As often discussed on these pages, in Holland there’s little room for heroism, "if you act normal you’re strange enough” is a ubiquitous Dutch saying. Very few Dutchmen, I think I can count them on one hand, have been able to rise above the masses without being cut down to size by the media or the Dutch public. Rinus Michels however was one of them and yesterday he died at the age of seventy-seven after complications following heart surgery.

Michels was the man who was instrumental in lifting Dutch soccer from relative insignificance to a world-renowned powerhouse that was able to dominate the game with an unparalleled style of playing which became known as “total football”. In essence it meant every player on the pitch was involved in the attack and when played to perfection it would unleash a whirlwind of attacks and goals, leaving many reputable opponents wondering what happened to them. When he took over as coach of Ajax Amsterdam in the 1960s he inherited a team with uniquely talented players such as Cruyff, Keizer and Swart, later complemented by legends such as Neeskens, Haan and Krol. It was Michels’ approach of team discipline and his often emotionless manner which earned him the nickname the Sphinx and after his claim that “Football is War” he became better known as the General. But his tactical vision, authoritarian approach combined with the great pool of talent yielded unprecedented results and he led Ajax to a series of European victories. In the 1970s the club won three consecutive European championships and the World Cup for clubs.

The General was elevated into the pantheon of heroes after Holland’s phenomenal run on the World Cup in 1974 in Germany where Michels coached the Dutch side to second place, after trashing ruling champions Brazil in the semi-finals. The run came to an end when the Dutch team lost to homeside Germany in the final, a dramatic match that had most soccer experts arguing that even though the Dutch lost, they were the team that played the best football. After these successes Michels raked in the dollars in Barcelona, in Los Angeles where he managed LA Aztecs and at FC Köln in Germany. No one expected the General to return to the battlefield but he did, in 1988 he knocked an unruly new Dutch generation of football players, such as Van Basten and Gullit, into shape to win the European Championship.

Yet at age sixty the General had changed. He showed more emotion, humor and a human touch that endeared him even further with players and the Dutch public at large. His manner of speech and somewhat unusual use of the Dutch language became almost synonymous with a national feeling of pride that reached its peak during the 1988 semi-final when Michels’ young team beat Germany on its home turf in Hamburg. It was an act of sweet revenge and it solidified the General’s status in Dutch history. The madness that ensued on Dutch streets that night was often explained as an emotional catharis that finally redeemed the traumatic German occupation in the Second World War and the lost final of 1974. A small nation had reasserted itself and it was a General that had led them there.

Rinus, may you rest in peace.