Henk ten Cate - The Player
From the desk of...
Jop van Kempen (football writer for newspaper Het
Parool)
Translation: Menno Pot
July 26, 2007
Last weekend, on Saturday 21 July 2007, Ajax
were supposed to play First Division side Go Ahead Eagles, at
the Adelaarshorst ('Eagles' Nest') in their home town
of Deventer. Great friendly, but it all
ended in tears: hooligan violence and continuous
verbal abuse forced referee Dick Jol to abandon the match
after only 34 minutes. A sad day, especially for Ajax coach
Henk ten Cate, a man with a long Eagles history. He
played for them (and returned twice!), was in charge of their
youth academy, served two spells as head-coach and is now
a kind of 'sponsor' of the club he loves.
What kind of a player was the Ajax boss? And what is
his Eagles link? On the day of the match that never
finished, football journalist Jop van Kempen published a
feature story about it in Dutch newspaper Het Parool.
Jop was kind enough to give Ajax USA his permission to
translate the article and publish it as a 'From The Desk of...'
installment.
"Naughty little Henk" are the first words that spring
to Joop Brands' mind when he thinks back of Henk ten Cate, the
football player. Brand knows what he's talking about: he was
the Amsterdammer's head-coach for many years at Vitesse, Go
Ahead Eagles and Telstar. "Henk was a lightning-quick right
winger," says Brand, "but let me just say that he was... easily
distracted. For example if there was a pretty woman
watching on the sideline. You see: Henk used to be a tall,
slim bloke at the time, which he no longer is, nowadays. I
can assure you: he had a good time."
Ten Cate was a bon vivant, a pleasure-lover and the
epitome of a fickle, inconsistent wing player. On his good
days he could be unstoppable because of his speed. The
next week, however, he could just stand there on the right
wing, only for show. "On-form he was a bit of a Ruud
Gullit type," Brand says. "But he wasn't always on-form."
Inconsistency was Ten Cate's main problem, even at a young
age. As a teenager the former youth player of ZPC and De
Volewijckers was invited on a try-out at Ajax twice, but
he couldn't settle in in the harsh world of Ajax, and so
you could tell from his performances. "It didn't go very well,"
Ten Cate admitted in an interview last year, looking back
on those try-outs. "I didn't really feel at home. I felt
the odd man out, but maybe that was just me. It's a long time
ago. I must admit I don't remember exactly."
After his unsuccesful Ajax adventure, Ten Cate did his
military service and was based near Arnhem. His football
career was simmering. Just for the fun of it Ten Cate
played for SC Oranje, a tiny little club in the lowest regions
of Holland's amateur leagues. However, his fine performances
for SC Oranje caught the attention of Vitesse, a First Division
side at the time. Ten Cate was signed up, but as a team-mate
of established players such as Charly Bosveld and
Herman Veenendaal he failed to win a starting slot.
Vitesse earned promotion to the Eredivisie in 1977, but
Ten Cate only played a minor role, mostly as
a substitute.
Henk ten Cate as a Go Ahead Eagles player, pictured from
the legendary Panini sticker book, around 1980.
One step further down the ladder of Dutch football, at
Hoofdklasse ['Top Class', Holland's highest non-league
level, ed.] amateurs Rheden, he felt much more comfortable. An
unhappy youngster at Vitesse, Ten Cate started to enjoy playing
football again. He made it to the Dutch national team for
amateur players and caught the eye of Eredivisie outfit Go
Ahead Eagles.
"When he signed a contract with us he was
doing clerical work for a Japanese bank of some sort,"
recalls former Eagles director Bob Maaskant, to whom Ten Cate
was recommended by Joop Brand. Eagles purchased him from
Rheden and in Deventer the professional career of Henk ten Cate
finally took off. He was 24 years old.
"I remember one match in particular," Maaskant says. "It
was a friendly against Antwerp FC, a major side at the
time. We played in Belgium and their fans were terribly
racist. Perhaps Henk was inspired by the 'monkey
noises' from the stands, I'm not sure, but he was
absolutely tremendous. We booked an unlikely win of 6-0 and I
think he got a goal, too."
The circumstances in Belgium may have inspired Ten Cate on
that particular occasion, but at the same time he had
a reputation for being easily daunted. "He was easily
distracted, easy to intimidate," Maaskant says. "He was a
pretty nervous footballer. If an opponent nagged him a bit, or
gave him a nasty kick early in the game, you wouldn't see him
again. He would totally drift out of it. He
wasn't exactly known for his fighting spirit."
One of his best games ever, if Ten Cate himself is to be
believed, was against Feyenoord. In an interview with
Sportweek magazine he said: "Literally
everything went well in that game." To which
he added jokingly: "My opponent was Ivan Nielsen and I
think I played the ball between his legs seven times
or something."
