Willem van Hanegem

This article is about the footballer. For his son Willem van Hanegem Jr., see W&W.

In this Dutch name, the surname is van Hanegem.

Willem van Hanegem

Van Hanegem in 2008
Personal information
Full name	Willem van Hanegem
Date of birth	(1944-02-20) 20 February 1944
Place of birth	Breskens, Netherlands
Height	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Position(s)	Midfielder
Youth career
	Velox SC
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1962–1966	Velox SC	109	(39)
1966–1968	Xerxes	68	(32)
1968–1976	Feyenoord	247	(88)
1976–1979	AZ'67	75	(10)
1979	Chicago Sting	27	(6)
1979–1981	FC Utrecht	54	(3)
1981–1983	Feyenoord	51	(2)
Total		631	(180)
International career
1968–1979	Netherlands	52	(6)
Managerial career
1990–1992	USV Holland
1990–1991	FC Wageningen (assistant)
1992–1995	Feyenoord
1995–1996	Al-Hilal
1997–1999	AZ
2001	Sparta Rotterdam
2007–2008	FC Utrecht
Medal record Men's football Representing Netherlands FIFA World Cup Runner-up 1974 West Germany European Championship 1976 Yugoslavia
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Willem "Wim" van Hanegem (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈʋɪləɱ ˈʋɪɱ vɑn ˈɦaːnəɣɛm]; born 20 February 1944) is a Dutch former football player and coach who played as a midfielder. In a playing career spanning over 20 years, he won several domestic honours in the Netherlands, as well as both the European Cup and UEFA Cup with Feyenoord. He was also part of the Dutch national team that were runners-up in the 1974 FIFA World Cup. As a manager, he won the league and cup with Feyenoord and spent a period as the Dutch national team's assistant coach. His most recent job as manager was for FC Utrecht, from 2007 to 2008.

Early life

Van Hanegem was born on 20 February 1944 in Breskens, the son of Lo van Hanegem (1905-1944) and Anna van Grol. During an Allied bombing raid on Breskens on 11 September 1944, his father Lo, brother Isaac and his sister were killed. After the war, he moved to Utrecht with his mother.

During a training session of Velox, he stood on the sidelines and every ball that went wide of the goal, he shot back so accurately that coach Daan van Beek asked him to come and play for the club. Six months later, he played in the club's first team.

Van Hanegem in 1964

Club career

Van Hanegem spent six years at Velox, playing 109 games and scoring 39 goals. After six years with Velox, Van Hanegem moved from Utrecht to Rotterdam, where he played for Xerxes, which had just won promotion at the Eredivisie. In the 1967-68 season, Van Hanegem was the second best top scorer in the Eredivisie, scoring 26 goals.

Ajax was interested in Van Hanegem's services, but coach Rinus Michels refused to buy the player, believing that he was not suited for "modern football" due to his lack of pace and "one-dimensional" playing style. Van Hanegem would instead sign for Ajax's rivals Feyenoord, where he would enjoy his greatest successes, and play alongside players such as Wim Jansen, Franz Hasil, Coen Moulijn, Ove Kindvall, Ruud Geels, Theo Laseroms, Rinus Israël, Theo de Jong, Johan Boskamp and Wim Rijsbergen. He also established a father-son relationship with club coach Ernst Happel. With Van Hanegem's playmaking skills, Feyenoord won three Eredivisie titles, a KNVB Cup, an European Cup and an International Cup in 1970 and a UEFA Cup in 1974.

Van Hanegem left Feyenoord in 1976 to join AZ Alkmaar, where he played for three seasons alongside striker Kees Kist and midfielders Peter Arntz and Jan Peters, winning the KNVB Cup in 1978. He had a brief stint with Chicago Sting in 1979, until he returned to the Netherlands the same year to play for FC Utrecht (a merger of clubs VV DOS, USV Elinkwijk and Velox, the club that he played for in his younger years.). He returned to Feyenoord in 1981, playing for two seasons.

