A Goalkeeping Guru: Frans Hoek Discusses Working With Cruyff, van Gaal, and the Future of the Position
· Yahoo Sports
Having mentored some of the greatest goalkeepers in the game, Frans Hoek is an authority figure not just for the position, but for the sport as a whole. We sit down with the legendary coach to discuss his love for education, working with some of the brightest minds in the sport’s history, and why he prefers the term ‘goalplayer’ to goalkeeper.
Frans Hoek might not be a household name in the football world, but keen-eyed fans would recognize his face as part of some of the greatest clubs and moments in the history of the sport. The goalkeeping coach has had stints with Manchester United, Bayern Munich and the Dutch national team, having overseen multiple iconic matches from the touchline.
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From Tim Krul’s famous heroics against Costa Rica in the 2014 World Cup to the Red Devils’ dramatic FA Cup win in 2016, he has seen it all.
Those three teams simply represent a small part of Hoek’s incredible career, which has spanned Turkey, Poland, Spain, Saudi Arabia, and even the United States. Now 69, the Dutchman has been coaching for 40 years and very few personalities in the game boast the same longevity and effectiveness.
His revolutionary and innovative ideas hide behind a warm smile, which mirrors his humble background and upbringing Hoorn, a province of North Holland.
The Origins of a Goalkeeping Guru
By Bert Verhoeff for Anefo, Nationaal Archief, Den Haag, Rijksfotoarchief: Fotocollectie Algemeen Nederlands Fotopersbureau
Hoek’s unorthodox journey in the sport didn’t even begin with football in the first place — it wasn’t even in his top two sports.
A judo blackbelt, Hoek devoted most of his energy towards the martial art between the ages of 5 to 12, and in high school, he took up volleyball, which he calls his “second love.”
And while football was lower on Hoek’s priority list, the Netherlands’ bustling culture around the sport nevertheless made it unavoidable, and he was eventually drawn to its gravitational pull.
“In Holland, everybody played football on the streets,” Hoek said. “All your friends play it. So when I was 10, I went to a club and the funny thing was, I played in goal and in the outfield. I liked the goal better because it was similar to judo. You were diving, not being afraid, but I almost didn’t get any work, so I wanted to be on the field.”
After a point, Hoek put his foot down and started focusing on being between the sticks.
Soon enough, young Hoek started playing for Always Forward, a local Hoorn-based team, and before he, or anyone else for that matter, expected, he was making his first team debut.
“I was 14 and could hardly touch the crossbar,” Hoek said. “The coach of the first-team looked at the game of ours, his original goalie’s wife was giving birth. He saw me and said: ‘I want him in goal.’ It was a surprise for me and to everyone.”
Soon, he experienced first-team football and for someone as young as him, it was awe-inspiring. He didn’t let the occasion get to him and impressed enough to become a regular part of the senior side.
“Three or 4,000 people, it was really big for me, I had never played with seniors before,” Hoek said. “But I probably made an impression and he kept me with the first team. At that point, there was interest from different clubs.”
Photo by Cord Otting
But moving to a bigger club, even if there was interest, was never a priority for Hoek. Instead, he was focused on his education. Somehow, he found a way to both have his cake and eat it too.
“My parents couldn’t afford to let me study,” Hoek said. “Ajax were interested, so were AZ. There was also interest from Volendam and they were a special team to me. I told them, ‘Yes, I want to come but you have to pay for my studies.’ My study was for three years and they agreed to it. I got the security to study for three years.”
Despite being a regular at his new club’s first team, Hoek remained focused on education and a pivotal point came when he decided to write his thesis on goalkeeping at the ripe age of 19.
Being that few people, if anyone, had written a thesis on goalkeeping before, the lack of available information became an obstacle. In the pre-internet era where stats in football wasn’t even a thing, young Frans faced struggles. Even the Dutch football federation couldn’t offer much help.
“I was playing for the Dutch youth team and went to the federation and asked if they could get me information on keeper training. They said, no. I asked them if they could ask other federations. Basically, the end conclusion was, there was nothing. There were some biographies and that’s it.”
They say if there’s a will there’s a way, and through perseverance and a little improvisation, Hoek managed to find a solution despite his struggles.
