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asked van Basten. “Don’t listen to the coaches,” he said. “So, what then?” “Don’t waste your energy defending. You’ve got to use your strength in attacking. You’ll serve your team best by attacking and scoring goals, not by wearing yourself out defending.” That became another one of the things I picked up: you’ve got to save your energy for scoring goals.
The management owned my flesh and bones, in a sense. A soccer player at my level is a bit like an orange. The club squeezes it until there’s no juice left, and then it’s time to sell the guy. That might sound harsh, but that’s how it is. It’s part of the game. We’re owned by the club, and we’re not there to improve our health, we’re there to win, and sometimes even the doctors don’t know where they stand. Should they view the players as patients or as products on the team?
He was willing to cross some boundaries, and those guys are always the best. I don’t believe in sticklers for rules, you know that. Sometimes you’ve got to break the rules. That’s how you make progress. I mean, what happened to the guys in the Malmö FF youth squad who always behaved? Are there any books written about their lives?
