The Maestro Abides! Edwin van der Sar Announces His Retirement

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
Charles Dickens (1812 – 1870), A Tale of Two Cities

So, Edwin Van der Sar has finally announced his retirement officially. One day after the papers are chock full of sentimental stuff and nonsense, especially the soap-operatic asides about his private life, especially conjecture concerning his wife, her aneurysm and the harsh toll EVDS’ “absence” has taken on his family. One day later, as if he were already dead and buried, the same journos are already working with the bookies, setting the odds as to who will be his successor. Manuel Neuer, Maarten Steklenburg, Igor Akinfeev, René Adler, Allan McGregor, Craig Gordon, Rui Patricio, Julio Caesar, Gianluigi Buffon, Hugo Lloris, Pepé Reína, David DeGea: I’m sure there’s someone I forget and someone waiting to stab me for it with their poison pen in the blogs.

What’s interesting to me is that, except for the usual clichés about the high speed turnaround in a relentless, ruthless 24- hour-a-day news cycle culture, is just how much this time is like the last time. The last time being when our previous great goalkeeper, Peter Schmeichel, announced his looming retirement right after the club won the treble. The same inventory of names for a start. The endless conjecture in the rumor mills. And what I’ll politely call the cock-up watch. In other words: If any of those keepers I listed so much as punches the ball to the feet of the opposition over the next fifteen weeks, they’re screwed. Yes, they’re royally screwed and will never get the opportunity to stand between the sticks for Manchester United.

Indeed, yesterday, the Gaffer was quoted as saying, “I will not make the same mistake again” vis-à-vis the mini-disasters which followed Schmeichel’s ultimate non-retirement to Sporting Lisbon, Aston Villa, and, oh-my-God, Manchester City, in the form of Massimo Taibi, Mark Bosnich, Roy Carroll and Fabian Barthez. The trouble with all this conjecture is that, at the time, the Gaffer said exactly the same thing! !Indeed, both Bosnich and Barthez were seen as absolutely world-class, albeit perhaps a little eccentric by most pundits and fans. What went wrong in both cases had as much to do with the mistakes they made in their private lives lives as much as the pressure on the pitch. Fabí Barthez in particular came to United with a fantastic pedigree and a resumé second to none. So the fact is, it’s not easy being Manchester United’s goalkeeper and even Schmeichel cracked under the relentless pressure. I definitely believe that van der Sar is our best goalkeeper ever. In his own unspectacular, mature way, all others, before or after, pale before him. His career, not just his spectacular success at Manchester United, is a lesson we can all learn from.

A product of the Foreholte Academy in Holland from the age of nine, Van der Sar did not sign for Ajax until he was twenty. He spent nine years at Ajax and was a standout in the European Champions League-winning team of 1994-95, aptly described by his manager, the spectacularly undemonstrative Louis van Gaal as “unflappable and brilliant. The best goalkeeper I’ve ever coached.”

Ajax have always been a selling club, however, although there were some who were surprised when he was bought by Juventus for £6.5M in 1999. A jingoistic club with fanatically xenophobic fans, the Old Lady may have loved foreign strikers like John Charles and Omar Sivori, but Juventus had never had a foreign goalkeeper before. Buying this giant, blond foreign goalkeeper was, according to Candido Cannavo, the godfather of Italian sports writers at Gazzetta Del Sport, “Triste, sacrilego e deplorable!” Doomed from the get-go, despite winning the European Intertoto Cup and placing second in the Calcio, van der Saar became il nemico, the enemy and that was that.

In 66 games for Juve, he only played two really bad games, but these two destroyed his Italian career. In one match against A.S. Roma in 2000, he stepped too far past the six yard line in an effort to smother a marauding Francesco Totti. The devilish Romano made a big to-do of skipping flirtatiously around the Dutchman, executing a pretty lob into the net and sticking out his tongue to the faithful at the Stadio Olimpico di Torino. A few weeks later, EVDS’ most famous “papera” (slip)came against the ultimate champions, the fascisti of Lazio

This time it was the in-form Chilean striker Marco Antonio Salas who collected a squared pass from Juan Sebastian Veron and took off. Again, the Dutchman made a charge out of his goal and Salas had the presence of mind to crouch low and wait for him to make his move. Somehow van der Sar’s feet got twisted up as Salas took his shot, falling on his behind as the ball dipped into the net. From then on he was a laughing stock for both the press and the public. La Stampa labeled him “Edwin van der Gol,” and “pannocchione” (maize stalk), making daily jokes about the shape of his ears, and called him Il brutto (ugly). Thus, sometimes, at least in Italy, two mistakes are all it takes.

Suddenly everything was wrong with the goalkeeper. Once his defender, Juventus coach Carlo Ancelotti was (and is) still is a man who recognizes which way the wind is blowing. In an exclusive interview with the aforementioned Candido Cavello, Ancelotti said that van der Saar had cost him two league titles. Van der Sar was a nice guy and spoke better Italian than many of his teammates, but he “gets off his line at the wrong moment and has trouble with high crosses.”

Bad then turned to worse as Gianluigi Buffon was purchased from Parma for a shocking, world-record £33M. “I will stay and fight for my place,” van der Sar told the press after refusing a move to Catania. The next day he was training at the academy with the youth team players. All of a sudden everything was wrong with the goal keeper.

Thus it was no surprise when the Fulham manager, Jean Tigana, eager to spend the dosh burning a hole in the pocket of his chairman, Mohamed Al Fayed, signed him for £7m.

The rest, of course, is history. At the beginning of this 2010-11 season, when Edwin made a goofy air bound error, dropping a cross against West Brom, allowing them to score, it was the first major mistake I could recall. I was so shocked that I even asked my Fulham- supporting sucker of a mate if he could recalled anything similar and he couldn’t.

Even a dying Candido Cavallo rehabilitated him. On Friday, 27 February 2009, two days before passing away, Don Candido wrote ‘Edwin van der Sar is No Longer Laughable,” as the title of his final article for Gazzetta Dello Sport.

“Nine years after his departure one might wonder where in Jurassic Park that odd van der Sar is enjoying his pension at the moment. In reality the Dutchman is about to become a legend,” Cannavò wrote. “Fortunately life is full of surprises. How beautiful it is to get revenge with a smile.”

Clearly time loves a hero. I even wonder if, perhaps in twelve or fifteen years time, they may have forgotten Ben Foster’s case of poo-poo pantalones against Kenwyne Jones for Manchester United last season or his erratic play this season for Birmingham City.

As for Edwin van der Sar, I’m going to miss him and, beyond wondering if Ancelotti has ever apologized to him, I feel a sense of empathy for whoever tries to succeed him!

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Category: Manchester United