http://www.evertonfc.com/news/2016/10/08/big-interview-maarten-stekelenburg
Maarten Stekelenburg is casting his mind back to his early teenage years, recalling his first encounters with a legendary footballing figure who, even now, has had a lasting influence on his career.
As a fledgling goalkeeper, advancing at speed through Ajax’s celebrated youth setup, he would position himself in the best possible location on a first-team matchday at the Amsterdam Arena. Surrounded by 50,000 partisan supporters, attentively studying his hero-turned-mentor.
“The first time I met him, I was a ballboy around the pitch,” Stekelenburg vividly remembers. “I always made sure I was stood behind his goal - and then I would follow him around and change sides in the second half. But most of the time nothing happened at that area of the pitch because Ajax were scoring goals at the other end!”
The subject, of course, is Edwin Van der Sar, the inspirational former Dutch keeper whose 22-year career was decorated with 130 international caps, eight domestic titles in Holland and England, and two Champions League crowns.
“I was always a big fan of Ajax and obviously he played for them and won the Champions League in 1995,” Stekelenburg says. “I was a young goalkeeper at that time and he was the best in Holland. I looked up to him like every Dutch teenage goalkeeper did. He played for Ajax and I wanted to play for Ajax. He played for the national team and I wanted to play for the national team.
“I never got that opportunity to train with him at Ajax - he left for Juventus before I made it into the senior team. Later on though, I played alongside him for the national team, which was great.”
Van der Sar guarded the goal until he was the age of 40 - his 820th and last club appearance in the Champions League final of 2011 reinforcing the notion that goalkeepers reach their peak at a later point than outfield players.
“His best years were at the end of his career, in my opinion,” Maarten reasons. “He went from Fulham to Manchester United when he was 35 years old. He was impressive, one of the best goalkeepers at that time.
“It comes down to experience. Most of the time, goalkeeping is about decision-making and reading the game. That’s why game-time is so important for players in that position - you need to stay sharp.”
Stekelenburg’s career as a top-level goalkeeper may never, in fact, have transpired the way it has, had it not been for a petulant strop by one of his teammates at his first amateur club, VV Schoten, in his hometown of Haarlem in Holland.
“I was always an outfield player then at one certain moment, the goalkeeper from my team quit. He just left the club and stopped playing football. The other players told me to go in goal and at first I said no. In the end, I did it, I enjoyed it and it paid off.”
From then on there was no looking back. Stekelenburg excelled with the gloves, was selected to represent his district and then caught the eye of Ajax junior scouts at a national tournament. He was recruited by the four-time European champions and progressed to first-team level, making his senior debut as a 19-year-old rookie.
In his first full season, until the tutelage of coach Ronald Koeman, he starred 10 times as Ajax clinched the Eredivisie crown for the 29th time in their distinguished history. However, it was a seven-year wait before he would get his hands on another league winners’ medal.
“In Holland, for every 10 league titles a club wins, they get another star on their badge,” Stekelenburg explains. “We had 29 and were desperate to get that third star on our chest. It took a long time to get to 30. We were so close a couple of times, one year on goal difference - imagine that after 34 games! It started to get frustrating.
“The season we won the league again, in 2011, I did not get to play through until the end of the season. I broke my thumb in the March and that was the end for me, but I had played most of it and won the Ajax player of the year. We played Twente on the last day of the season and whoever won got the title. I was so nervous because I was in the stands, definitely more nervous than if I had been playing! In the end we won the game 3-1, so it was a proud season.”
Stekelenburg became a regular pick for the Holland national team during his time at Ajax, eventually stepping up to claim the number one spot in 2008 following Van der Sar’s retirement from international football.
His first major tournament as the primary goalkeeper was the 2010 World Cup, when Holland, managed by Bert van Marwijk, crusaded right through to the final. He was only four minutes and an Andres Iniesta goal away from a once-in-a-lifetime achievement of being a world champion.
“The qualification for the World Cup went very well,” he remembers. “We won every game and so got the maximum points available from qualifying. We had a good group of players and we felt before the tournament that we could achieve something together. That was beforehand so we then had to go and prove it. We didn’t always play with typical Dutch ’total football’ that everyone knows but we had belief.
“In the quarter-final against Brazil, we were getting absolutely hammered. We weren’t playing well and were lucky to go in at half-time 1-0 down. Then something happened, people stood up in the dressing room and we turned that game around to win 2-1. The winning goal was a header from Wesley Sneijder - imagine that? He’s the smallest guy on pitch! From that moment on, we felt we were going to win that tournament.
“We beat Uruguay in the semi-finals 3-2 but were unlucky in the final against Spain when it took a goal in the 116th minute to win the game. I remember it well…referee Howard Webb should have given a corner for us but he didn’t and from that goal-kick Spain scored. But that’s football and we were so close.”
In an interview conducted with major Dutch national newspaper De Telegraaf two years ago, the Everton goalkeeper stated that he was in the best form of his career at that time, and he was now striving to “get back to the
Maarten Stekelenburg of 2010”.
He left Ajax in the summer of 2011 - shortly after the winning his second Eredivisie title - to join Roma and a turbulent period followed. It proved to be the first in a series of transfers, with further moves to Fulham, Monaco and Southampton following in the most turbulent period of his career.
“I’m on my way back. It’s been a tough couple of years, to be fair,” Maarten adds. “Ajax was my home. It was nice and convenient but as you go abroad, you get different situations.
“You get situations in your career where you go to a club and then after a year you work with a new coach. At Roma, one manager [Luis Enrique] bought me and I signed a four-year deal but he left after one season. The coach that came in during my second year [Zdeněk Zeman] didn’t fancy me for whatever reason. Some coaches like you, some don’t like you - those things happen. You have to cope with that.
“You have to go away and think about your own career, which was why I joined Fulham [in June 2013]. There was then a similar situation, where the coach at the time, Martin Jol, who knew me from Ajax, got sacked. Rene Meulensteen came in and had no problem with me but Felix Magath, who followed was not my type of coach - he didn’t like me. It wasn’t the happiest time in my career. He dropped me straight away and the following season I didn’t get a squad number.
“From that, you have to find a solution. Monaco gave me a way out on loan [in August 2014] to be back-up to Danijel Subašić. It was two weeks before the deadline and I needed to take that chance. It was a nice year and we did well in the Champions League. I played all the cup games, eight appearances altogether.
“Last summer, Ronald Koeman called me before the season to tell me that Fraser Forster was injured. He asked if I wanted to help him out at Southampton until he was fit, so I did. Because of his injury, I knew I was going to play the first six months. I saw it as a good opportunity to play games and the situation was clear from the beginning. I got 25 matches last year and then the gaffer brought me here this summer. That’s my career over the last five years!”
Stekelenburg’s latest transfer was to Goodison Park in the summer when Koeman once again put his trust in the custodian. He signed a three-year contact and has so far played every competitive first-team match for Everton this season.
It’s proven to be an encouraging start. Maarten’s wife Kim, along with their three young children, have settled into the region and he has performed well in his domestic outings, earning plenty of praise from the Club’s fanbase.
“It’s the start you want when you come to a new club but it is just the start and there’s a long way to go,” he reasons. “The family have adapted well, like they have wherever we have moved over the last few years. My eldest child, Sem, he had a nice year in Southampton and was settled with school. He was asking why he had to leave… personally, that can affect you a little bit. But now he’s started a new one here and is doing really well!”
