The Haarlem football club, Koninklijke HFC, will play tonight in the first round of the KNVB Cup against Go Ahead Eagles, the number five in the Eredivisie. ‘De Koninklijke’ won the tournament three times (1904, 1913 and 1915). The first in that series in particular appeals to the imagination. It was unmistakably the tournament of super striker Eddy Holdert.
If Eddy Holdert’s football career had not been so short, he would have been the ideal protagonist of his own boys’ book. Eddy is only ten years old when he plays ball with other boys from the neighborhood in Haarlemmerhout under the care of his older brother Hak. HFC, founded in 1879, does not yet have its own field, but once it does, Eddy will no longer be able to stay away from the Spaanjaardslaan. He trains hard to make his dream of becoming a regular player for the first team come true.
Debut
It is not possible to determine exactly how old Eddy is when he makes his debut in HFC 1. He is probably only sixteen. In the five-man forward line he is a fast right winger with dynamite in his feet. In the 1903/1904 season he scored no fewer than 64 goals in 28 matches, which is an average of more than two goals per match. The anniversary book on the occasion of the club’s fortieth anniversary in 1919 says:
”The goalkeepers endured many anxious moments when they saw our tall blondes rushing towards them on the inside right. Just ask the man who defended the VVV goal in the famous cup match and was passed by Eddy thirteen times.”
‘Football staple’
The thirteen goals Eddy scored that day (December 6, 1903) are still a record almost 120 years later. No one has ever scored more times in a cup match. The outcome of the competition is also unique. HFC wins 25-0 against Amsterdam’s VVV (Veni Vidi Vici). Of course, Eddy also scored in the final (from a penalty), which HFC won 3-1 against HVV from The Hague. Shortly afterwards, when he was barely eighteen, his career came to an end. The cause: a ‘football knee’.
From the HFC anniversary book: ”Eddy’s football career was glorious but relatively short. He was still at the Haarlem Gymnasium when he hurt one of his knees during the Amsterdam school competitions so much that he had to give up playing further.”
‘Deep thinker’
When HFC wins the cup again nine years later, Eddy Holdert is on the board. “Smart observer and deep thinker as he was, his advice often led to the right solution being found for HFC on difficult issues,” the writer also praises him as a board member in the same anniversary book.
Red and white
HFC wins the cup for the third and last time in 1915. Holdert will then no longer have an official position at the club. He’s too busy with his work. His older brother Hak, owner of De Telegraaf, gave him the daily management of the newspaper. Eddy will continue to play cricket at HFC’s sister club Rood en Wit. Eddy Holdert died in 1958. He is then 72 years old.
With thanks to Hugo Bettink and Bert Vermeer, archive committee Royal HFC
A replica of the cup for all winners
In the years that HFC wins the national cup, they still play for the Holdert Cup, the predecessor of the later KNVB cup tournament. The namesake is Eddy’s older brother Hak, publisher and director of De Telegraaf. Inspired by the English FA Cup, he wants clubs from all over the country to play against each other.
In the first edition in 1894, only two associations participated in the Holdertbeker, HFC Haarlem and HFC (yet without the predicate ‘Royal’, it only earned that prefix in 1959). HFC wins the first Dutch cup match ever with 3-1.
War
With the exception of the 1920s (it was then called the NVB tournament), the Holdert Cup was played until the war. In 1944, Hak Holdert died. The surname of top scorer Eddy as the namesake of the tournament will disappear. The KNVB will from now on organize the tournament itself. It is not clear to what extent Hak’s war history is the basis for this. In WWII he worked with the Germans as director of De Telegraaf.
William II
Willem II is the last winner of the Holdert Cup, but no longer owns the cup. No one knows where the cup is. Bert Vermeer, archivist of Royal HFC: ”Willem II has a receipt that they handed in the Holdert Cup to the KNVB during the war. But it got lost there.”
At the initiative of the Delft Concordia (winner in 1906), a replica was made for each of the sixteen winners of the Holdert Cup, so Royal HFC also has one. Quick (The Hague) won the cup most often, four times.