POWER OF TEN
Driven Dutchman so focused on being the best he can be following death of three friends... one in a plane crash
ERIK TEN HAG was a teenager when one of his best friends was killed in the air crash that claimed the lives of 15 Surinamese footballers.
Almost 33 years later, it’s a tragedy that still haunts the man who is favourite to become the next manager of Manchester United.
Ten Hag was a promising central defender just six months away from following Andy Scharmin into the first team of FC Twente, when the 21-year-old left-back was one of the 178 souls lost when a flight from Amsterdam came down on its approach to Paramaribo-zanderij Airport outside the Suriname capital.
Scharmin had rejected a call-up from Holland’s Under-21 squad for that summer’s Toulon Tournament so he could join a 19-man party travelling to Suriname to play in a charity game.
He was killed alongside his mother and aunt. Ten Hag had grown up with Scharmin in the town of Haaksbergen.
Ten Hag, now aged 52, recalled: “Andy Scharmin was an unimaginable athlete and my friend.
“Like me, he came from Haaksbergen and, although he was a bit older than me, we travelled to FC Twente together for years, by bus, bicycle or car.
Crashed
“I will never forget my teammate Edwin Hilgerink standing on my doorstep to tell me that a plane had crashed with Andy and his mother on board.
“That was a huge blow. At his funeral I carried Andy’s coffin with other team-mates.
“It happened on June 7, 1989 - and every year on that date I have a day of mourning.
“The solidarity of that generation of FC Twente professionals is there to this day. Close friendships have arisen and we still meet regularly.”
If Ten Hag gets the job at United he will learn how the air disaster at Munich that cut down Matt Busby’s brilliant Babes in 1958 has shaped the club ever since. He is not a man to forget fallen comrades.
Another team-mate, Gino Weber, committed suicide at the age of 33 after a promising career was wrecked by injury.
Wilfried Elzinga, a forward who won international honours at youth level, also failed to fulfil his early promise because of injury issues.
And Ten Hag’s mentor and youth coach, the former Dutch international
Epi Drost (left), died at the age of 49 after suffering a heart attack during a friendly game.
Ten Hag said: “I often think back to my youth at FC Twente. We had a really good group.
“Three boys from that team were so good that they could have made it to the national team.
“But one of them was seriously injured at a young age and two other boys died young.
“In Andy Scharmin, Wilfried Elzinga and Gino Weber we had three top talents.
“Gino was the best talent in the Netherlands at that time, an unparalleled football player with a mega technique who was twofooted. But he suffered a mental illness and took his own life.
“It puts everything into perspective. I certainly think about how things can go in life.”
Idol
With all that has happened to my friends, it puts everything into perspective. I certainly think about how I do things in life.
Ten Hag added: “Epi
Drost was my idol.
“He became my coach at the FC Twente academy and he had a soft spot for me because I was by far the youngest in the squad.
“Epi let me participate in the Under-23 team as a 15-year-old.
“He was a fan of technical and adventurous football.
“He stimulated creativity, because that was the most important thing to him.
“Epi died suddenly due to a cardiac arrest during a match. That was a massive blow for me.”