IT used to be said of Johan Neeskens that crowds loved him because he was hard and mean. Now they gather before the Dutch legend to witness his softer, gentler side.
The setting is a modern sports hall in Doha's Oxygen Park. The 68-year-old, once a key cog in the amazing generation of Dutch teams that reached two World Cup finals, has just finished a coaching session for young people; these are the children of Generation Amazing, the social legacy programme initiated during Qatar’s successful bid for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
“Does anyone know who this is?” the public address announcer asks a gathering of bemused teens and twentysomethings, pointing to a wiry gent in navy polo shirt and blue jeans. There are some here who know exactly who this is. He's Johan Segon, the other Johan, the erstwhile, self-styled “second best player in the world”.
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More specifically, Neeskens is a living legend; the Sundance Kid to Johan Cruyff's Butch Cassidy, a swashbuckling pair that swept all before them for most of the 1970s at Ajax, Barcelona and in the majestic Netherlands side of the same era.
“This man scored the first goal in the 1974 World Cup final. You can see it on YouTube,” continues the interviewer, before adding that Neeskens won three 'Champions Leagues' (or European Cups, as one suspects Neeskens might call them) and was part of the Barcelona management team that gave Lionel Messi his debut as a 17-year-old.
This is a story of two epochs. Neeskens, then a tough, relentless, energetic midfielder, straddles the divide between what football was and what it is now. It is a theme he returns to more than once in conversation. It is also one that Scottish football fans, and especially those of Rangers and Celtic, will readily identify with.
Neeskens' remembers both clubs well, having played against Celtic in the 1971 European Cup quarter-final and Rangers in the first (unofficial) European Super Cup final over two legs in 1972. He was assistant coach of Barca on the night when an Alan Thompson scissors kick gave Martin O'Neill's Celtic a 1-0 win on their way to an aggregate victory over the Catalan side and, ultimately, the UEFA Cup final.
He recalls a time when Scotland was a nation to be feared across the continent and is buoyed by the progress of the country's two biggest clubs to the latter stages of European football for the first time in a decade.
“It is great for Scottish football,” says the gravelly voiced Neeskens, still with a glint in his eye when asked to talk football. “The last 10 years they were not there, now they are back again and it is great. That is great for the future of football in Scotland. You hardly see Scottish teams at this level of competition any more so it is good that Rangers and Celtic have progressed to the knockout stages.”
“We played against Rangers. We won the Super Cup. It was a long time ago, but I remember it was very competitive and you had to work hard and be at your best to beat them. I'm very happy to see them back in the competition. [And] the atmosphere at Celtic is always amazing.”
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There is more portentous news, too. Notwithstanding Ajax's march to the Champions League semi-finals and appearance in the 2017 Europa League final, Neeskens expects the richest clubs to dominate like never before.
“I don't see any changes coming because of the money. I think it is ridiculous to see a team in England playing with 11 foreigners. Not one from there [England] is playing in the team and that is not good for English football.
“If teams [such as Celtic and Rangers] are not doing well in the competition, the country does not get so many [coefficient] points and you don't qualify automatically. It is now more complicated for teams from these countries and others such as Portugal. Ajax were considered a surprise by getting to the Europa League final and then the semi-finals of the Champions League last year. But it is going to be difficult ever to repeat that.”
With teams from the five major leagues dominating the Champions League last-16 draw and, at the end of a week in which Celtic and Rangers were drawn against relative minnows in the last 32 of the Europa League, Neeskens is pretty certain where the blame lies.
“The big clubs can spend the money they like and buy all the best players. Then when they are doing well they get extra coefficient points. You have countries with three or four teams participating.
“Then there is the qualification games that teams from smaller countries have to play. That is not fair. It is now all about money and money should not be the most important thing in sport. A lot of countries have champions who are out after one qualification round, so they don’t get coefficient points too. Not fair.
“In my days when I went to Barcelona the club could only have four foreign players, only three on the field, one on the bench. I think that was better for national teams, too. You had to have eight players from the country on the field and that was good so you could give young talent the chance to play. Everything has changed and not always for the benefit of football. Now you see the same clubs qualifying for the Champions League knockout stages. The tournament is now more predictable.”
Neeskens' observations come at a time when Scotland is currently riding high in UEFA's cub coefficient standings, nevertheless, it remains a long road back to relevance in European football's top competition. Neeskens thinks those clubs playing catch-up should focus on young players more.
Just two players who came through Celtic's youth ranks, Callum McGregor and James Forrest, could be considered first choice in their Europa League campaign thus far. Meanwhile, 37-year-old Allan McGregor was the only player to come out of the Rangers academy system to start during their fixtures in the same competition.
This is the leitmotif of Scottish football, one of trying to square the vicious circle that prevents managers from focussing on the development of young players in the interests of self-preservation. That frustrates a man who helped to give the callow Messi his debut, even if he has a degree of sympathy with Neil Lennon and Steven Gerrard. He offers some hope of a solution, albeit one that bears a caveat.
“Sponsors invest heavily in big clubs. There is a lot of money involved and the pressure on the coach is high. If you don’t perform, then you’re out. But that applies to young players. I think every youth player – when he has the quality – should be given the chance, adds Neeskens, who made his debut for Ajax at the age of 18.
“You see it with [Juventus defender] Mathijs De Ligt who was in [the Ajax first team] when he was 17 or [Barcelona midfielder] Frenkie De Jong. They were in when young and now they are playing for big clubs like Juventus and Barcelona.
“They were given years to learn but nowadays some young players are only given a couple of months to make it and if the team loses a couple of times then they are out. You shouldn’t buy a foreign player for hundreds of millions or whatever. Give the young boys a chance.”
On a day for youth, it is an apt suggestion.
Generation Amazing uses the power of sport to positively impact lives and create sustainable social development in communities in seven countries across the world. For more information go to: https://www.sc.qa/en/opportunities/generation-amazing
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