“Mr. Rijvers, you know there are two of them, right? Either you take two or you don’t get one.” Thanks to these words from the mother of Willy and René van de Kerkhof, spoken in the family living room in Helmond in May 1970, not only René, coveted by Rijvers, but also Willy ended up in the selection of FC Twente. It is just one of the many anecdotes that the brothers have to tell in the Willy and René Podcast of Omroep Brabant. “He was our football dad.”
René was not only considered the greatest talent of the two brothers, but also the biggest troublemaker. “He thought I should also defend occasionally, so I did that once in a European Cup match. Then I passed two men in the penalty area, but on the third it went wrong and we fell behind 1-0. Rijvers jumped up as if he had been stung by a wasp. “Get out, get out,” he shouted.
Rijvers also kept a close eye on René’s escapades in the nightlife. “The next day he always knew exactly where I had been out and what time I was home.”
“Back in my basket.”
The coach had much less to worry about with Willy. “Except when, after the World Cup in 1978, I thought I could really play football. Then I had to meet him for coffee and he asked what I was doing. ‘You don’t have to make actions and give deep passes, we already have that. someone else. And then I went back into my basket..”
In the meantime, René liked to cause mischief. “I once gave Rijvers a pillow as a gift for his car. ‘At least then we see someone behind the wheel when you drive up with the BMW.’ Yes, he could laugh about that.”
“I go back and Ruud Gullit goes forward.”
After leaving PSV, Rijvers met the brothers again with the Dutch national team. Rijvers did not reach a final tournament, but he did participate in the legendary 3-2 victory against Ireland after being 2-0 behind at half time. “Together with goalkeeper Piet Schrijvers, I thought at half time that I would go back and Ruud Gullit would go forward,” Willy remembers. “Rijvers was busy gesturing that we should switch back, but we didn’t and Gullit scored twice. Afterwards, Rijvers told Piet and me that he would never select us again. But the next time we just played again.”
“Still a bit disappointed in football.”
In later years, contact between the brothers and their football father waned. “I visited him again two years ago. We both thought it was wonderful,” says René. Furthermore, the Breda resident showed little more. “Still a bit disappointed in football,” thinks Willy. After all, Rijvers’ farewell to PSV and Oranje was not pleasant. The brothers recently made a case via their podcast that Rijvers would be honored with a tile for the PSV Walk of Fame. Fortunately, Rijvers received that tile.
Waiting for privacy settings…