International football's Band of Brothers: Part-2

The Koemans – Ronald and Erwin

The Koemans are second generation footballers as sons of former Dutch player Martin Koeman who had a solitary cap to his name. Erwin Koeman, the elder of the two by a year, played for PSV Eindhoven, FC Groningen and Mechelen and was capped 31 times by his country. At Mechelen, he won 1 Belgian First Division title and the European Super Cup as well as Cup Winners’ Cup. He was a double Eredivisie winner with PSV in 1991 and 1992. After retirement, he has had stop-start spells in management at PSV, RKC Waalwijk, Feyenoord and Utrecht. He even managed the Hungarian national football team for 2 years. He is currently manager at RKC in his 2^nd spell there.

Ronald, the younger and more famous of the two, played for all of Hollands “big 3? picking up 4 league titles and 3 Dutch cups. He is a double European Cup winner, first with PSV in 1987-88 and later with Barcelona in 1991-92 with whom he also won 4 La Liga titles. Ronald was a strong centre-back who has scored more goals than any other defender in the history of football. He had 187 goals in his 532 professional appearances at club level and 14 more in 78 caps with the Netherlands.

A lot of it had to do with his powerful right-footed free-kicks and his ability from set pieces. He is currently the manager of Feyenoord and has managed at some of the biggest clubs around such as Ajax, PSV and Valencia. He added title wins in his stints at PSV and Ajax, this time as manager. His teammates at Barcelona gave him the name ‘Tintin’ for his resemblance to Herge’s fictional character.

The brothers have one rare distinction that has eluded some of the finest Dutch players ever – a winner’s medal at a major international tournament. The Koemans were a part of the Dutch team that won Euro’88. Ronald was voted Dutch Footballer of the Year 2 years running in 1987 and 1988.

To read about other brothers who made it big on the world stage, click here.