They played together for years at Be Quick 1887, in the top of the main league. On Saturday, Aron Strengholt (31) and Fabian Stevens (31) will face Be Quick with their new club Pelikaan S, in the only northern derby in the fourth division.
To stand? In Stevens’ case it is mainly: sitting. He won’t play, that’s for sure. Almost three weeks ago he broke his fibula in the match against Longa’30 in Lichtenvoorde. “It’s a nice fracture, it seems to be healing well,” says the attacking midfielder. “That’s why I don’t have a cast. And of course I will be there, even if it is on crutches.”
Together on the A1
Stevens, who grew up in Borger, ended up in the training of FC Emmen in his youth and switched to Be Quick as an 18-year-old, where he played in the A1 with Strengholt, who had just come over from Mussel.
The two quickly became friends. After 5 years of Be Quick, in which the team was promoted to the third division under the leadership of trainer Mischa Visser, Strengholt and Stevens sought refuge at ONS Sneek in 2016. Stevens stayed with the Frisian third division team for two seasons and then moved to HZVV, Strengholt moved to Flevo Boys after one season in Sneek, where he stayed for three seasons.
‘I arranged Aron’
In 2021, Stevens came to Pelikaan S, with which he became champion last season on that bizarre last match day when five teams still had a chance to win the title. Stevens suspected that it would be difficult in the fourth division. “That’s why a footballer like Aron would be a real reinforcement. I then more or less arranged for him to come.”
Strengholt had actually sworn off football at that point last summer. “After three seasons of Flevo Boys, I played for another year with the first Saturday team of Be Quick. We were promoted to the second division, but half of the team quit and the other half switched to Groen Geel and I didn’t really feel like that.”
Marathon run
Strengholt found another activity: running. “That kept getting better. It started with small laps, which became longer and eventually I also ran a marathon and even an Ultrarun (50 kilometers, ed.). It’s really delicious. But you always have to do it alone and I sometimes found that difficult. I missed the team feeling.”
When his buddy Fabian called him, he didn’t need much time to think about it, even though he had just become a father. “I just felt like playing at a high level again, to really get to work. That was of course possible with Pelikaan S: we really have to work in this class. Of course Pelikaan S fell into the fourth division a bit unexpectedly.”
‘It’s really not going well’
Things are not going great with both Pelikaan S and Be Quick 1887. The Oostwolder team is last, Be Quick is two places and two points higher. “We are a bit in the corner where the blows are falling,” says Strengholt. “Many injuries, balls that just don’t go in, now Fabian’s injury again. It’s not really going well.”
Stevens expects a tough match at Oostwold sports park at De Boomgaard. “For both teams, this is of course a match they want to win. Such a match could be a turning point in the competition.”
‘We are going to win!’
Stevens and Strengholt do not know any players from the current Be Quick generation. “I think I only know a few of the staff,” says Strengholt, who is currently HR manager at the Ziengs/Scapino holding company in Assen.
Stevens, who trained as a business administrator in Groningen, will take over his father-in-law’s payroll and personnel consultancy office in Emmen in the foreseeable future. “But first let’s get to work on the field. I hope that I will at least be fit again before the end of the season. And we are going to win against Be Quick!”