediately retire from their national team. A lot of the Germans did that in Italy in 1990. But I can’t envisage doing that. I’m a very competitive individual. I expect to be in England for the finals of the next European Championship in 1996.”

Van Basten admits the rigours of being a centre-forward are not always to his liking. He says: “If every defender who marks me gave me the same sort of battering as Jurgen Kohler (Juventus and Germany) then I would have retired into midfield years ago. Pietro Vierchowod of Sampdoria is another of those defenders who gives me hell. But if I ever get depressed I think of Pele. He was the greatest player I’ve ever known and he always played in attack. If it was good enough for him, then it’s good enough for me.”

Van Basten is, indeed, the new king of football – inheritor of a crown which has been passed from one wonderful footballer to another in his 28-year lifetime. In the late 1950s and early 1960s the world No.1 was Real Madrid’s Alfredo Di Stefano. Next came Pele, Cruyff and Germany ’s Franz Beckenbauer. Briefly, the world game was under the reign of Argentina’s Mario Kempes. Then along came Michel Platini of France, followed – in all his grief and glory – by Diego Maradona.

Now the mantle has fallen on a lean and hungry centre-forward who is serving up performances of a style and execution unmatched by anyone else in the game.

The evidence was clearly provided the very week Van Basten was voted World Player of the Year, taking the form of the four marvellous goals he cracked home for Milan against Gothenburg in the Champions League.

At a time when football fitness and tactical refinements have reached a zenith, Van Basten’s achievements defy all logic. But even he is not always guaranteed success. Looking back at the European Championship finals last summer, when the Netherlands lost on penalties to Denmark in the semi-finals, he says: “I played some of the best football of my life in those finals but it’s goals that count.

“I didn’t score in the finals so I had the whole world on top of me – particularly after I missed the vital penalty against Denmark.

“Yet I still believe we were the best side in Sweden. No other team played football the way we did. Our biggest mistake was in having a big celebration after we beat Germany in the group match. For several days after that game our training camp was like a big party. Playing against Denmark didn’t seem to be that important. And we paid the penalty. I felt ill for days after the tournament because of what happened. I’d never felt like that before.

“Probably because of that I’m all the more determined to win the Champions’ Cup again with Milan and to win the World Cup.”

Van Basten is world famous for his football. His private life he protects. He is the only one of Milan’s three Dutchmen still with the partner he brought to Italy and he and Liesbeth have two daughters.

At first they lived in a luxury apartment in the centre of Milan. Then Van Basten, very much the thinking man’s footballer, realised that this was too restrictive for his family – particularly when he was away so much of the time. So he moved them out to the satellite town, Milano 3. Van Basten, too, is happier there. He likes the nearby countryside and the open air life. Perhaps that’s why Van Basten, when he’s not playing football, enjoys golf so much.

He is one of Dutch football’s best golfers but he harbours no illusions that he might have made a living at the sport. His original ambition was to be a top gymnast. As a youngster he never dreamed of becoming a professional footballer.

Then, along came Cruyff. He saw his own leadership qualities reflected in Van Basten and, at just 22, the old Cruyff appointed the “new Cruyff” as Ajax captain. In 1987 he not only collected the European Cup Winners’ Cup after Ajax’s victory over Lokomotive Leipzig in the final, it was Van Basten who scored the decisive goal.

A few weeks later Ajax could hold him no longer: after 128 goals in as many games Van Basten was sold to Milan for £1.5 million. The price looks ridiculous now.

But at the time Van Basten was seen as very much the junior partner at Milan alongside their other new Dutchman, Ruud Gullit. Indeed, in his first season in Italy injury restricted him to only 11 games and his three goals were meagre contribution indeed to Milan’s championship success.

Thus it was hardly any wonder that Netherlands manager Rinus Michels was not ready to rely on him to shoot goals for the Dutch in their opening match of the 1988 European Championship finals against the Soviet Union in Germany.

Netherlands lost 1-0 and Van Basten appeared only as a second-half substitute. He was bitterly disappointed. He even considered walking out on the squad until Cruyff arrived to advise patience. Cruyff was proved absolutely right. Next time out, against England, Van Basten started the match and duly converted the hat-trick which all but decided the group.

In the semi-final Van Basten scored the late, decisive winner against West Germany and in the final, in Munich, he scored with a wonderful volley in the 2-0 defeat of the Soviet Union.

Van Basten says: “That day a dream came true. Even though I say it myself, it was a marvellous goal. Unrepeatable. I can still hardly believe it.”

No wonder Netherlands won the European final. No wonder Van Basten was voted World Footballer of the Year. No wonder he was voted European Footballer of the Year. No wonder rumours abounded that Cruyff wanted him for Barcelona. No wonder that Berlusconi soon had Van Basten tied to a new contract.

Berlusconi knew exactly what he was doing. The multi-million contract appeared a bargain when, a year later, Van Basten scored two typically graceful goals in Milan’s 4-0 rout of Steaua Bucharest in the Champions’ Cup final and collected a winner’s medal again in 1990.

Last season Van Basten was the Italian League’s top scorer with 25 goals and he is heading for a repeat this term as well, as Milan stride out ahead of all competition in both Italy and Europe.

Marco van Basten is in a class of his own.

Why

Van Basten

Words: Keir Radnedge