June 1989 (original) (raw)

Ajax… Fifteen Years Ago

It's 7 June 1989. Some Ajax players and officials are enjoying a well-deserved summer vacation, others are still at home. But every Ajacied will forever remember where he was when he first heard the news: the airplane carrying the_Kleurrijk Elftal_ ('Colourful Team'), a special team of Dutch-Surinamese footballers, crashed into the jungle near Paramaribo's Zanderij Airport. Survivors? Not many. Identities are as yet unconfirmed. One of the passengers was Ajax's reserve goalkeeper, Lloyd Doesburg.

The interest of the average Dutch football fan for the 'Colourful Team' is low. Most were unaware of the team's trip to the land of their mothers in the first place. Therefore, a reconstruction is required...

The players of the Colourful Team, almost all of them playing in Holland's Eredivisie and First Division, gather at Schiphol Airport late in the evening of 6 June. They are excited about the upcoming journey to Suriname, where a few demonstration games are scheduled. Too bad that AC Milan did not release Frank Rijkaard and Ruud Gullit this time, and that Ajax did not grant the slightly injured Aron Winter permission to go. Stanley Menzo will join them, but took an earlier flight and will meet them in Paramaribo. The team is in an elated mood. SLM (Surinam Airways), flight PY 764, departs from Amsterdam at 23:25 hours, but never reaches its destination. The old DC-8 aircraft gets into trouble during the landing procedure. One of the wings hits the tree tops, the plane spins in the air and crashes into the forest at 4:27 AM, local time.

In Amsterdam, the facts slowly trickle in from across the Atlantic. 169 of the passengers, plus the entire crew of nine, are dead. What about Lloyd Doesburg? Good news? Bad news?

It's bad. The tall goalkeeper, the ever loyal man behind Stanley Menzo, will not return. Lloyd Doesburg was 29 years old. He had five first team appearances for Ajax.


Lloyd Doesburg (29 April 1960 - 7 June 1989) shortly before
he died in the SLM plane crash. [Photo: Geheugen van Oost]

Volendam's Steve van Dorpel? Haarlem's Ortwin Linger? The coaching staff? Dead. All of them. Heerenveen's Winny Haatrecht couldn't make the trip due to his club's qualification for the play-offs. His brother Jerry, of First Division outfit Telstar,did go. And died. It turns out that only two players survived the crash: Sigi Lens, striker of Fortuna Sittard, and Edu Nandlal of Vitesse. The latter will have to live with paraplegia for the rest of his life. Within hours everyone understands that this is, by far, the greatest tragedy in the history of Dutch football. From now on The Netherlands_and_ Suriname have their own 'Busby Babes'.

Everything else suddenly seems so insignificant…

For example, the fact that Sonny Silooy will return to De Meer next season. He left for Matra Racing de Paris in September 1987 and made a lot of money there, but his second season in Paris turned into a disaster as the club owner, Mr Legardère, stepped back and Matra Racing instantly got into financial trouble. The players were no longer paid and one after the other jumped off the sinking ship. Luckily for Silooy his beloved Ajax wanted him back, much to the delight of the fans.

Ajax's most anticipated new signing, however, is a new centre forward, who will have to replace Stefan Pettersson until the latter's recovery period of an estimated eight months will be over. Ajax searched all over Europe for a striker with quality, a bit of experience, but yet a fairly modest price tag around his neck. The club comes up with Pál Fischer, 26 year-old Hungarian international, who started his career at Honvéd Budapest, but played for Ferençvarós last season. No-one knows him in Holland, but the reports sound okay.

And, as cynical as it may sound, Ajax also requires a new goalkeeper… The club announces that another prodigal son will return to De Meer: Sjaak Storm (27), product of the Ajax youth and reserve goalkeeper behind Hans Galjé in the early 1980s. However, as everyone at Ajax was raving about young Stanley Menzo, Storm decided to move on. He developed into a reliable Eredivisie goalkeeper at FC Groningen. Now he returns to Amsterdam, accepting the role he refused to accept at the time: that of second man, behind Stanley Menzo.


Farewell to a team-mate. Ajax players, including Aron Winter, Danny Blind,
Jan Wouters and the De Boer twins, lay Lloyd Doesburg to rest. Utrecht,
22 June 1989. (Photo: Beeldbank Nationaal Archief).

The newcomers are officially signed, but not yet presented to the press. That will happen on Ajax's press day at De Meer: 03 July, also the day of the first training session of the new season.

Before you know you're talking about the usual again. Training sessions, press, new signings, the new season. The show must go on. Lloyd Doesburg has been replaced as a goalkeeper. However, as a human being, husband, father and friend he can never be replaced. On 22 June the entire Ajax-1 squad, club officials and many supporters attend Doesburg's impressive funeral in his native city of Utrecht. How impressive is the way Surinamese people say farewell to their dear ones: weeping and mourning, but also celebrating the person he was.

The 'football year' of 1989 will, ironically, forever be remembered by what happened in June, the only month of the year in which no game was played. The 1989-1990 season will start without Lloyd Doesburg, without Steve van Dorpel, Ortwin Linger, Jerry Haatrecht and all those others. How cruel life can be... (MP)

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