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After 556 matches in professional football, World Cups and European Championships, Sander van Roekel is finally done. The permanent assistant of Björn Kuipers thinks it has been nice, has no more goals. Last Tuesday he took the flag for the last time in the Eredivisie match between Vitesse and PEC Zwolle. In conversation with Football zone Van Roekel looks back on a career full of highs, a single low and emotional moments at Wembley and the European Championship 2012.
By Mart Oude Nijeweeme
No, not much has changed for Van Roekel yet. He lived this week for his last game as he always did. “But I did sleep worse,” he admits the day after his official retirement as assistant referee. “You are worrying about how to say goodbye to the team and whether you should say anything else. You mainly wonder how you will end.” Not a single critical word about the latter. Okay, Van Roekel missed an offside goal from PEC Zwolle in the first half, but afterwards he could count on only positive words from colleagues, players and trainers.
“May I say something else first?” were the words of Bram van Polen when the captain of PEC Zwolle appeared in front of the camera at the end of the match against Vitesse. ESPN. “I just saw ‘thank you supporters’ and that also applies to us, of course. But today a linesman is also saying goodbye: Sander van Roekel. The line judge’s profession is sometimes undervalued, I am also someone who can sometimes scold them. But we can’t play football without them.” The captain had already reported to Van Roekel in the dressing room before the start of the game.
“Of course that does something to me,” says Van Roekel. “That’s what I said at ESPN. Before the game, he took plenty of time to thank me for service. You can give something and walk away, but he really meant it.” It was no coincidence that Van Roekel enjoyed his farewell match in GelreDome. The assistant referee himself submitted a request to the KNVB to flag his last duel at Vitesse. “Over the years I have become a bit of a supporter of Vitesse,” says the official who lives in Ede. “I rehabilitated there after a meniscus operation and have always kept a good relationship with the club. That was the reason I wanted to finish there.”
Watch the mini-documentary of the NOS about Team Kuipers here.
Van Roekel took an example from Björn Kuipers, whom he assisted for many years as a permanent assistant. While Kuipers already decided to put an end to his career last summer, Van Roekel needed a little longer to come to the realization. “I have always said that I did not want to stop immediately after the European Championship”, Van Roekel refers to last summer’s final tournament. “I was not ready emotionally. I wanted to make sure that quitting was the best choice. Whether it was hard to say goodbye to Björn? No, we knew that for a while, he never made a secret of it. In the last few months I only came to realize that I had achieved everything I wanted to achieve. And more than that.”
Van Roekel was active in three European Championships (2012, 2016 and 2020), two World Cups (2014 and 2018) and flagged many finals in European club context. “Ajax – AZ is fantastic, but the goals that we set every year as a team were no longer there,” said Van Roekel. A semi-final of the Champions League, European Championship or World Cup, that’s what it was all about for the official. Unfortunately, he never saw the wish of a World Cup final come true, thanks to the Dutch national team. “The fact that we were sent home from the World Cup in 2014 was the biggest disappointment. I suffered from that for months.”
Team Kuipers had a flawless world championship in Brazil and made it through the group stage effortlessly. However, the fate of the trio was in the hands of the Orange, which personally ensured that the Dutch referee trio could go home with a 2-1 victory over Mexico. “What if Huntelaar had headed that ball back to Sneijder incorrectly. Or Sneijder had shot at the crossbar or over. That haunted my head for a long time,” says Van Roekel. “It really bothered me a lot. Everything went well for us during that tournament, except for the Dutch national team. No, we didn’t cheer for the Dutch national team. We cheered when Mexico made the 1-0. The Dutch national team would be eliminated, we would most likely get to the final.”
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As a permanent assistant to Björn Kuipers, Sander van Roekel was active at three European Championships (2012, 2016 and 2020) and two World Cups (2014 and 2018).
It didn’t get that far. The team of national coach Louis van Gaal experienced a true Houdini act against the Mexicans, won 2-1 and eventually reached the consolation final, which was won 3-0 against host country Brazil. “We went to that tournament with the expectation that the Dutch national team would be eliminated after the group stage,” Van Roekel continues. “Nobody in the Netherlands expected this, neither did we.” That the fate of Van Roekel and his colleagues was in the hands of Orange seems unjust. “But you have to deal with that deal. Now I don’t think about that anymore. I’ve had my European Championship final, it’s good.”
Back to that day in July of this year. Team Kuipers experienced its icing on the cake and was appointed by referee boss Roberto Rosetti to manage the European Championship final between England and Italy. It was a crowning achievement for an almost flawless final tournament. “I will never forget that,” says Van Roekel. “While we were warming up on the field, it reverberated Football’s Coming Home from the stands. I thought of my daughter attending a football game for the first time. She was sitting in the stands with my wife and father. I thought: girl, may you experience this. It brought tears to my eyes.”
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The arbitration of the European Championship final, with Team Kuipers in the middle.
Van Roekel’s thoughts also went back to 2012, when he was also active at the European Championships. His mother died six months earlier. “We were appointed for the second group match between France and Ukraine and my father was also there. The match was interrupted due to a thunderstorm, but otherwise went without anything worth mentioning. Afterwards I burst into tears. It seemed like everything came out. I remember that the fourth man walked up to me and asked what was going on, whereupon Björn said, “Leave him alone.” Yes, I was a mother’s child. My father has always been to all the matches, he traveled everywhere in the Netherlands.”
For Van Roekel, the circle is now complete. He flagged his first international match with Kuipers at a youth tournament in Sheffield and played with him at Wembley this summer. It’s time for other goals. A marathon in Rotterdam, for example, which he hopes to run next year. “It was, in one word, fantastic. I never expected to be at a European Championship or World Cup. That I was able to experience all that is very special. I have achieved things that I would never achieve as a referee. Have the maximum taken out of my career. I could never have dreamed that,” concludes Van Roekel.
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