That Giovanni
Even if you were an Ajax fan, yesterday it was impossible not to love Feijenoord, Dirk Kuyt, and Giovanni van Bronckhorst. Yesterday you wanted to be born in 010. Yesterday you wanted to be the son of our art director, living in the Feyenoord district. Then you would be part of a boys' book.
I watched. Not because I particularly love football, but because I want to experience historical moments. This was one of them.
And there he was. Giovanni. There was about twenty years between my first “introduction” to him and now. I was an editor for BNN, which was still just a program and not a broadcasting company at that time. For Bart de Graaff, I was looking for guests who were fun to interview, and I had read in Voetbal International (yes, I don't understand how I came across that) that Giovanni's favorite program was BNN. Then I find you interesting. Contact was made and Giovanni appeared on the show.
After that, I lost track of him for a while. Of course, I saw him as a player for the Dutch national team, where I especially want to pause at the goal during the 2010 World Cup when he scored the 1-0 against Uruguay, which has unofficially been voted the most beautiful goal of that World Cup. Okay, you didn't hear this from me but from the company Wikipedia. Don't overestimate me on that front.
But yesterday, yesterday, yesterday. That’s when I closed my heart to Gio again, that’s for the insiders. First when he offered a hand to the Heracles player who was brutally and clumsily rejected, making Gio even more sympathetic. And then with his tears that he was not ashamed of. Of course not. Giovanni is a Feyenoord fan for life. And this award was still missing from his palmares. Then you can cry. And we softly joined him.
