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In conversation with John Heitinga

It's official: Ajax has appointed John Heitinga as interim coach. Heitinga has come a long way: grabbed awards with Ajax, been named Footballer of the Year, played in three major soccer countries, participated in five final tournaments, and with 87 caps and 7,031 playing minutes, he is in the top of Orange players with the most international appearances. MASTERS previously sat down with the new coach.
Fotografie & styling: Rahi Rezvani

THE FIRST SOCCER STEPS

What kind of family do you come from? "A loving, warm family. We weren't very well off, but were content with what we had. On weekends, my sister, Natasja, and I were allowed to pick out a bottle of soda and a bag of chips and then we would go watch a movie - that was our movie night. My mother had lots of jobs; she provided the income. My father was mostly on the road with me: I had been with Ajax since I was seven and he always drove me from Alphen aan den Rijn to Amsterdam and back."

What are your earliest memories? "That on the weekends we used to go to my grandparents in Ter Aar. They are from Indonesia. My father was also born there, in 1957, in Jakarta. I went there once, when I played a friendly match against Indonesia with the Dutch national team. In 1958, the whole family of grandpa and grandma came to the Netherlands. My father has five brothers, so I have a big family. On weekends and holidays, everyone always got together at my grandparents' house. On birthdays, my grandmother would invariably prepare an Indian rice table. Furthermore, I remember always having a ball under my arm. When my parents gave me my first ball, I even went to bed with it. My ball and I were inseparable. I was just playing soccer. I got that from my father. He played soccer in the first team of ARC. He could play well, but especially when the weather was nice - he was a real fair-weather soccer player. He was also youth coach at ARC. Not of my team, but I was allowed to train with his as well. I really trained a lot, was on the soccer field all day. And if I wasn't playing soccer, I was ditch jumping, tree climbing, romping around on the ice in winter... I was always outside."

Where did you spend the vacations? "With my grandparents, that's where I would stay for six weeks. We had no money to go abroad. Often a nephew would come and stay with us. Great vacations, you know."

What kind of student were you? "An average student, pretty disciplined, not a difficult kid. I got my mavo degree. I think I could have handled a higher level, but I was soccer-oriented in everything. Even as a kid I knew: I want to be a professional soccer player."

Did you used to have idols, posters hanging over your bed? "No, I didn't. I do remember the Dutch national team playing a practice match against ARC on May 21, 1990, in the run-up to the World Cup in Italy (3-0 win for Orange; ed.). And that I walked around there with one of those Gullit wigs on."

What were your first steps in soccer? "I played at ARC from 1987 to 1990. Because I stood out above them, my mother called Ajax. She got youth leader Henk van Teunenbroek on the phone. He admired her initiative, but said that I really had to be scouted or else try to get into the spotlight through the talent days. 'But he can play soccer very well. Can't he train with me once as a birthday present?' At first it remained no, no, no. But my mother is a perseverer. Finally Mr. Van Teunenbroek said, 'Well okay, come along then.' I participated in two training sessions and then I was allowed to stay. I absolutely loved it, only now I had to go to De Meer in Amsterdam four times a week. I had school until three o'clock, training started at about five o'clock, by Good Times, Bad Times I was back home - sitting with my plate on my lap. In the beginning I had to get used to being away from familiar surroundings, away from all my friends. But eventually at Ajax I also made friends quickly."

When you were 13, your parents divorced. "In retrospect, that was the best thing for everyone. But at the time I thought it was terrible. Of course, I wanted them to stay together the most. Soccer was my outlet. It was arranged so that I was with my mother during the week and with my grandparents on weekends. For training, I used the Ajax bus; my father took me to the matches. I saw him quite a lot, because we often played during the week as well, and moreover, at one point I was on the representative youth teams of Orange."

How did you experience Ajax's youth training from 1990 to 2001? "Very professional and independent. At ARC, after a game, you were still dried off by your parents, who went into the locker room with you. It's not like that at Ajax. You meet your parents again in the canteen. During my youth training, Ajax was the best team in the world. In 1992 they had won the UEFA Cup, in 1995 the Champions League, in 1996 they had reached the final of the Champions League. Everywhere you went, they looked up to you."