International career

Van Hanegem played 52 times for the Dutch national team, scoring six goals in total. At the 1974 World Cup, he formed a formidable midfield with fellow Feyenoord teammate Wim Jansen and Ajax midfielder Johan Neeskens. He also played in the UEFA Euro 1976, winning a bronze medal. He was initially selected to play for the Netherlands in the 1978 FIFA World Cup, but after his AZ teammate Hugo Hovenkamp suffered a knee injury, Van Hanegem declined to go. He last played for the national team in 1979.

Style of play

Van Hanegem has one advantage over me. When I have a bad game, I’m useless. When Van Hanegem has a bad game, he rolls up his sleeves and starts tackling.

—Johan Cruyff

Willem is a player who can make the game, break the game, can play fast, can play slow. For me, he's a perfect player.

—Ernst Happel

Van Hanegem is widely considered one of the greatest Dutch players of all time, and by some as one of the finest midfielders in football history. Capable of playing as an attacking, central and defensive midfielder, Van Hanegem was renowned for his tactical insight and was well known for his fantastic passing range and his ability with the ball at his feet. Both his way of sprinting (he had bandy legs), and his skill to give the ball a curve (achieved by striking the ball with the outside of his left foot) gave him the nickname De Kromme (The Crooked). Whilst being known for being a playmaker, he was capable of scoring goals (being the second top scorer in the 1967-68 season of the Eredivisie) and also excel in defensive duties such as breaking up plays through tackles. In some occasions, Van Hanegem played as a sweeper whenever his fellow Feyenoord teammate Rinus Israel was injured, and would later play the same role in his last years at Feyenoord. Van Hanegem was also known for his leadership skills, workrate and tenacity. His primary weakness was his lack of pace.

Coaching career

After retiring as a player, Van Hanegem joined Feyenoord as assistant manager in 1983 and stayed in the post until 1986. He then joined FC Utrecht as assistant, before moving to FC Wageningen. He returned to Feyenoord as manager in 1992, winning the league in 1993 and the Dutch Cup in 1994 and 1995.

In 1995, he had a spell as manager with Saudi Arabian club Al-Hilal, then took the post at AZ'67 in 1997. He joined Sparta Rotterdam in 2001. His stay was short-lived, and afterwards he became assistant manager of the Dutch national side. He was appointed manager of FC Utrecht in July 2007 and was fired on 23 December 2008.

Personal life

Van Hanegem was known for rough, passionate play against German sides (before the 1974 final, he exhorted the Dutch side to "stuff the Germans"). "I don't like Germans. Everytime I played against German players, I had a problem because of the war." His hatred was summed up after the 1974 final, "The important thing was to beat the Germans by any score, as long as we humiliated them. They murdered my father, sister and two brothers. I am full of angst. I hate them." After the game (with Germany winning 2–1) Van Hanegem was the only Dutch player that left the field in tears. In later years, however, Van Hanegem used a more conciliatory tone, when commenting on the war.

He married Truus de Nijs in 1963 and divorced her in 1983. Willem's son, Willem van Hanegem Jr., is an international electronic dance music artist and DJ. Together with Ward van der Harst, he forms the DJ/producer duo W&W. His other son, Gert van Hanegem, played football professionally at FC Utrecht. Van Hanegem was diagnosed with prostate cancer in January 2018, but recovered in March. He received the Order of Orange-Nassau in 2024.

Honours

Van Hanegem in 1978

Player

Feyenoord

• Eredivisie: 1968–69, 1970–71, 1973–74
• KNVB Cup: 1968–69
• European Cup: 1969–70
• Intercontinental Cup: 1970
• UEFA Cup: 1973–74

AZ'67

• KNVB Cup: 1977–78

Netherlands

• FIFA World Cup: runner-up 1974
• European Football Championship: third place 1976
• Tournoi de Paris: 1978

Individual

• Dutch Footballer of the Year: 1971

Manager

Feyenoord

• Eredivisie: 1992–93
• KNVB Cup: 1993–94, 1994–95

External links

• Statistics
• Willem van Hanegem at Wereld van Oranje (archived) (in Dutch)