When Mikey Wilson (25) now looks at the photo of his 5-year-old me, he sees a cheerful boy who has no idea what he is doing. Who raises his finger and doesn’t even know it’s his middle finger – let alone what that means.
It’s just a photo, it sounds relatable at the dining table in Schiedam, it’s a lot of fuss about nothing.
But the outside world didn’t think that way about this shot by ANP photographer Jasper Juinen. Because Mikey’s apparent outrage became an iconic image, as it is called. The image went twenty years ago viral, you would say now. It became a pre-internet meme, an image that kept popping up unsolicited in a different context, such as in German, Swedish, Polish or English periodicals, later on countless websites around the world. Domestic and foreign media used his raised middle finger as an image of the degeneration of the Netherlands, the angry face of the Netherlands after the murder of Pim Fortuyn, or the poor upbringing of the youth – just think of it, and the photo became the illustration.
Mikey Wilson became a picture of a story he didn’t want to tell himself.
Minute of silence for Fortuyn
Yes, it happened in De Kuip in Rotterdam, at the previous European final that Feyenoord played, for the Uefa Cup against Borussia Dortmund on May 8, 2002. Wilson remembers that he was painted by his father Ronald before the match and that he was not there was waiting for. He entered the stadium on his father’s shoulders, in a group, with his grandfather and grandmother and sister. He wore the away shirt for the 2001-2002 season.
One minute of silence would be held for the politician Pim Fortuyn, who was murdered two days earlier. That went wrong, because the German supporters did not understand the call of the Feyenoord speaker. They sang through the minute and a fierce flute concert was the reaction of the Rotterdam supporters. Everyone held up their middle fingers—and Mikey, too, he thought he must, sitting on his father’s shoulders, his eyes squinted, as if coming from inside him. He wanted to do the best he could.
Jasper Juinen saw it happen, 50 meters away, and took the picture, along with countless other football photographers. But none was as intense as Juinen’s. That year he won third prize in the National News category for the Zilveren Camera. His ANP colleague Robin Utrecht won with his photo of the shot Fortuyn, lying in the parking lot of the Media Park in Hilversum.
He had been taught to raise his middle finger in Milan a month earlier. Prior to the Inter Milan-Feyenoord semi-final, he sat on a terrace in the city center with his father Ronald and other Feyenoord fans. It was home to AC Milan supporters and the cafe opposite belonged to Inter fans. In exchange for chips and small change, two Italians made him clenched his fist and slowly raise his middle finger. ‘Finochio!’, he had to add, which means ‘fennel’, but above all ‘sissy’. Come on Mikey, and there went the middle finger, spurred on by a full terrace, Finochio! towards the Inter cafe. Did he know much.
Every home game in Vak Z
Mickey Wilson has just come home from work as a logistics team leader at Leen Bakker, a chain of furniture and interior companies, based at Maasvlakte. His haircut is hidden under a cap. He is single and lives with his mother with his two sisters and two dogs. After his pre-vocational secondary education, he completed his vocational training as a cook and team leader. He worked for a long time in the hospitality industry and even ran his own snack bar, lunchroom cafeteria Wilson in Schiedam. But it was just work, work, seven days a week. This job is much better and he can go to Feyenoord. Tattooed on his arms are: Stronger through Struggle and You’ll Never Walk Alone.
Still – just like twenty years ago – he can be found every home game in Vak Z, with his father, brother Brian Feyenoord (the birth was in Belgium so he could get that name), sister Shirley and his father’s friends from Waalwijk. Tis poured in, Feyenoord, for four generations. The club love that never goes away. For a home game, he gathers in The Hide Away, a permanent place for Feyenoord supporters. Drink in for two hours and then go to De Kuip.
If Feyenoord plays against AS Roma in Tirana on Wednesday 25 May, he will not be there. Bales, for sure, his mates are okay. Still, he can’t get enough of it. It’s what it is. Is he going to watch De Kuip, on a big screen, or in the café. He did have a ticket, but he has to work at Leen Bakker. The other logistics team leader had already asked for leave, and reporting sick is really not an option. You do not do that. Ever since the quarterfinals, he has known that he would miss the eventual final. They say he can easily sell the ticket for thousands of dollars, but he gave it to a friend. Does he care about the money?
A wall full of photos from newspapers
It was only when he was about 12 years old that he realized that there was a photo of him that everyone knew. Pretty fun, that’s all. In fact, he didn’t know what to think. Later he sometimes looked on the internet, jesus, he was shocked. He would be a future criminal, or become a neo-Nazi. Or all weird stuff. Terrible! In their old house in Putte, his dad had a whole wall full of photos that were in the newspapers at the time. That was fun. The fact that his photo made a visual connection with the anger in the Netherlands after the murder of Pim Fortuyn was something he had never considered.
Fans who know he was that one guy still want their picture taken with him. Then he has to raise his middle finger again like some kind of monkey. They call him a legend and still think that photo is genius. Twice he has been on television, but more because his father and sister liked it. He didn’t like it at all. He doesn’t understand that anyone wants to be on television. What’s the benefit? Nothing at all.
Recently, there was some booze in father and son, he got on his father’s shoulders again, and he held up his middle finger. It happened in The Hide Away, before the match against FC Twente. That was a laugh, twenty years later. But Mikey said: don’t do that, Dad, you’re not crazy. Because Dad couldn’t take it anymore with his hernia, and Mickey is now hitting 80 kilos.
A sweet, happy boy
When he was little, his father forbade him to raise his middle finger. He didn’t want it, not at home, not at school, anywhere. His father always said to people: he is a very sweet, cheerful boy, shy moreover. And he still is, although he can also come out of the corner when the referee whistles against Feyenoord. He doesn’t have all that negative. He prefers to laugh. And certainly hopes to smile, Wednesday. Well, let’s not hope that the Italians quickly prevent 1-0 and only defend. Because then it will be nothing. His Feyenoord heart says it will be 3-1, and that Cyriel Dessers will become the big man – just like Pierre van Hooydonk was twenty years ago. Then the whole stadium sang: ‘Put your hands up for Pi-Air’. Now there is a song for Cyriel Dessers:
Cheering at the corner flag
The boxes are full
De Kuip is in ecstasy
Because Dessers scores a goal
And if they win, he’ll have a cup tattooed on his legs, just like his mates. But if they lose, then at least for once his middle finger goes up again.