One of the great forwards of European football history, the Dutchman's career was cut cruelly short by injury
During his many years of training at Ajax, Marco van Basten learned from his mentor Johan Cruyff to anticipate the game, take time away from defenders and get to the ball before everyone else with exceptional timing. Despite his imposing stature, Van Basten moved around the football pitch with the elegance of a swan and the lightness of a butterfly, running on his tiptoes like a ballet dancer. His feints, touches, roulettes, headers and precise passes, with which he set up his team-mates, were like something out of a movie. His goals, acrobatic, with pure technique or power, scored from both open play and free-kicks, still enchant fans today when they happen to pop up on our YouTube or TikTok timelines.
The most sophisticated centre-forward in modern football and one of the best ever, Van Basten's place in GOAL's Hall of Fame is without question. One of the most legendary footballers in history, Van Basten was a perfectionist and a winner, as illustrated by his 24 team titles and various personal accolades, including his three Ballons d'Or.
Van Basten was a spectacular footballer who was loved by fans around the world. But he was also dogged by bad luck and a failing body that eventually brought his career to a heartbreakingly premature end.
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From his brilliant performance against the USSR in the final of the 1988 European Championship to his heart-breaking farewell at the Stadio Meazza on 18 August 1995, the career of the 'Swan of Utrecht' is full of unforgettable moments that will forever remain part of football history.
First and foremost were his goals; many beautiful strikes, scored in every conceivable way. A total of 314, including 277 for at club level, were all carefully noted in his notebooks, as Van Basten's father Joop had taught him.
The most beautiful, and perhaps the most beautiful goal ever scored, came in the most important match in Dutch history, the 1988 Euros final. By the 54th minute, the Oranje were already leading 1-0 thanks to a header from Ruud Gullit, who cleverly converted a cross from Van Basten. It was at this point that the latter wrote himself into football history.
Arnold Muhren's cross from the left to the far post flew over Gullit, who was standing in the middle of the penalty area, and reached Van Basten on the edge of the box. Everyone expected a cross back into the middle, but the centre-forward instead scored with a spectacular and powerful volley to secure the Netherlands' first (and so far only) international success.
In terms of technique and spectacle, at least two other Van Basten goals are worth highlighting in a bid to explain his genius. He scored the first as a young player in the Eredivisie while playing for Ajax in 1986. Described as "a picture of beauty," by the man himself, Van Basten guided the ball into the corner with a breath-taking overhead kick to cap a fine team move.
"I know what I'm going to do, but I don't know yet whether the result will be acceptable," Van Basten recalled in his autobiography, 'Fragile'. "It could also go wrong. It's a pulled-back cross, so there are few options. There's still the header, but my solution is probably better. The ball is floating in the air… I use my speed, turn around immediately and manage to stay backwards in the air. It's high-performance gymnastics. Normally, I take a run-up with my right leg to jump, but this time I use my left… It's a precarious balance where everything has to come together again. You can either score or break your neck. And then comes the turn… I shoot with my right… I land well, on one arm. I touch the ground again at the moment the ball hits the net."
When it comes to acrobatic feats, one must also mention Van Basten's brilliant performance for AC Milan in the Champions League against IFK Gothenburg in November 1992. Van Basten was simply stunning, like a whirlwind sweeping over the unfortunate Swedes and poor goalkeeper Thomas Ravelli, as he scored four times, with the third the best of the evening and probably the most spectacular ever scored in a Rossoneri shirt.
Milan were already leading 2-0 when Van Basten read the trajectory of a cross perfectly and fired the ball into the left corner with a scissor kick that was unstoppable for Ravelli. A masterpiece of timing, precision and coordination.
However, Van Basten's football iconography encompasses many other moments and a whirlwind of emotions. From his debut in Ajax's first team, when he replaced his idol Cruyff from the bench, to his inevitable jump to gather momentum before taking a penalty, to the grimaces of pain when his ankle wouldn't let him rest, to his tears both after defeat in the Euro '92 semi-finals on penalties and after losing the 1993 Champions League final.
