Rinus Michels - Playing Career

Playing Career

Michels was born in Amsterdam and grew up at the Olympiaweg, a street near the Olympic Stadium. He celebrated his ninth birthday on 9 February 1936, when he received a pair of football boots and an Ajax jersey. Moments later he was playing with his father at a small field near their home. Via Joop Köhler, a friend of the family who was commissioner at Ajax, Michels was introduced to the club and became a junior member in 1940. When World War II started, and specially during the Dutch famine of 1944, Michels' career was set on hold.

French club Lille OSC had also wanted to contract him, but an international career did not go through as the Dutch Army did not let him go because he had to go on duty.

Read more about this topic:  Rinus Michels

Famous quotes containing the words playing and/or career:

    We cannot set aside an hour for discussion with our children and hope that it will be a time of deep encounter. The special moments of intimacy are more likely to happen while baking a cake together, or playing hide and seek, or just sitting in the waiting room of the orthodontist.
    Neil Kurshan (20th century)

    A black boxer’s career is the perfect metaphor for the career of a black male. Every day is like being in the gym, sparring with impersonal opponents as one faces the rudeness and hostility that a black male must confront in the United States, where he is the object of both fear and fascination.
    Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)