Wim Jansen: invisible icon…

By: Jan | September 28th, 2008

He looks a bit like author Jan Wolkers, at a distance. Grey curly head, pushed up by the collar of his training jersey.

Wim Jansen is looking at the ball, at the side of a training pitch. He says something, but not too often. He just observes, for minutes on end.

Former team mate Jan Boskamp: “Wim isn’t a talker. We grew up together in Rotterdam and we went to training together on my moped.”

The old buddies still talk a lot. “I was surprised that he decided to become assistant coach at Feyenoord. Gobsmacked. He hadn’t discussed it with me at all. Typical Wimpie.”

Technical director Peter Bosz, former Feyenoord player and friend of Wim Jansen, asked his mentor if he wanted to do it. He didn’t expect a yes. At all. But to everybody’s surprise, Jansen said yes.

“I asked him with caution. Please think about, something like that. You mustn’t force issues with Wim, he’ll say no then. So I left him ponder it for a while. And suddenly he said: I’ll do it!”

And so, he was assisting Gertjan Verbeek in the dug-out against Ajax. He experienced the classis as a player for both clubs, as head coach for Feyenoord and as technical director for Feyenoord. What it is he is doing exactly now, he won’t share. Wim Jansen doesn’t do press. The formal statement is that he “doesn’t want to interfere with Verbeek’s work”. But, Jansen never was a talker. Call him headstrong, shy, independent, weak…whatever it is. Jansen doesn’t want to expose himself, doesn’t want to justify himself. Not to anyone in the media, including Feyenoord TV, Feyenoord’s own channel.

It makes him a bit mysterious. But people who know him call him a football guru. Jansen shares his ideas with the people he works with. Period.

Michael Mols: “We don’t work with him very directly. He is more the man in the background. He observes a lot. Works as a sounding board for our coach. He works at a distance.”

The three active coaches during training are Verbeek and his assistants Vlemming and Alex Pastoor. Jansen just watches and talks quietly with the coaches. “He doesn’t need a lot of words,” says Henk Timmer. “He suddenly walks up to a young bloke and tells him to drop 5 meters. Stuff like that.”

Peter Bosz: “Wim sees things. He has a nose for processes in a team. As a player, I learned so much from him. It’s all in the details and he sees them all. And he can tell stories, man…some people call him shy or silent, well…that’s not the Wim Jansen I know.”

“I think he felt that the club needed him now. He is passionate about Feyenoord.” Still, some people questioned his love for Feyenoord. He went and signed for Ajax in 1980… The fans never understood that step. Or when he coached SVV he signed half the talent-team of Feyenoord. And as Celtic coach, he quickly picked up Feyenoord striker Henke Larsson, knowing exactly how much his transfer price was.

Jan Boskamp: “Wim only knows one way: straight. He knows what he wants and no one can dominate him. He knows exactly which players fit Feyenoord and which players won’t. And when something happens which he can’t accept, he’ll go. Wim made Celtic champions but he was limited in his work, so he left.”

Wim Jansen said no many time to Feyenoord in the last three years. “Maybe he felt he couldn’t be of value in those days. He has his own vision and if he can’t deliver, he won’t do it, no matter what the paycheck,” analyzes Peter Bosz. His status as ex-Mr Feyenoord and Oranje midfielder is relative. Michael Mols: “I think I’m the only one in our team who remembers having him seen play.”

“Lads like Wijnaldum don’t realize what a great player Jansen was. But that’s not even important. Everyone respects what Jansen says, because of his eye for detail.”

Bosz: “It was important to have a real Feyenoord man in the staff, but it wasn’t key. We needed one more assistant and Jansen had the ideal profile. Wim belongs in the list of names like Moulijn and Van Hanegem. But he’ll never blow his own trumpet. Wimpie is just Wimpie.”

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