“I went to the local newspaper and asked if I could have an insight into all the pictures of goalies from the start until now,” Hoek said. “I got a package and I still have it. Then I went to a few magazines and asked if I can get into their archives for interviews where a goalkeeper is speaking or a coach has something about goalkeepers. They agreed. I got a package with interviews.
“It was New Years’ Eve, my parents were gone, and I had my room for myself. I put the pictures on the ground and started to think of categorizing it. It all came out of my own mind, nobody taught me that.”
To Hoek’s surprise, he realised he had done something special. His coach convinced him into turning the thesis into a book, and a journalist friend helped him in that.
Suddenly, word spread and Hoek’s findings picked up a lot of local attention.
“There was an ocean for attention,” Hoek said. “In every region of Holland, they asked to show what I was writing. I never coached anybody. I was a player but I could teach. Then, it started. Other countries came, UEFA came. From that moment on, it started to slowly but surely go up.”
Working With Two Brilliant Dutch Minds: Johan Cruyff and Louis van Gaal
On the pitch, things were improving for Hoek as well. The young goalkeeper progressed quickly with Volendam, helping the club achieve promotion to the Eredivisie for the first time in 1977. He’d go on to feature over 350 times for the club over 14 seasons. This era of Dutch football was largely associated with another great of the game: Johan Cruyff.
Cruyff left the Eredivisie for Barcelona the same season in which Hoek debuted with Volendam, but the two would eventually cross paths when Cruyff would make his return to Ajax in the ’80s.
The Flying Dutchman struck up a conversation with Hoek during a match between Ajax and Volendam, and it was the start of something special.
“He came up to me and said, ‘I read your book and I like it very much,'” Hoek said. “That was the first time he spoke to me and it felt personal, which felt amazing.”
An injury ended Hoek’s playing career in 1985, but it wasn’t long before he’d join the coaching ranks.
“The moment I got injured, [Cruyff] became the Ajax coach and he called me,” Hoek said. “He invited me to go to the Ajax Stadium. The moment you come into the stadium and the moment you see the signs, something happens inside you. When he picked me up from the outside and got me into the coaches’ room, it was unreal.”
Hoek wasn’t the only one impressed, however. Cruyff quickly took to Hoek’s ideas around goalkeeping, the book, and his background in education. In 1986, one year into Cruyff’s managerial career, the pair joined forces.
Hoek was appointed as the goalkeeping coach at the Dutch giants, with the role being revolutionary in itself at that point. Cruyff’s insistence on division of roles was behind this.
“I worked for two weeks at Ajax and Johan said it went well,” Hoek said. “I told him that it didn’t. He asked why. I responded that if I look at the games, I saw the goalie — Stanley Menzo at that time — going out when he should stay and he was staying when he should go out. He said, ‘What do you want to suggest?’
“I said, we want to make it more game-oriented. We need the players that are playing with him and the attackers to turn the situation into in-game scenarios. He said: ‘OK, you have the players on Thursday, the entire training session.’”
This token of faith proved key in Hoek’s career. He thrived while turning sessions into in-game situations and it also elevated the Ajax team’s level, improving Menzo himself.
“After the training, Johan told me I’ll have the players again on Thursday for the entire training session,” Hoek said. “It was his way of saying that he liked it.”
The two shared a deep bond and Cruyff’s fresh ideas left a deep impact on Hoek. He describes the late legend as someone who never really came across as a “boss.” His relationship with everyone at Ajax and later at Barça was based on mutual respect and it went beyond the simple pleasantries and cliches.
“The players didn’t call him coach, they called him Johan,” Hoek said. “[Cruyff] said, ‘It isn’t what they say, it is how they say. They can say coach with no respect but they can say Johan with a lot of respect. If I see there is no respect, I call them out and discuss it.'”
Hoek looks back on his time with Cruyff with a glimmer in his eyes and that goes to show the impact it had on him and his career.
“He was not really a boss, he gave you a responsibility,” Hoek said. “If you could handle it, he was always on your side. He was a warm person. A family man. The memories are very beautiful. What I learned in one month with Johan on the insides of the game was more than I learned as a professional for 12 years.”
Photo by Christof Koepsel/Bongarts/Getty Images
In addition to Cruyff, Hoek was lucky enough to work with another famous Dutch football mind, Louis van Gaal. Like Cruyff, van Gaal started his managerial career with Ajax and then moved to Barcelona, but that’s not where their similarities end.
