Former Ajax midfielder Bennie Muller (85) has passed away

Bennie Muller loved Ajax. He always envisioned his glory years in the 1960s. “That time flew by. It went by so quickly; it was like a movie. When I look back on it now I think: ‘Gosh, I wish I had enjoyed it even more,'” he looked back years later.

Little Bennie is just playing football, about seven years old and in his own familiar Uilenburgerstraat in the center of Amsterdam, when an unknown man approaches him. Whether he wants to come and play football at Ajax. He doesn’t think it’s all that necessary, he would rather just continue playing football, but he agrees anyway. During his test match a few weeks later, the Ajax coach takes him off the field after ten minutes. They’ve seen enough already; this boy can play football. Yet Bennie is not all happy; he just wants to finish that match.

Muller eventually comes over – under slight pressure from his father – from a small club in Duivendrecht. But it actually doesn’t make that much sense to him. Ajax, that’s rude. Boys with expensive tracksuits and big mouths. But once he is part of it himself, it turns out not to be so bad. And he and his friends used to be quite jealous of those expensive tracksuits that he initially rejected. He finds a real buddy in his teammate Sjaak Swart.

In 1958, Muller made his debut for Ajax 1, against MVV Maastricht (3-0 defeat). Despite his small stature, Muller developed into a reliable and strong midfielder in the youth academy. He combines his unyielding play with good insight and excellent technique. With those qualities, and an excellent shot, he was of added value to Ajax in the 1960s. As a serving player behind goal machine Henk Groot, Muller is of great value in midfield. In 1962, Muller and Groot won the Intertoto Cup with Ajax, the first European trophy in club history.

After the arrival of Rinus Michels and the breakthrough of Johan Cruijff, Ajax is growing into the top club in the Netherlands. Muller became Eredivisie champion five times and won the cup three times. His first personal moment of glory is the decision-making match he won in the Eredivisie against Feyenoord in 1960. “Two years earlier I was still a ball boy, now a champion.”

Two years after his debut for Ajax, Muller is selected for the Dutch national team. He played a practice match with the Dutch team in Israel in 1965. For Muller it is a special experience; He is of Jewish descent and immediately feels at home in Israel. He made no secret of his pride in his Jewish background during and especially after his active career. In total, Muller has been a basic player in the Dutch team for more than eight years and he played a large number of 43 international matches at that time. More than any other Ajax player in the sixties.

In 1966, when Rinus Michels holds sway and Ajax becomes a professional club in more and more facets, Muller plays a hero’s role in the European Cup 1 tournament with a great goal against Besiktas. Muller played in the famous fog match against Liverpool, which became a symbol of Ajax’s international breakthrough. At the side of his best friend Sjaak Swart and a young Johan Cruijff, the Golden Ajax is taking shape.

But while his club is on the rise, Muller is – in football years – getting a day older. With men like Henk Groot, Sjaak Swart, Piet Keizer and Johan Cruijff, he has laid a foundation for enormous European successes, but when Ajax suffered a hard defeat against AC Milan in the final of the European Cup 1 in 1969, Michels had reason to press on. to select. Older players have to make way for younger talent, who often grew up with the professionalism of their trainer. Nico Rijnders and Johan Neeskens are included in the selection for the much-needed toughness.

Muller was promised a permanent place by Michels after the lost final against Milan, but the trainer soon changed his mind in the following season. Without giving Muller an explanation. Muller played a total of only seventeen games in 1969/1970, several of which as a substitute. The 1970 title does not really count for Muller.

Severely disappointed, he left for Holland Sport in 1970. In the years after his retirement, he sees Ajax conquer the world; it is a bittersweet reality for the player who had given everything for the club for years.

When Muller marries his girlfriend Nellie after a period of military service, the couple opens a cigar shop together in Haarlemmerstraat. When Muller starts the business, he thinks he has taken a quiet job besides football. In practice it turns out to be a lot more difficult: the days are long and the work is sometimes difficult. Yet his shop, where Muller sells tickets for the matches he plays in, is growing into a household name.

Although his Ajax existence does not bring him financially what it does for other Ajax icons, Muller remains proud of his years at the club. He and his wife Nellie, from whom he was inseparable, are a welcome and frequent guest at Lucky Ajax reunions. Together with his friend Sjaak Swart, he attended many home games in the ArenA. Son Danny played in Ajax’s youth team. In the 2013/2014 season, Muller will present the championship bowl to captain Siem de Jong.

Although Bennie Muller did not win the most important European Cup with his club, he will be remembered as one of the pillars of the great success of the Golden Ajax. With his 426 official matches, Bennie Muller occupies the honorable seventh place in Ajax’ Club of 100. He was a true Ajax player.

The family has announced that the funeral will take place privately. Next weekend, the next round of matches will appropriately commemorate Muller’s death.

Ajax wishes Muller’s relatives a lot of strength in dealing with this loss.

2024-01-17 18:04:08
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