Very few Bafana Bafana players have had as impressive a career as Hans Vonk. Along with representing South Africa at major tournaments, he also won major trophies playing in the Eredivisie. The legendary goalkeeper sat down with Soccer Laduma to look back on his career with Heerenveen and playing alongside Ruud van Nistelrooy in the Netherlands.
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You got your breakthrough at Heerenveen. What was your experience at the club like and how much of a special place does coach Foppe de Haan hold in your career?
My time at Heerenveen in one word: Fantastic. It was in 1996 when I arrived there, the beginning of the glory days for Heerenveen. Before that they got promoted, then relegated, they got promoted but when I started, we'd regularly get spots in the top eight, sometimes top four, and in 2000 we even ended up in second, qualifying for the UEFA Champions League.
It was also the first time really I began to understand professional football because coach Foppe de Haan had a big influence, not only on me, but many people in Heerenveen like Ruud van Nistelrooy, [Arkadiusz] Radomski, Marcus Allback, all European stars and they all made big improvements under Foppe. Also later in Cape Town, Foppe was very influential on my career. Besides that, we have three kids, they are all born in Heerenveen, in the north, so it's also special because of that. It was a very special time in my life, and I still look back on that time with a big smile.
You mentioned Ruud van Nistelrooy at Heerenveen. What was it like having a young Ruud at the club, and did you see him going on to play for likes of Manchester United and Real Madrid back then already?
No, not at that time. It's actually very funny, because our club Heerenveen bought him for 1 million gulden at that time. So, that's about half a million euros but he was already 20 or 21 I think, playing for second division side FC Den Bosch, and for some reason nobody in Holland wanted to buy Van Nistelrooy because he was 20, 21 and was already in the spotlight. Heerenveen did, so they bought him, but they said there's one condition. They said he can't play as a No. 10 anymore. Because Ruud wanted to play No. 10, he wanted to have a free role. They said, "No, no. You can come to Heerenveen, but you're going to be our No. 9."
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That was a battle for about three months, between the club, the coach and Van Nistelrooy, and then Ruud also saw that the striker position was his place and that he was going to be the No. 9, then the rest is history. He was eager to learn, eager to develop and it didn't come as a surprise when he made it as far as playing for Man United and [Real] Madrid.
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