On 18 August, 1995, however, it was Van Basten who moved all Milan fans to tears. In a heart-breaking lap around the pitch, dressed in a suede jacket, the man who had inspired so many children to play football said goodbye to the game forever at the age of just 30 having not played for almost two years.
"In front of 80,000 people, I am witnessing my own farewell. Marco van Basten, the footballer, no longer exists," he wrote in his autobiography. "You see someone who is no longer there. You applaud a ghost. I run and clap, but I am already gone… Sadness rises from deep within. It overwhelms me. The chorus and the applause penetrate my armour. I want to cry, but I can't burst into tears like a child here. I try to stay calm… I stop running and clapping, the round is over. Something has changed, something fundamental. Football is my life. I have lost my life. Today, I died as a footballer. I am here, a guest at my own funeral."
AdvertisementGoogleStepping into Cruyff's shoes
Marcel 'Marco' van Basten, was born on 31 October 1964 in Utrecht. His passion for football was instilled in him by his father Joop, a former player who won a Dutch championship title, and Marco spent his early years at various clubs in his home town. He mostly played against older boys who tried to stop him by any means necessary, fair or foul; they almost never succeeded.
In 1981, at the age of 16, Van Basten was accepted into the Ajax youth academy, and a year later he made his first-team debut against NEC, with it immediately clear that he was an exceptional talent as, having come on for Cruyff, Van Basten scored the first goal of his professional career.
Cruyff later became his coach while Van Basten went on to score 152 goals in 172 games for Ajax, winning three Dutch championships, three domestic cups and the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1987.
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Van Basten became a star at Ajax, but after joining Milan and moving to Serie A, which was considered the best league in the world at the time, Van Basten developed into a true legend. First under the revolutionary Arrigo Sacchi, with whom he developed a love-hate relationship, and then under Fabio Capello, Van Basten quickly became the ideal finisher in an almost perfect system.
Even with his constantly bandaged and often painful right ankle, he reinterpreted the role of centre-forward and proved that he could also be an excellent playmaker. Van Basten enchanted supporters one his way to and winning three Scudetti, two Italian Super Cups, two European Cups, two European Super Cups and two Intercontinental Cups.
At the end of the 1980s, Milan were the best and most exciting team in the world, playing the most modern football, and Van Basten was their star player.He was twice top scorer in Serie A and once top scorer in the European Cup on his way to being awarded the Ballon d'Or on three occasions, in 1988, 1989 and 1992.
In 1994, Van Basten won both the Serie A title and the Champions League again, but this time as a spectator. His constant injuries had condemned him, at just 28 years of age, to watching from the sidelines since the summer of 1993. Before that, he scored 125 goals and provided 49 assists in 201 games for the Rossoneri. To this day, he is one of only two players to have scored at least one goal against every opponent in Serie A.
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Getty ImagesFive sad minutes
What stopped Van Basten and forced him to retire early was not an opponent, but physical problems, in his case his permanently injured right ankle, which doctors were unable to heal.
In December 1992, the day after receiving his third Ballon d'Or, he underwent surgery on his right ankle in St. Moritz. But instead of the procedure getting the striker back into top form, this was the beginning of a long and painful period of suffering.
Van Basten was out of action until the spring of 1993, but it was clear upon his return, as he played through gritted teeth that he was no longer the same player he had been before. During the Champions League final of 1993, in which Milan lost to Marseille, it became clear to everyone that Van Basten's body was no longer doing as his brain wished.
Thrown on by Capello in the 85th minute, Van Basten could not inspire a comeback, and instead those five minutes at Munich's Olympic Stadium – the same ground at which he'd scored the most famous goal of his career – proved to be his last as a professional. The wings of the 'Swan of Utrecht' were broken forever.