Fleks 40th Orange-Limburger: these players preceded him | 1Limburg

National coach Louis van Gaal let Flek start on Saturday in the friendly against the Danes in the Johan Cruijff ArenA. The SC Freiburg goalkeeper from Bocholtz is the first Limburger in more than five years to wear the Orange shirt for the first time.

Brenet and Hendrix
The last to receive this honor was the one born in Kerkrade Joshua Brenet, who was drafted by national coach Danny Blind on 9 November 2016 in the friendly match against Belgium. PSV player Jorrit Hendrix played his first minutes in the national team two months earlier.

An international match
With his first international match, Flek immediately equalizes with Hendrix, Erik Meijer, Huub Felix, Frans Geurtsen, Piet Giesen, Chiel Haenen, Heinz Vroomen, Sjo Soons, René Hofman, Harry Heijnen and Willy Quadackers, who all once played for the Dutch team. team came out. Most international matches were played by Mark van Bommel, who was on the field 79 times.

20’s
The first Limburger to make his debut in the national team was Huub Felix, who made his first and immediately last minutes in Orange on August 31, 1919. The attacker played for MVV at the time. Miel Campionic (Roermond, two duels) and Sjo Soons (Maastricht, one race) followed in 1921 and 1922.

First Limburg goal
RFC player Pierre Massy was the first fellow provincial to cross the border of ten international matches. The defender from Roermond made his debut on October 31, 1926 and made a total of twelve games. Massy can also call himself the first Limburg goalscorer ever in the Dutch national team. Against Czechoslovakia, the attacker scored two goals on April 18, 1927, the 2-0 and 8-0. In total, he would score three times on behalf of the Netherlands in his career.

Also Massy’s teammate at RFC, Harry Schreurs, played two more games for the Netherlands in this period. He debuted in 1928.

1940s
Limburg football fans then had to wait twelve years for a next provincial colleague in Orange. Only in 1940 was Juliana attacker Heinz Vroomen (Kerkrade) enter the field in orange. It did not come to a glorious career in the national team, because the match against Luxembourg (4-5 defeat) was the only time that Vroomen was allowed to trot on. Maastricht native Jeu from Bun was more successful between 1947 and 1949 with eleven international matches.

50s
Of Jan Klaassens† Bert Carlier† Jan Notermans† Coy Koopal† Fons van Wissen and Harry Brull knew Limburg football in the 1950s with the most successful decade so far in the Dutch national team. VVV icon Klaassens (debut on 7 March 1953 against Denmark) was the first Limburger ever to win fifty international matches. In total, the midfielder from Venlo played 57 times for the Orange squad. In it he scored one goal; the 8-0 in the 9-1 win against Belgium on October 4, 1959.

Van Wissen and Notermans were also fixed values ​​in the selection of Orange for years. Margratenaar Van Wissen came to 30 international matches and four goals; Notermans (Sittard) played a total of 25 games with two goals.

Willy Dullens
The sixties had nine Orange debutants from Limburg, of which Willy Dullens without a doubt the best known. The perhaps best Limburg footballer ever played four games for the Netherlands in 1966, but did not score. Dullens made his debut on April 17, 1966 against Belgium (3-1 win). Due to a serious injury, the attacker of Sittardia had to put an end to his career in 1968 and that of course also brought an abrupt end to his international career.

Many Limburgers
In addition to Dullens, PSV player also came Lambert Verdonk in the 1960s to four international matches. Pierre Kerckhoffs (Geleen), who never played for a Limburg club in his career, was allowed to play one more match: he came to five international matches between 1960 and 1965. MVV player Gerard Bergholtz was the permanent Limburg face in the national selection this decade; he came to 12 games. The other Limburgers that decade, Piet Giesen† Willy Quadackers† Chiel Haenen† Frans Geurtsen and Harry Heijnenall played once for the Orange squad.

club icons
The 70s were the years that MVV club icon Willy Brokamp and Roda JC star Pierre Vermeulen made their appearance in the national team. Brokamp made his debut against Israel on January 28, 1970. The blond attacker – nicknamed ‘the White’ – was immediately decisive for the Netherlands; in the game that was won 1-0, the man from Maastricht scored the only goal of the game. In six international matches, the attacker achieved as many hits, making it the most effective Limburger ever in Orange. He also gave an assist to Johan Cruijff in a match against Norway (see video).

Vermeulen played three times more often for the Orange, but was less effective than Brokamp. The attacker managed to score once, also during his debut. Vermeulen scored the opening goal in a 4-0 win against Tunisia on April 5, 1978.

Huub Stevens
Another Limburg football icon who was called up for the Netherlands in the 1970s was Huub Stevens† The robust defender from Sittard made his debut on February 24, 1979 against Italy. He was a permanent fixture in the national team for a year and even became the first Limburger ever at a major tournament at the 1980 European Championship, but halfway through that year he lost his place. Only sporadically was Stevens called up, until he made his last minutes in a home game against Bulgaria in 1985.

80s and 90s
In the 1980s, Limburg had lesser years in the Dutch national team. Alone Wilbert Suvrijn van Fortuna (later Roda) and René Hoffman (Roda JC) were allowed to put on the national shirt; Suvrijn for the first time in 1986 and Hoffman in 1982. The decade after that was not much better for Limburg footballers. Only Stan Valckx (20 internationals), Erik Meijer (1) and Maastricht residents Eric van der Luer (2) and Baudouin Zenden were called up, the last of which had the most glittering career in Orange; Zenden played 54 times and perhaps had his best moment at the 1998 World Cup. The left winger scored the only Dutch goal in the 2-1 lost consolation final against Croatia.

First Limburger at a World Cup
Valckx also has the honor of being the first Limburger ever at a World Cup. The defender from Arcen was part of the Orange selection in 1994 that took part in the tournament in the United States. Valckx played four games at the world championship, including the lost quarterfinal against Brazil in which the defender played for 90 minutes. Suvrijn is the only Limburger who managed to win a big prize with Orange. The defender was part of the Netherlands that became European Champion in 1988 on behalf of Roda JC. Incidentally, he only played four minutes in the tournament; three against England and one against Germany.

Record international
In the year 2000 we suddenly saw three Limburgers make their debut: Heerlenaar Fernando Ricksen and PSV players Mark van Bommel (Maasbracht) and Kevin Hofland (Brunsum). Goalkeeper came a year later Ronald Waterreus from Lemiers still there. Where Hofland and Waterreus were allowed to put on the shirt of the Netherlands seven times, Van Bommel grew into the Limburger with the most ‘caps’ to his name: 79. With ten hits, the midfielder from Maasbracht can also call himself Limburg’s Orange top scorer of all time. . He scored his best goal in 2001 against England (see video). Ricksen also played twelve times for the Netherlands.

Last Limburgers
In 2008 there came Dirk Marcellis still with. The mandekker from Horst was considered a great defensive talent at the time, but only came to three international matches. After a good start at PSV, he was somewhat forgotten at AZ, NAC Breda and PEC Zwolle, partly due to injuries. After Van Bommel decided to hang up his shoes, Limburg knew with Paul Verhaegh, who still made it to the 2014 World Cup selection, Jorrit Hendrix and Joshua Brenet debutants who came to only a handful of games. So Saturday came Mark Flek as the fortieth Limburg international in history.