"I want to be a national coach"

Friday 23 January 2009

All of a sudden she stood there on the training ground of AC Milan with manager Carlo Ancelotti, superstar Ronaldinho and Clarence Seedorf. And if that wasn't enough during her visit David Beckham was presented at Milanello. Hesterine de Reus, the only woman taking the course Coach Professional Football, goes to school with the likes of Dennis Bergkamp, Phillip Cocu and Patrick Kluivert.

"The days at AC Milan were fantastic. Kluivert knew the way. He was an easy way in. But as a topclub Milan was a pleasant surprise on all aspects," says the 47-year-old ex-international.

"The fact that they were so open to us was great. At the course I form a group with Kluivert, Ton du Chatinier, David Nascimento and Alex Pastoor of Feyenoord. Milan was our internship. We followed 2 games, we are invited to training sessions, visit the youth academy and even the famous Milan-labaratory.''

In the machoworld of Italian football the appearance of De Reus as a future top coach must have been a strange happening.

She smiles and says: "I didn't notice that at all. Perhaps it would have been different had I been leading the training. Now they showed a lot of respect and I was treated decently. Well, I don't know what they said behind my back. But those days gave me a good feeling."

On top Ronaldinho and Seedorf loved to have their picture taken with De Reus.

It was a moment she enjoyed tremendously in silence.

"But I also enjoyed the conversation with Ancelotti and the scouting. You don't get an opportunity to have such a look in the kitchen of one of the biggest clubs in the world every day. I have taken in as much information as possible."

The fact that De Reus penetrated so far into the top of professional football is all her own merit.

After an impressive career as a player it was soon clear that she had a lot of coaching talent.

She took the women's team of Saestum to four successive league titles and ended up at the KNVB in record time.

At the moment she is responsible for the biggest and best training center for women's football in Amsterdam, where she prepares young talents for the national selections.

The Eredivisie clubs gladly dip into her that well.

They e even do so to such an extend that she had to go looking for even younger talents this season.

She now trains 24 girls between the ages of 16 to 19 three hours a day, four days a week.

All players go to school in Amsterdam, live close to the training center in the Osdorp district and all have the intention to play for the Dutch national women's team.

One day Hesterine will be national coach, in Holland or in some other country.

That's her big dream.

Not being coach of a men's Eredivisie team, although people think that.

"I want to be national coach, in whatever country. My focus is not on a professional club. My terrain is women's football. That has always been my game. I don't see it as a promotion to move over to men's football."

The fact that she decided to start the course Coach Professional Football is a consequence of her ambition to develop herself.

"You are curious about your job. I did all other courses. The Coach Professional Football course is much more about leadership, communication and management. The other boys are finding that out as well. You don't have to tell these guys much about playing football."

De Reus thinks some players will have frowned when they saw a woman taking part in the course.

"Of course it was strange at first. For them and for me. I am the odd one out, so it took some time to gain a place. But they are all developed individuals who treated me with a lot of respect."

She tried to discuss the clubs where they all world.

"They are in a world that unknown to me. I am curious about the forces at work there. How involved are they, how do they deal with it. What is going on at Feyenoord at the moment? What happens? When you are coach there at the moment, what is coming at you? How do you manage? I am seeing if they are willing to share these things, because these are things you don't get in women's football."

- Are they interested in women's football?

De Reus, delighted: "Cocu and Bergkamp said 'Hey you beat Spain!?' when they met me two days after Holland qualified for the Women's European Championships.

"They said it was a great achievement. So these boys are interested in the sport as a whole. They noticed that the women have qualified for the first time in history. So, yes, it's nice when they make remarks about it. But besides that there is little interest for women's football at the course."

- But women's football as a whole is developing greatly?

"Growth is enormous and development of talent is continuing. The best signal is that these girls do everything to make it. There's a girl who came from Maastricht to Amsterdam at the age of 15. She goes to an immigrant school and lives by herself in Amsterdam Osdorp. A few years back it would have been unthinkable that parents would allow for that."