Leo Beenhakker (1942-2025) passed away

Beenhakker served as national team coach of the Netherlands in two periods. - Foto: Nationaal Archief

He was colourful, articulate, well-liked and extremely successful at home and abroad. Former national team coach Leo Beenhakker was one of the greatest coaches Dutch football has known. The Rotterdam native, crowned Don Leo in Madrid, died today at the age of 82.

His coaching career took him all over the world. Born in Rotterdam's Charlois district, Beenhakker became a citizen of the world in the profession of football coaching. He had the gift of dealing well with absolute top players and immersing himself in other cultures. With a dose of humour and a touch of charm, Beenhakker endeared himself almost everywhere.

Dutch national team

Beenhakker served as national team coach in two periods. He led Oranje in 13 international matches. The first tenure lasted more than a year. In 1985, he stepped in halfway through the World Cup qualifying series in Mexico as a replacement for Rinus Michels who was struggling with heart problems. Beenhakker was coach of FC Volendam at the time. Thanks in part to the legendary 0-1 victory over Hungary - with Rob de Wit's marker - the Dutch team dragged a play-off against Belgium out of the fire. The winner of that barrage would qualify for the World Cup. Unfortunately, that did not work out. After a 1-0 defeat in Brussels, the 2-1 win in Rotterdam proved insufficient for a World Cup ticket.

Five years later, Beenhakker went back to work in Zeist. This time as successor to Thijs Libregts. The World Cup in Italy turned out to be a disappointment. The Dutch went to the global finals as European champions with high expectations, but did not win a match. After three draws in the pool phase, the eighth finals proved to be the final stage. Germany, the later world champions, won 2-1 in Milan.

Don Leo

Beenhakker played football for renowned Rotterdam amateur clubs like Xerxes and Zwart-Wit '28, but soon realised that professional football was not for him. Explaining to fellow players how to do things together as a team suited him better. Beenhakker got his CIOS diploma and followed the trainers' training courses at the KNVB.

He made his debut as head coach with SV Epe in 1965. The start of a long road to the absolute top of European football. Via SC Veendam, SC Cambuur, Go Ahead Eagles, Feyenoord (youth), Ajax, Real Zaragoza and FC Volendam, Beenhakker became trainer of Real Madrid in 1986. Top players like Emilio Butragueño, Michel and Hugo Sanchez ate out of his hand. After three championships in a row with The Royal, Beenhakker would forever go through life as Don Leo. No coach who came after him in Madrid managed that.

'Never forget where you came from'

He returned to Ajax in 1989, took the cup with the Amsterdammers a year later and then roamed the world; Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Turkey, Trinidad and Tobago, Poland. The 'football junkie' Beenhakker - as he sometimes described himself - could ground himself anywhere. In his eyes, the language of the dressing room was universal.

One club was long missing from his record; his first and great love. Feyenoord and Beenhakker found each other after all, in 1997. Chairman Jorien van den Herik called him after the dismissal of Arie Haan. The phone call he had long awaited as a boy from the city. Through a hedge of supporters Beenhakker made his way to the training pitch on his first working day.

And he did not disappoint them. World citizen Beenhakker forged from a potpourri of unknown late bloomers with eight nationalities a team that refused to lose and often just won. At the end of the 1998/'99 season, the Coolsingel filled up again. In 1970, he himself had stood there to cheer on the Heroes of Milan. Now Beenhakker looked out over the crowd from the platform. His name rang out from thousands of throats: 'Leo, Leo, Leo'. It visibly moved him. 'Never forget where you come from,' he would later say about it in an episode of the Dutch historical tv-show Andere Tijden Sport.

National coach across the border

The globetrotter also became national coach of three other countries: Saudi Arabia, Trinidad and Tobago and Poland. With Trinidad and Tobago, he surprised friend and foe by leading the country to the World Cup for the first time in history. The 2006 final round in Germany started with a resounding surprise: 0-0 against Sweden, but the footballers from the Caribbean archipelago still stranded in the group stage. Under Beenhakker's leadership, Poland qualified for the EC for the first time in 2008. In Switzerland and Austria, the group stage was again the final destination.

Awards

In his long career, Beenhakker held numerous positions: head coach, technical director, commissioner of technical affairs, assistant coach, youth coach, technical advisor and chairman of the trainers' union (CBV). For his achievements for Dutch football, he was awarded the Rinus Michels Oeuvreprijs in 2010. This was followed in 2017 by his appointment as a national knight of the KNVB. He received that distinction on his 75th birthday, during the annual para football day in Barendrecht.

The Dutch football world says adieu to an icon. A warm football animal, whose humour and eloquence also enriched the football vocabulary. 

The KNVB wishes all Leo Beenhakker's family, friends and others involved much strength in bearing this great loss.