Simon Tahamata
Simon Melkianus Tahamata ( born May 26, 1956 in Vught ) is a Dutch former football player with ancestors from the Moluccas, who was with Ajax Amsterdam Dutch and three times with Standard Liege Belgian champion twice. From 1979 to 1986 he played in the Dutch national team.
Career
Association
Tahamatas family lived in Tiel, where he played at the local TSV Theole first organized football. Even in youth he joined AFC Ajax in 1972 for about 80 kilometers to Amsterdam. This began with his first contract in 1975, the professional career of the left winger. In the second half of the 1976/77 season is Tahamata developed under coach Tomislav Ivić team regular. With Tscheu La Ling the only dark-skinned players made the team the wingers of the successful team to Piet Schrijvers, Wim and Ruud Krol Suurbier. He was a fighter, a worker, a brilliant dribbler. The 1.59 meter tall Siempie, his nickname was not impressed by small fouls the opponent, played tirelessly until he could bring his flank almost from the goal line in the middle. His attitude and his " disarming smile " made him a favorite of the audience.
In the second half of the 1978/79 season Tahamatas performances at club after leaving ( yet he was at this time surprisingly National player). He had moreover by its commitment to the liberation struggle of the South Moluccas ( see section below " Away from the football " ) made a powerful enemy in the club, Jan has Luitzen: Board member Jan Westrik was married to an Indonesian woman, the " diamond of the Moluccas on however, must have been the left wing of an eyesore. "When in September 1979 Leo Beenhakker and his" ablösten Co " Bobby Haarms Cor bromine in coaching positions, they turned their tactical direction entirely from the two wings pliers Tahamata and Ling. Tahamatas contract was accordingly extended again until 1980. But after Ajax let him finally, after 109 games in the Eredivisie with 13 goals and 17 international meetings in Europe Champions Cup and the UEFA Cup, in which he scored three goals.
Tahamata moved to Belgium for Standard Liège. Here he had his most successful period, "was allowed to play with all the internationals: Haan, Preud'homme, Gerets, Meeuws, Sigurvinsson, [ ... ] later also Hrubesch ". Until 1984, he scored 40 goals in 129 first division matches. With Standard Liege he was Belgian champion in 1982 and 1983 and reached the final of the 1982 European Cup Winners' Cup, which went only narrowly lost to FC Barcelona in the stadium. The association leads him in 2011 on his website as one of 30 " players legends " of the club's history.
In 1984 he returned for three years in the Netherlands and signed with Feyenoord Rotterdam. Here, however, he sat first half -year suspension due to his involvement in a bribery scandal from before he became a regular player and " one of the few bright spots of the doldrums [ Feyenoord ] in the 80s ". 87 games in the Eredivisie were thereafter beech, in which he scored 29 goals.
His next contract he signed, however, again in Belgium, this time at Beerschot VAC. In 99 league games, he came to this 12 goals, before he took his last professional station at Germinal Ekeren from 1990. Until 1996 he came there in 180 games, a field that still scored 19 goals. Overall, there were thus in both leagues 604 games and 113 goals. In 1996 he finished ten days after his 40th birthday, his career.
National
Simon Tahamata played 22 times for the Dutch national team. In May 1979, he learned on television that he was first selected for the Oranje - Bondscoach Jan Zwartkruis needed him as a replacement for the injured Ernie Brandts, however, had in pre- cell phone times, no phone number to reach him. It was about the game of FIFA on the occasion of its 75th anniversary: a new edition of the World Cup final against Argentina, which was held in the Bernese Wankdorf Stadium. In the rematch were among the Dutch still five players in the starting lineup, who had had a disadvantage in the previous year, alongside captain Ruud Krol these were Wim Jansen, Johan Neeskens Jan Poortvliet and Johnny Rep. Tahamata debuted on the outside left position in Buenos Aires nor before the match in Bern retired Rob Rensenbrink had filled. He showed in his debut " all the tricks that he had learned on the road with his Moluccan friends " and played his opponent Jorge Osvaldo Ardiles Olguín and his colleagues dizzy. Both Missed in the subsequent penalty shootout - the game no Goals had fallen - their penalty kicks, as well as René van de Kerkhof, who had come into play for Tahamata after 62 minutes, and the two Jan Peters ' (one of AZ'67, the other from Feyenoord) in the Dutch team; 8-7 meeting decided the Argentines, in which the 19 -year-old Diego Maradona stood out from the team again for themselves. " It was probably a bit of the game of two young men, even if Maradona was still a bit bigger and stronger than me, " recalls Tahamata.
In the next five games, he was part of the starting lineup, three of them together with his Ajax- wing partner La Ling The most notable of these games was certainly the 3-2 victory over the GDR selection in Leipzig, with the Oranje instead of East Germans to participate secured at the European Championships in Italy. Zwartkruis had to improvise due to injuries; played in attack with Tahamata, La Ling and van de Kerkhof three winger. The GDR led after a good half hour 2-0 after 40 minutes came La Ling and Konrad way to each other and were banned from the area. But before the break, the Dutch were able to achieve the first goal on edge of Tahamata by a header from Frans Thijssen. After the break " turned [ the team ] the game and showed excellent fighter mentality ". Substitute Kees Kist and Van de Kerkhof took care of the final score.
As Tahamatas performance in the final phase of his contract at Ajax eased, even Zwartkruis no longer considered him for the national team; the team traveled to Italy without him. Only when he again showed good performance in Liege, he returned. However, the national team had their great times once behind him; Tahamata stood in a team, which - albeit always very scarce - not for the world championships in 1982 and 1986 and the European Championships in 1984 qualified. On 21 December 1986, Tahamata his last 22 appearances in the Orange Dress, in which he scored two goals. Against Cyprus in Limassol, there was this one 2-0 in qualifying for the European Championship in 1988, the year and a half later ended with the single title of the Netherlands.
Achievements
- Dutch champion Ajax Amsterdam: 1977, 1979, 1980
- KNVB Cup with Ajax Amsterdam: 1979
- Belgian champion with Standard Liege: 1982, 1983
- Belgian Cup with Standard Liege: 1981
After the active career
Until 1 May 2009, he was a youth coach at Ajax Amsterdam. Then he became a youth coach in the Al -Ahli Soccer Academy in Arabia. There, the former national player received a five -year contract.
Away from the football
Tahamatas father had been a soldier of the Koninklijk Nederlandsch - Indian Leger ( KNIL ), the armed forces in the Dutch East Indies. As South Moluccans he hoped that the KNIL could save the 1950 unilaterally proclaimed Republic Maluku Selatan off Indonesia's supremacy. As Indonesia conquered the South Moluccas, Tahamatas father as about 4,000 other Moluccan KNIL personnel and their families went into exile in the Netherlands. Some of them were settled in the former concentration camp Vught Tahamatas birthplace Hertogenbosch. The Proud to be Südmolukker, Simon had Tamahatas father to his children - Simon had eleven siblings - passed. As in the second half of the 1970s Dutch Moluccans the second generation for recognition and freedom of their people fought and thereby also resorted to acts of terrorism, the fatalities - including two trains were stopped, occupied and taken the passengers hostage - was Tahamata its sympathy for the goals, if not for the means of his countrymen expression that he did not see them as terrorists but as " freedom fighters."
Thanks to his musical talent - " I could passably play guitar, more for home use, but that they let me sing the song " - he was allowed to the song We gaan naar Rome ( "We're going to Rome " ) take that as in December 1979 single was released. The plate was intended as an anthem for the European Championships in Italy in 1980. Tahamata but not part of the squad.