Who from your lineup made it? "From the E2, where I started, only Wesley Sneijder and I made it. Basically, it's already a lot if one per team makes it. Top soccer is a pyramid, and the top is not for everyone. Some get there by a detour. Just look at Virgil van Dijk, who never played at a Dutch top club. Or Quincy Promes, who was sent away from Ajax's youth academy after six years. Pablo Rosario, too, was deemed too light. Eventually he ended up at PSV via Almere City."

What did Ajax mean to you in those days, were you a supporter? "Yes, and not just me, but the whole family. With my father I occasionally went to a game in De Meer, Vak H, or in the Olympic Stadium. I also played preliminary games. My grandfather was my biggest supporter. He saved every newspaper clipping I was in. Picture books full. Everything he collected from me."

How did you experience winning the Champions League in 1995? "Yes, great. I watched the match at home, on Tolstraat. I had my Ajax shirt on, scarf on. Fantastic! Proud! After the inauguration on Museumplein I got the chance to have my picture taken with the cup. Super!"

That was in the days of Marc Overmars, Edwin van der Sar, Ronald de Boer, Michael Reiziger, Winston Bogarde... Nowadays they are colleagues of yours. Isn't that crazy? "Ronald is part of the Ajax O19 staff as an individual trainer. In the beginning, that took some getting used to. He was one of the guys I looked up to. They had won the Champions League, they were Ajax 1."

They are there partly because of the velvet revolution initiated by Johan Cruijff in 2010. How did you view that development at the time? "At that time I was playing at Everton, I experienced it from a distance, don't know exactly what was going on on the shop floor. However, I did meet Cruijff at that time. I was in Barcelona with my family, a few days away. When we were being taken from the hotel to the airport, we found out that the babysitter had forgotten our passports. Friends of ours who were in the same hotel and had a later flight immediately drove behind us to bring the passports. Everyone was already on that plane; the wait was on for the Heitinga family. And who was also on that flight? Johan Cruijff. Whether he had heard it from the KLM crew, I don't know, but when we ran to the gate, he was there waiting for us: 'You have to be on time, Heitinga!' It just so happened that I was also sitting next to him. He told me he was going to Amsterdam for the velvet revolution. I had wanted to ask him all sorts of things, but it was mainly he who did the talking. And Cruijff you're not going to interrupt just like that."

Another player from the Golden Ajax was your mentor from the time you were fifteen. What role did Sjaak Swart play in your career? "I always had a very warm relationship with him, and still do. He had my best interests at heart, shared his knowledge, was always there for me. Don't touch my boys, that's Sjaak. He was also there for me when I was injured. Soccer is always about performance. If you play, you have attention. If you are injured, you are soon forgotten. But not by Sjaak, who really didn't forget you. If I was rehabbing in Zeist, he would drop by. To eat a sandwich, to talk to me, to see how I was doing. I never saw him as an agent. Sjaak is just Sjaak."

And Ruud Krol would you experience as Ronald Koeman's assistant coach. What did you learn from him as a defender? "I saw a lot of black-and-white footage of the Golden Ajax. Krol was bruisingly tough and very good at insightful defending - how should you stand? That's what we were talking about. With input from him, Koeman made me captain of Ajax at the age of 21. In the beginning of my career I had a lot of help from Krol."

AJAX (2001 - 2008)

At the age of seventeen, on August 26, 2001, you made your debut in Ajax 1 against Feyenoord. A year before that, you were still a ball boy... "During a youth tournament in Toulon, I received a fax from Ajax at the players' hotel, stating that I would be an A-selection player in the 2001-2002 season. That summer I played the World Cup under 20 in Argentina under the guidance of national coach Louis van Gaal, where we made it to the quarterfinals. The whole preparation for the new season I was there. Suddenly I was playing with guys like Richard Witschge, Cristian Chivu, Nikos Machlas... In youth it was all about development, now you had to perform. And instead of a few hundred people, there were 50,000 in the stands. For the game against Feyenoord, round three, I was in the selection. In the 68th minute, Hatem Trabelsi received a red card. Just before that, I had retrieved new shoes for André Bergdolmo from the locker room because a stud had broken off. I was just taking my seat in the dugout again when Co Adriaanse said, 'Warm up.' I walked back and forth three times, then I got in. A full Kuip, you can't wish for a more beautiful debut. Discharge, excitement: I felt everything at the same time. For the first action I got a yellow card, when I gave Pierre van Hooijdonk a peek. We won 2-1. And all the years after that, too, I would never lose to Feyenoord."

