They left Be Quick 1887 five and ten years ago: Daan Driever (29) and Tiemen van Hezel (32). After wandering in Hardenberg, Heemskerk and Haarlem, they found each other again in Amsterdam, where they played together at Swift. Saturday they receive fear gegner HZVV.
Finally a season as it should be, they both say. After those corona years, finally a normal football year, in which the club is also doing well. In their third season with Swift, the club is second in Saturday’s fourth division B and the playoffs are a realistic goal. A PhD is nice, but not a must.
Football as a sideshow after a semi-pro existence
Driever and Van Hezel are therefore enjoying themselves in the capital. Because if playing football at Be Quick 1887, where they both grew up, was an afterthought, after some wanderings at semi-professional top amateur clubs such as AFC, HFC and HHC, it’s all the same at Swift. ,,We don’t pay here, so it’s really about having fun”, says Van Hezel. ,,There is a bit of the atmosphere of Be Quick here: nice football. That also sometimes has disadvantages, you know. Sometimes it is easy to cancel because it is purely a hobby.”
Driever works as a corporate recruiter at the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM), the national watchdog of the financial world. ,,I try to ensure that we attract the right people within the AFM”, says the attacking midfielder. “We mainly monitor the behavior of institutions and companies. What worries us at the moment is, for example, the behavior of so-called finfluencers, people who give financial advice via YouTube and other social media. They usually do not have a permit, while this is often necessary. I’m having a great time, I have a lot of freedom in my work.”
Switching to Royal HFC was not a success
Five years ago, the high-scoring ’10’ of Be Quick 1887 was coveted by many a top amateur club. He eventually signed with Koninklijke HFC in Haarlem, top team from the second division, and of course also known as the oldest football club in the country. ,,A wonderful club”, Driever looks back. ,,Which also looks a bit like Be Quick, of course: a lot of history and pride, the interaction with each other is very important. But football has not turned out as I had hoped. We started the competition badly that season and after two games the whole team was overturned and then I was next to it. Then we went on to win. Well, you know it’s going to be tough.”
ODIN’59 in Heemskerk, the club of Ahmed Al Mahdi, his former teammate on the Esserberg, was the next step. In the third division on Sunday. Not a great season either, especially made impossible by corona. ,,Every season I had contact with people from Swift, I had already talked to that club before. After the first corona season in Heemskerk I thought: now Swift.”
Van Hezel came through Jack van Gelder’s club
Tiemen van Hezel joined the Amsterdam club at exactly the same time, after five seasons at HHC Hardenberg and two at AFC. At the latter club, the pride of Jack van Gelder and Ivo Niehe, among others, he stayed on the Zuidas, because AFC plays at the Goed Genoeg sports park there.
As a business analyst at a real estate company – he studied business economics and got a master’s degree finance – he doesn’t work there. ,,Although we are not far from it”, says the former left half of Be Quick. “Here at this company, it just isn’t quite the atmosphere of that corporate world. I try to discover opportunities in the real estate market and I can go to work on the Swapfiets, I think it’s just a little less formal here than on the Zuidas.” Every Friday, Van Hezel still attends lectures at the UVA, where he executive registry controller follows.
Many Groningen people
Van Hezel only played one season together with Driever at Be Quick, but the two have found each other again. ,,We often hang out with each other”, says Van Hezel. “Having a beer after training or a game. There are many boys here who studied in Groningen and with whom we played football. Lars van den Berg, for example. I still see them regularly.”
In April, Van Hezel hopes to become a father for the first time, of a girl. Driever is single. Both can still be found regularly in the parental home in De Wijert-Zuid (Van Hezel) or Haren (Driever).
Own liqueur developed to help endangered animals
But things are also going well in less expected areas: Driever has developed its own liqueur, limoncello with a special addition. He has it made at a distiller under the name Animali Speciali and has recently started marketing it. ,, Already in five or six pubs in Amsterdam, and in Groningen it is served by restaurant Florentin. It’s going very well. I come up with the taste myself and every time it has something to do with an endangered species. Now we just launched The Yellow Gibbon, with figs added. Part of the proceeds go to the protection of endangered species.
At his own birthday party, the plan germinated. ,,I once made such a big pot of limoncello, one that I always remember so beautifully from our holidays in Italy. It was so successful that I had a series of test bottles made and now this. It’s great fun to do, the AFM also thinks it’s fine, colleagues sometimes drink it too. Now it’s time to grow further, but I’m building it up slowly.”
Back to football. Swift plays 4-2-2-2 with Driever usually playing either striker, but he can also act as a winger or passing mid-mid, a bit like Be Quick. Van Hezel usually plays as a controller.
Old acquaintance visiting: HZVV
An old acquaintance will be visiting on Saturday: HZVV. The position in the ranking – Swift is second, HZVV last – suggests that the Amsterdam Groningers have a piece of cake, but they don’t think so at all. Not surprising, because in Hoogeveen it became 3-2 for HZVV in October. ,,We have had a very difficult time against them in recent years”, says Van Hezel. ,,HZVV is a good team”, says Driever. “They are way too low for what they can do. But we play at home on Saturday. That makes a difference.”