Super Mario Been's stock rises as NEC progress in Europe

Leander Schaerlaeckens
The Guardian
Tuesday 23 December 2008

Super Mario Been's stock rises as NEC progress in EuropeMario Been will still be eating English liquorice after Spurs give his NEC side a helping hand.

NEC stands for Nijmegen Eendracht Combinatie (Nijmegen Unity Combination) and that name couldn't be more suitable. Why? Because they are reinventing team-play in an era that has seen football teams revolve around fewer and fewer players. On Thursday, that team-play, and a good comeback by Tottenham against Spartak Moscow, brought NEC further than they have ever been before: the last 32 of the Uefa Cup. Udinese, who had already won the group, fell 2-0 while Spurs and Spartak eventually drew 2-2.

In NEC's midst operates one Mario Been (pronounced "Bane"), the next great Dutch manager. Frequently likened to his mentor Leo Beenhakker and not dissimilar in style to Guus Hiddink, he masterfully fosters confidence, cohesion and a lust for labour within his squad. He has created a whole vastly greater than the sum of its parts.

When NEC were playing Spurs a few weeks ago a colleague, who was doing some research ahead of a minute-by-minute report for this website, asked me who their best player was. "Ehm, I don't know," I confessed. Any promising young players? "Not really." Anyone special? "A fat striker who's left out of the squad every now and then until he loses weight." It said a lot more about NEC than it did about me. Honest.

There are few qualities more valuable in a manager than an ability to have a team play much better than it is. That skill fuelled hugely successful careers for Hiddink and Beenhakker. And Been, 44, has it too. It was that quality that propelled NEC to a victory on Thursday when it seemed hopeless, drawing against a defensive-minded team when needing a win and requiring another result to go their way, which it wasn't at that point. In the end it all worked out fine and it may have been Been's obsessive superstition that paid off. He has been known to keep up the same training schedule or paintballing outings for weeks on end during winning streaks.

"I told my assistant that I'd never again eat English Bassett's Allsorts liquorice if they [Spurs] didn't come back," the convivial Been joked afterwards. "Luckily they did and I can keep eating it. It's a compliment to everyone at the club that we made it after all."

Unlike any of his current players, Been himself was an elite, if lazy, prospect — nicknamed Mariodona — who outshone Marco van Basten and Gerald Vanenburg at the 1983 Under-20 World Cup in Mexico as a playmaker. But his career never really took off and he only ever collected one senior cap for Holland. Several solid seasons with Pisa and Feyenoord precipitated a second career as a coach: first as assistant manager to Bert van Marwijk at Feyenoord, then as manager of Excelsior (whom he got promoted), then a stint as Beenhakker's assistant for Trinidad & Tobago at the 2006 World Cup and finally at NEC. About a year ago, NEC had every reason to fire him after a bad spell but decided to trust his calm demeanour, tactical savvy and capacity to teach.

Now he's returning the favour. Frequent rumours of him joining Feyenoord, for whom he allegedly had a special clause in his last contract inserted, have been vehemently denied by the man himself. He is in his third season with NEC and last week extended his contract to include the 2011-12 season, despite talk linking him to PSV as well. He is said now to be making almost €1m (£950,000) a year, a phenomenal amount for a club such as NEC, and one Feyenoord could scarcely afford.

"Been can't but someday become Holland manager and Feyenoord manager," Hugo Borst wrote in Algemeen Dagblad. "That he's extended [his contract] is somewhat surprising. His old contract had a simple [cheap] opt-out clause but now a hefty sum must be paid. NEC never would have survived the winter [in the Uefa Cup] without Been."

"He's one of the two best managers I've ever had," the veteran Patrick Pothuizen told NRC Handelsblad last month. "He has a bright future."

NEC's latest match against ADO Den Haag on Sunday was a rather lethargic affair. So much so, in fact, that Been requested that the stadium announcer fire up the supporters. To no avail. NEC were denied a string of penalties but couldn't call the 0-0 outcome unjust.