Frank Rijkaard made international football history in his career as a player and coach. In addition to the historic scandal of the 1990 World Cup, the Dutchman also launched a world career.
Luis Suárez’s bite attack in 2014, Zinédine Zidane’s headbutt in 2006 or Diego Maradona and the Hand of God in 1986. The history books of the World Cup have been enriched with a multitude of scandals over the decades.
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Frank Rijkaard, who celebrates his 62nd birthday today, September 30th, will probably be associated with the events surrounding the 1990 World Cup round of 16 between the Netherlands and arch-rivals Germany for the rest of his life.
But what happened on that memorable day?
Double haunting attack on Völler
21 minutes had been played when Rijkaard was shown a yellow card by referee Juan Carlos Loustau for a foul on current DFB sports director Rudi Völler. The trigger for an outburst of anger that would go down in history.
In an already heated game, Rijkaard gets out of control, spits into Völler’s curly hair and pulls his ear. Consequently, he was sent off one minute after the original warning. But surprisingly, Völler, who was spat on, also sees the red card and has to go to the dressing room together.
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On the way there, under the observation of spectators and TV cameras, a second spooky attack by the Dutchman followed, which resulted in a physical altercation in the dressing room corridor and only the official could be stopped.
Although the Dutchman apologized that same evening, explained that he had “personal problems” and hopes that after reconciling with Völler he “will not be remembered for a lifetime,” Rijkaard will probably be with him forever after the emotional outburst immortalized in football history.
How Rijkaard created a global star
However, to reduce the career of the 73-time national player to this one day would not come close to doing justice to Rijkaard’s work.
Even as an active player, Rijkaard celebrated, among other things, winning the 1988 European Championship, a Champions League title with Ajax Amsterdam and two Italian championships with AC Milan.
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The decision that would probably have the greatest impact on modern football was made by Rijkaard as coach of FC Barcelona, for whom he was on the sidelines from 2003 to 2008.
With the Catalans he not only won two championship titles and the Champions League, but also promoted one of the greatest players of all time to the professionals. On November 16, 2003, Rijkaard called up the then 16-year-old top talent Lionel Messi to the professionals for a friendly against FC Porto and substituted him on in the 75th minute.
Messi: “Maybe never would have made it to the pros”
Around a year later, on October 16, 2004, the Argentine superstar made his competitive debut in the league derby against Espanyol Barcelona. The starting signal for a world career that made Messi an eight-time winner of the Ballon d’Or and world champion.
“I picked up something from every coach I ever had,” confirmed Messi in an interview with the Arabic TV station MBC. But Rijkaard in particular had a significant influence on his career.
“Rijkaard was very important for me. He trusted me. If he hadn’t let me train with the first team and play there, I might never have made it to the professionals,” Messi said.
Even though the absolute breakthrough to the top of the world only came under Rijkaard’s successor Pep Guardiola, the Dutchman can still be described as a formative player in football history, both as a coach and as a player.