What changed for you since that day? "My status. Suddenly I was in the spotlight, my name was mentioned in the newspaper, on television, in the soccer magazines. But soon I disappeared from the spotlight again: I got injured. It happened during the warm-up for the match against NAC, on November 18. I turned away and twisted my right knee. It turned out to be a meniscus injury. I underwent surgery in the VU. It didn't go completely well, because I contracted a bacterial infection. Three months later I had to go under the knife again, this time at the AMC. My knee had sustained quite a bit of damage by then. I was never able to fully extend and flex it again. After another three months of rehabilitation, I made my comeback on August 29, 2002, at home against - again - NAC. At halftime I replaced Cristian Chivu. Around the 80thminute : a NAC attack near the sideline. I make a slide. Actually I should step in with my right leg, but I do it with my other leg. The opponent hits my knee. I knew right away: this is not good. Still, I played the game out - I didn't want to believe that I was injured again. When I got to the locker room, my knee was already full of fluid. And I saw the doctor, Edwin Goedhart, shaking his head. First I cried together with Rafael van der Vaart. The next day came the confirmation: the anterior cruciate ligament of my left knee had been torn off."

Had to go under the knife again... "I chose to have surgery in Colorado by specialist Richard Steadman. He operated on almost all great athletes who tore their anterior cruciate ligament, including Ronaldo, Ruud van Nistelrooij and Giovanni van Bronckhorst. After the operation, the long rehabilitation process began: it took six months. I consciously chose to do that in Zeist. If you do it at the club, you come into an environment where everyone is cheerful and fooling around with each other. Whereas I had to do my thing alone. At least in Zeist I was together with fellow sufferers: John Nieuwenburg, Ebi Smolarek..."

Every disadvantage has its advantage. Does a period of rehab have one ? "Yes, it makes you mentally stronger. And I got to experience strength training for the first time. Today's guys are much further along in that. I was in Zeist mostly in the strength room. Working with those machines every day increased my body strength and explosiveness. I improved my starting speed, for example. And I worked on my weak leg - passes with the left were much cleaner now. I rehabbed not only to get fit, but also to become a more complete soccer player."

How did you fight your way back into the first team after 15 months of injury ? "That was still an uncertain period. To begin with, I had doubts about whether I was fit for top sport. In addition, Ajax was doing well - it had a center that functioned and made it to the quarterfinals of the Champions League. When I came back, there was a place for me in the selection, but I didn't get to play. I indicated to Koeman that perhaps it would be best for everyone if I was rented out for a year. I had already more or less agreed with Vitesse. During the week I was supposed to play a charity match in Sweden, only to report back to Arnhem two days later. But that match I played so well that Koeman said, 'You're not leaving at all.' From then on I was a base player. And shortly afterwards, on February 18, 2004, four months after returning from my rehabilitation, I made my debut in the Dutch national team during an exhibition match against the USA (1-0 win; ed.). That year I played everything else. We became champions of the Netherlands."

As you said, you can no longer fully extend and flex your right leg . So how were you able to play top sports anyway? "Good question. For soccer, I just got away with it, I guess. But I've sometimes wondered where I would have ended up if I hadn't had those injuries to my knees. Throughout my youth training I skipped teams; at seventeen I made my debut in Ajax 1. But from the age of eighteen my knees no longer functioned 100 percent."

How did you get through all the medical examinations? "I have seen doctors and physical therapists think at times: what is this on the treatment table? But the fact is that since those three surgeries I have hardly skipped any training or competition and have never been injured again. That will have played into it. And I almost always made my transfer on the last transfer day. The clubs didn't have much time left to attract another player."

This article was taken from MASTERS MAGAZINE #42.