He did not want to publicize it himself, but Wednesday evening was really the very last time that Frank Snoeks reported on a match of the Dutch national team.
Snoeks stops after 32 years. He will continue to report on matches in the Eredivisie for the NOS, but we only get to see the summaries. So it meant that Wales-Netherlands was the last time that Snoeks could be heard for 90 minutes. An end of an era, you must say. From now on, never again that slightly pinched, creaky voice. Characteristic, that’s how you could also describe Snoek’s sound, if you like to use well-worn and meaningless terms. As with all football commentators, some were fond of Snoeks, others less so. In any case, his voice will forever be reminiscent of glorious and less glorious European and World Championships. To summers full of expectation; to full living rooms; the smell of sweat from the shirt of the Dutch national team that you are no longer allowed to wash, because otherwise they lose; of hysterical joy and of dull disappointment.
Snoek’s farewell match, Wales-Netherlands, will only have appealed to people with high blood pressure. It was a meaningless, dull and powerless performance, which only revived at the very end. But by then everyone had probably already zapped, fallen asleep or died of boredom. ‘It can hardly be otherwise’, said Snoeks when the referee whistled for half-time at the end of the first half, ‘or the second half will be more fun’. He didn’t.
The lack of any form of entertainment, on the other hand, invited one to let one’s thoughts wander. To the summer of 1998, for example, when Dennis Bergkamp made the 2-1 against Argentina and Snoeks started to like the goal within seconds. ‘What a brilliant goal. What a fabulous goal. The best goal of this World Cup!’ Or to 2010, when Sneijder headed in the 2-1 against Brazil and Snoeks screamed: ‘Yeah-haha! he’s inside!’ His voice cracked and skipped – few voices can do that as fine as Snoeks’s. The same happened in 2014, when Robin van Persie with his gliding dive the Netherlands on the same level with Spain and in that skipping and the slip of the tongue ‘Bep-Persie’ echoed the euphoric bewilderment that everyone was feeling at that moment.
There was no such beauty in Wednesday evening. Only in the very last seconds, when Wales made 1-1 and the Netherlands immediately afterwards 2-1, Snoeks had to stretch his vocal cords. Then it was done. No big words, no emotional farewell – Snoeks is not the man for that. “A single passenger is checking out here, in Cardiff,” he said of his own swan song, “but the train rumbles on.” He spoke for a while while waiting for the interviews. Then colleague Jeroen Stekelenburg was ready with captain Stefan de Vrij and Snoeks decided his 32 years with Orange was as simple as it was modest. ‘I greet you.’