Zaandijker Groot, born and raised in a family of sports enthusiasts, went to Ajax in 1959 with his brother Cees. He lived only 20 kilometers from stadium De Meer, but for the Ajax consisting almost entirely of Amsterdammers, he passed for a ‘foreigner’. In his debut against NAC (3-0) Groot accounted for all three goals and immediately silenced the Amsterdam swagger.
The press was lyrical when Groot had once again excelled. “Like a prima ballerina, he floated across the court, doing pirouettes like nothing. And always the ball was stuck to his shoe,” wrote The Time Maasbode after Sparta-Ajax in 1960.
In 1962 the Italian Lanerossi Vicenza beckoned, where a generous salary was waiting for him. Not a top club, but a top salary, Groot said. Ajax refused to let him go and did nothing on top of his salary. ‘Oh Henk, what to do with all that money’, Ajax chairman Melchers would have said.
A year later, the exasperated Groot got his gram and moved to Feyenoord where he would earn 10 percent of his transfer fee: 25 mille. His return was demanded by trainer Rinus Michels, who transformed Ajax from a club where a team committee determined the line-up not too long before his arrival, into a professional football company.
Brilliant vanguard
Michels realized that he had a brilliant vanguard with Piet Keizer, Johan Cruijff, Klaas Nuninga and Sjaak Swart, but he lacked a director, a conductor who set out the lines. A ‘mastermind’, as Benfica coach Otto Gloria Groot called after Ajax eliminated the Portuguese in 1969.
Groot was the only player to whom the up-and-coming talent Cruijff listened. If he pinged or talked too much for Groot’s taste (“His talk sometimes made me mad”), Groot ignored him and passed the ball to someone else.
Besides playmaker, Groot was a cool penalty specialist and above all a fabulous header, which earned him the nickname Nekkie. As a child he had practiced endlessly by throwing the ball on the sloping tiled roof of the shed near the parental home, running around at lightning speed and heading the ball.
Shadowy black-and-white images are circulating on YouTube in which Groot scores a header in the Bernabéu stadium against Real Madrid. Sjaak Swart puts the ball ready for use on Groot’s head, who rams the ball into the top left corner with a mighty nod between two opponents.
Fourth place top scorers list
In the 305 matches that Groot played for Ajax, he scored 207 times. He is in fourth place on Ajax’s all-time top scorers list, behind Piet van Reenen (273), goal-getter in the 1930s, Cruijff (271) and Swart (228).
With 41 goals, he does lead the list of Ajax players who scored the most goals in one season. Only PSV player Coen Dillen scored more often for his club: 43.
On May 28, 1969, Groot was still there in Ajax’s first European Cup final against AC Milan, although he was substituted at half time. More than three months later, he received a fatal kick to his right knee in an international match against Poland and he was finished football at the age of 31.
After he was rejected, Michels engaged him as a team coach and scout. He analyzed international opponents and when he was there, he immediately arranged the hotel for the players and tickets for the supporters. Then he returned to Amsterdam with thousands of tickets in his suitcase.