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Johan Neeskens- a Dutch master dies

joe morris

Tuesday, October 8th, 2024

1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 And so football bows its head
For a Dutch master
From its greatest team
Of World Cup editions
When 1974 and 1978
Belonged to the golden age
Johan Neeskens
Dies but certainly
Not without recognition
Since Johan was born
Among a glittering array
Of stars and men
Who embraced Total Football
In a way a mother or father
Hugs their son or daughter
We speak of Neeskens
But have to include Cruyff,
The King of that noble castle
Krol, Rensenbrink, Van Hanaghem
Neeskens was a full time architect
In a team of builders and
Reinvention, always riffing
And always models of improvisation
With or without the ball
Neeskens was the emotional fulcrum
Handsome as his extraordinary colleagues
Measuring, always at ease
Seeing things that very few saw
Never quite as feted as Cruyff
Since Cruyff was tying all
Of his defenders in twisted knots
And blood vessels
But Neeskens was the barometer
The gauge behind the
Orange revolution
Always gazing around at
The bigger picture
Thinking one step ahead
Of the rest
Incomparable genius
Goal scorer of course
But contemplating
The future rather than the
Past, always on the
Same page as his Dutch
Crowned kings
A radical visionary
The Dutch template
Two successive World Cups
Slipped agonisingly from
His grasp
Netherlands
Losers in two finals
But nobody blamed
Neeskens since
He was immune from
The snipers, the bullies
Neeskens had everything
In his locker
Touch, awareness,
Almost a sixth sense
A premonition of goals
Stepovers and dragbacks
When the mood suited him
Since the Dutch could
Multi task, spin a thousand
Plates at the same time
But Johan Neeskens
Rose above the carnage
And madness of
Football’s red and yellow cards
The ferocious fouls
And the sumptuous stylists
Even though he too could
Get stuck in
Passing with scientific
Succinctness
Knowing where the goal was
Studying the game
In the quietest of
Footballing libraries
Barcelona clutched him
To their heart
Like a beloved son
But the Netherlands
Claimed him as
Part of their family
And never looked back
Again

Notes

My tribute to the great Johan Neeskens.

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Source: http://footballpoets.org/poems/johan-neeskens-a-dutch-master-dies/