The North has gained another international. Thijs Dallinga (23) was allowed to replace Wout Weghorst after the break during the European Championship qualifying match against Gibraltar and receives the famous bunny for brand new internationals.
Dallinga was close to scoring his first goal during his debut match, but in the final phase he was just unable to reach Cody Gakpo’s beautiful cross, which flew into the goal. It was the 0-6. Even without the goal, Dallinga’s performance was good for a note in the annals of the KNVB and the coveted bunny. Just over eight hundred of these were published by the KNVB in more than a hundred years.
The hare is a household name among Dutch top football players. Whoever has the honor of wearing the jersey of the great Orange has one at home. The bunny is a pin in a black velvet box.
Hare used to be a rabbit
The tradition was born in the 1920s, when the bunny was actually still a rabbit in the form of a cuddly toy. This was presented to goalkeeper Gejus van der Meulen by the daughter of the Dutch consul, J. Labouchère, during the 1924 Paris Olympics prior to the match against Romania. The goalkeeper placed the plush animal next to the post and the Dutch team promptly won 6-0. Since then it has been a good luck charm that has traveled with every match.
The more experienced internationals were not keen on walking onto the field with the cuddly toy, which made it a nice task for the youngest employees in the Dutch team, often a debutant. They were charged with the task of cuddly toy keeper and were, so to speak, ‘the bunny’. When the Netherlands suffered several major defeats a few years later, the cuddly toy was discarded and ended up somewhere in the drawers of a federation office in Zeist. What replaced it was the pin with the image of a hare, which is still awarded to debutants.
Debut northerner rarity
The debut of a born and bred Groninger or even a northerner in the Dutch national team is a rarity. Unofficially, the last was Jordan Teze, who made his first minutes on June 8, 2022. Although he was born in an asylum center in Groningen, he grew up in Roosendaal and has no further connection with the North.
For a true northerner, time must be turned back five years to 2018, when Hans Hateboer made his debut as a born and bred Groningen resident. The Veendammer goalkeeper Jeroen Zoet (2015) and Arjen Robben (2003) were the last to do so and before that it was Assen resident Peter Hoekstra who, as a northerner, had the honor of joining the Dutch national team on April 24, 1996. Then there is a gap to Jurrie Koolhof (1982) and names such as Dick Nanninga (1978), Hugo Hovenkamp (1977), Arie Haan (1972) and Jan Mulder, who made his debut in the Dutch team against East Germany in 1967.
Dallinga: it doesn’t make me any less happy
After the match, Thijs Dallinga responded in front of the NOS cameras when he could have scored a goal. According to analyst Rafael van der Vaart, he should have even boldly claimed the goal. “But I really didn’t hit Gakpo’s cross, otherwise I would certainly have done that,” says Dallinga. “The ball came my way, but I just couldn’t reach it. I didn’t graze him either, then I would have felt it. I think there is little point in building an entire play around it. The images prove it.”
Afterwards there were immediately the ceremonies that come with a debut in Orange. Dallinga: “I received a small talk from the director of the KNVB. That was fine of course, I knew it was coming. I am very happy with my debut, although it was an unpleasant match for a striker to come on. Gibraltar is building the entire sixteen. I’ve had one or two moments, but I prefer to play matches with slightly different resistance. Still, it doesn’t make me any less happy.”