GREATEST TEAM NEVER SEEN...
CHRIS DUNLAVY looks at the galaxy of talent that was born in the tiny country of Suriname
are governed not by CONMEBOL but CONCACAF, the North American governing body.
So rather than face the likes of Brazil and Argentina in World Cup qualification, they take on Guadeloupe, El Salvador and Panama.
Partly this is to avoid a hiding, but in truth it was a topographical decision. Though Brazil and Suriname share a border, they are in fact separated by a barren, mountainous area called the Guyana highlands.
During the 1940s and 50s, this was impassable by air and torturously slow by road, effectively sealing both Suriname and neighbouring Guyana off from the rest of South America. For both countries, it was far easier to fly to the Caribbean, and there they have stayed.
But by far the biggest factor is a seemingly suicidal policy that prevents former residents who have taken up Dutch citizenship from playing for Suriname.
Most Caribbean nations have no such scruples. In 1998, the Jamaica national team took a host of Brits to the World Cup, including Robbie Earle – born in Stoke – and Marcus Gayle, who hailed from Hammersmith.
And in 2006, Trinidad & Tobago famously recruited Port Vale’s milk bottle white midfielder Chris Birchall, whose mum was born in Port of Spain. Further afield, Turkey have benefited hugely from Germany’s huge Turkish population, recruiting the likes of Hamit Altintop, Serhat and Yildray Basturk.
Like Turkey, Suriname have an enormous well of untapped resources. True, they could never have tempted Seedorf and Davids, less still Gullit and Rijkaard.
But there are currently some 150-plus players of Surinamese descent in the Dutch professional leagues, the vast majority not good enough to play for Holland.
Unfortunately, Surinamese law has no place for dual nationality. Once you’re gone, you’re gone. And if you’re born to Surinamese parents, like Gullit, you have to renounce Dutch citizenship before you can come back.
So instead of a team hardened in one of Europe’s toughest leagues, Suriname have a side of amateurs plucked from the part-time domestic leagues.
And instead of leaving their own mark on world football, Suriname must forever content themselves with second hand glory.
IN 1991, almost at the peak of their powers, Holland were beaten 3-1 in Utrecht. But defeat did not come at the hands of West Germany, or Brazil, or any of the usual suspects.
It was dealt by Suriname, a South American country with a population of barely 500,000 that most people have never heard of.
Amazing eh? OK, so there is a catch. First up, the match was a friendly, held to raise money for relatives of victims of a plane crash outside Paramaribo, the capital of Suriname.
Secondly, Holland faced not the Suriname national team but a select XI made up of those either born in the country or with Surinamese heritage.
Which is why, for one match only, Frank Rijkaard, Ruud Gullit, Aron Winter and Winston Bogarde turned tables on De Oranje.
“Imagine their embarrassment when we won,’ said Bogarde, now infamous for his bench-warming days at Chelsea. “We were never allowed to play against them again.”
And they never did. Nevertheless, the truth was out – but for Suriname, the Dutch may never have won Euro ’88. And but for Suriname, Ajax would not have won the European in 1995. After all, some 60 per cent of the side that beat Milan had Surinamese blood.
While Gullit and Rijkaard had Surinamese fathers, Winter was born in Paramaribo, as were Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Edgar Davids and Clarence Seedorf.
All spent their infant years kicking a ball around the streets. “It was all everybody wanted to do,” said Hasselbaink. “We all wanted to be strikers and dreamed of scoring goals for Holland.”
A Dutch colony until 1975, Suriname – and in particular Paramaribo – has produced some of the finest players ever to lace up a pair of boots.
Which begs the question – why, with such a wonderful production line, have Suriname never qualified for a World Cup?
Ironically, independence from Holland has not helped. In the years leading up to separation, almost a third of the population emigrated to the Netherlands, fearing – rightly, as it turned out – that the country would fare badly under its own steam.
Corruption and civil war, coupled with a bloated public service, have left Suriname as one of the poorest countries in the world, with a quarter of the population living on less than $2 a day.
Sport, then, is way down the list of priorities. Though they once dominated Caribbean football, now there is no national league, no real stadia, no professional coaches. Those with talent leave, usually for the Netherlands. Those without it can’t improve.
Without the aid of Ajax’s world famous coaches, it is doubtful that Davids or Seedorf would have become the superstars they are today.
Another part of Suriname’s ongoing mediocrity lies in its geography. Despite being part of the South American landmass, the ‘Suri boys’