Nielsen works as a plumber in Denmark nowadays. He does not
recall his dismal encounter with Henk ten Cate.
"But I have a hard time believing the story." With an eyewink:
"If it were true, I would have quit as a footballer that same
day."
Winner of the 2006 Champions League as Frank Rijkaard's
assistant at FC Barcelona.
His wonderful performance against Feyenoord did bring Ten
Cate a lucrative transfer to the Edmonton Drillers. The
Canadian outfit played in the same North-American Soccer League
in which Johan Cruijff also played at the time. Ten Cate
remembers his days in Canada as a great adventure. He
loved the overwhelming landscapes of Canada, the respect for
professional sportsmen in North-America and of course the
money. The nights out with the other Dutch players who had
made the move to America were not wasted on him, either.
After his return to The Netherlands he played for Go Ahead
Eagles for one more season, after which he once again sought
Joop Brand's company, this time at Telstar. He had a fine
season there. Brand: "Henk would sometimes play on the right
and sometimes on the left in those days. You could pass
the ball into his feet, but because of his pace you could also
use the space behind the defence. And Ten Cate had a drive
towards the goal. He regularly notched his goal,
especially when he played on the left, so he could
cut to the middle. He had a pretty good shot with his
right."
But what were his crosses like? In his Eagles days,
striker Cees van Kooten depended on Ten Cate's support
from the flanks. "His crosses from the right were okay," Van
Kooten says. "From the left they weren't as good. I
would rate his crosses 6 out of 10, over all."
Ten Cate was popular with his team-mates. He was a
social and funny guy. Van Kooten: "Yeah, he was a good bloke to
have on the squad. We got along quite well. We used to
live relatively close to each other and we used to drive to the
ground together for training. I was the only one who could call
him 'nigger' - as a joke, obviously, but he would get angry if
someone else said it."
Ten Cate was hot-tempered, which made him the
perfect victim for practical jokes from his
team-mates, especially during his first spell at Go Ahead
Eagles. Former team-mate Dick Schneider: "Henk would always
take things very seriously. He always took the bait. Whenever
there was something he didn't like, he had the gift to
walk away in this beautiful manner, shaking his head in
misery. He still does that sometimes, as a coach. It's
wonderful."
After a single season at Telstar, Ten Cate
returned to Eagles for a third spell with the club. He was
unusually consistent in his first season: 31 league games, 10
goals. FC Basel and Feyenoord wanted him, but he didn't
make the move, and in his second season it went wrong. He broke
his ankle in a collision with goalkeeper Jan
Stroomberg, in the away game against Excelsior. The ankle
would never heal completely.
Head-coach of Ajax, 2006-2007 season.
"I do believe that I've played a bit of a dark role in Ten
Cate's career," Stroomberg says 25 years later. "But I wasn't
really aware of it at the time. I was seriously injured myself
after that collision and I kind of lost sight of him while
I was in rehab. I didn't really follow other football players
at the time and I never read any football news. I never
contacted him after the event. No, not even when he was
officially declared unfit."
That's exactly what happened: Ten Cate did try to fight
back, but he never returned to his old level. He gave it one
more try at Heracles, but his single season there was a
disappointment. The career of Henk ten Cate, the football
player, officially came to an end when he was 31 years old.
Almost every player or coach who worked
with him as player, appears to be surprised about the
fact that Ten Cate carried on as a coach. Schneider:
"I thought: when he calls it a day as a player he will never
set foot on a football pitch again. I kind of expected him to
do something in the world of commerce. Or in fashion. He
was always 'dressed to kill' and found that very
important."
Van Kooten adds: "It really surprised me that Henk became a
coach. But he's a very good one. All of the teams
he's been in charge of played skillful, offensive
football. His next club would always
be bigger than the previous one, roughly."
Joop Brand: "I've seen it happen before: coaches,
who in their player days weren't too strong
mentally, frequently project their
own weaknesses on their players. Players like that
frequently become extremely fanatical coaches."
- Jop van
Kempen
|
PLAYER PASSPORT
Name: Henk ten Cate
Born: Amsterdam, 09 December 1954
Clubs as a youth player: ZPC, De
Volewijckers
1974-1975: SC
Oranje (amateur)
1975-1977: Vitesse (First
Division)
1977-1979: Rheden (amateur)
1979-1980: Go Ahead Eagles
(Eredivisie)
1980: Edmonton Drillers (NASL)
1980-1981: Go Ahead
Eagles (Eredivisie)
1981-1982: Telstar (First
Division)
1982-1985: Go Ahead
Eagles (Eredivisie)
1985-1986: SC Heracles (Eredivisie)
|
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