Hoek indicates that van Gaal, while more rigid, had a similar fundamental way of seeing the game and this put the goalkeeping coach in good stead when working with him.
“They were very similar in how to play because they were coming through at the same time [as players],” Hoek said. “Louis had Cruyff ahead of him [at Ajax]. For Louis, there was no future at Ajax but the way of thinking was the same.
“Louis was a little bit more critical because he always said, keep the ball out of the net, then the rest. Johan was more about keeping the ball, playing it to the right players and it will make sure you don’t concede shots. Everything else was the same.”
The Best Goalkeeper He’s Worked With
Hoek and van Gaal would work together in many capacities with several teams, including Ajax, Barcelona, the Dutch national team, Bayern Munich, and Manchester United. Hoek would mentor a handful of elite goalkeepers during this span, but the one that stands out most to him was David de Gea.
The van Gaal era at Old Trafford had its ups and downs, much like most of the post-Ferguson years at United. While it ended with an impressive FA Cup win at Wembley, van Gaal’s tenure with the Red Devils had moments that many fans don’t remember fondly, especially when it came to de Gea.
The Spanish goalkeeper’s weaknesses on the ball had been criticized, not just under van Gaal, but under future managers too.
Hoek believes the Red Devils’ inability to build from the back was a larger problem and it was never entirely down to the de Gea.
“Had nothing to do with de Gea, everyone criticized him for that,” Hoek said. “Take my word for it, he could do it. Building out from the back isn’t just the goal player, the teammates are just as important.
“At United, we couldn’t build from the back because the strengths of the players were defending and not on the ball. That is why we always prefered to go to [Marouane] Fellaini for the long ball if there was pressure.”
While talking about de Gea, Hoek delves deeper into the tactical evolution of goalkeeping position. He believes that everything depends on how a goalkeeper is supposed to operate in the team’s style of play and how a manager potentially adapts to his strengths.
He also says de Gea’s biggest strength was his consistency, and it’s why he singles the Spaniard out as the best keeper he’s mentored.
“When people ask me who was the best you worked with, one criteria which is very important for me is the contribution of the goalplayer to the team performance,” Hoek said. “I always say that the one who was at an incredible level for two years in a row was de Gea. In the most competitive competition, he always scored a minimum seven out of 10.”
The Future of Goalkeeping
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Hoek’s experiences across Europe and beyond have led him to found GoalPlayer, named after his preferred term for a goalkeeper. In Hoek’s eyes, “goalplayer” paints a more accurate picture of what the position demands in the modern day.
He points out 1992 as the time when everything changed due to the removal of the back pass rule. That’s when goalkeepers became goalplayers.
“Before 1992, it was about keeping the ball out of the net,” Hoek said. “After ’92, it was also about attacking. Now, what you see is, attacking is more important than defending. Saying ‘keeper’ is more romantic, nostalgic and I understand that. But it is not realistic anymore for what is asked from a goalkeeper.”
Through GoalPlayer, Hoek wants to develop smarter keepers that understand how the game functions as a whole, making them fit for changing times.
This global project, which derives inspiration from Cruyff’s revolutionary ideas, has already helped Japanese football grow.
“They hired me in 2019 to take a look and I worked there for four years and implemented the GoalPlayer vision into the Japanese federation,” Hoek said. “What you see now is they have two or three talented goalkeepers. Zion Suzuki is one, I saw him at 19. Leo Kokubo, who is now in Belgium, I saw him when he was 19. There are three others that are on their way to Europe. Now, you see a different way of scouting, a different way of thinking.”
At GoalPlayer, the focus is on teaching the game in the first place. This is what Hoek learnt from Cruyff, van Gaal and also from the famous Rinus Michels.
“What I realised more and more is that Cruyff, van Gaal and Michels were geniuses in the game,” Hoek said. “I thought it was normal because I worked with them. In my education, they never touched that. But now, they do. I was very much influenced by it. Teach them the game, make them better in the game.”
Through GoalPlayer, Hoek now works with federations and organizations on a top-to-bottom basis, reshaping how the game is played and how keepers operate.
Japan’s example is proof that it works. With the game increasingly focused on tactical details and taking advantage of the smallest of advantages, Hoek is keen on spreading out his learnings more.