Football Paradise explores Suriname national football team, the best international team the world never had. whose legacy reaches out to Dutch football.
The World Cup is here. France plays the host and aside from the rampant Brazilians, there is one other team causing the hosts uncomfortable sweats at the prospect of facing them. This team features Clarence Seedorf and Edgar Davids, two of the most powerful midfielders in the World, along with a fearsome attack of Patrick Kluivert and Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink. Winston Bogarde and Michael Reiziger add steel to the defence. This young, vibrant team is aided by Ruud Gullit, who has just left his role as player-manager of Chelsea, but eager to help his country out, has decided to bow out with one final run at the biggest tournament in the world. Aaron Winter, a veteran midfielder with a wealth of experience playing in Europe, also aids the Dutch-speaking squad. They are coached by young manager Frank Rijkaard, a tactical innovator who gets the most out of his players. The world is at this team’s feet.
This is an excerpt from a history book set in an alternate reality. This amazing team of 1998 is not the Netherlands. It is Suriname, the smallest country in South America. Suriname, the forgotten producers of some of the World’s greatest footballers.
In reality, Suriname’s contribution to the World game is most evident in that 1998 Dutch team, the most talented squad since the Cruyff era:. Davids, Seedorf, Winter and Hasselbaink were all born in Suriname and played for the Netherlands that year. Kluivert, Bogarde and Gullit are of Surinamese origin, and the Netherland’s young manager in 1998, Frank Rijkaard, has also been born under the same bright, equatorial stars. Yet, the country has never qualified for a World Cup, mainly due to a national law that means any citizen who leaves for Holland automatically loses their status and cannot claim dual citizenship, which makes it different to most countries across the world. Whereas neighbours French Guiana welcome movement to France (read more about the farfetched history of French Guiana, here), Suriname’s Government has taken an ‘’anti-colonial’’ stance on matters; and this, in turn, has limited the potential of their national footballing side.
