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JAPAN Paternal path leads to Havenaar's revival
JAPAN
Paternal path leads to Havenaar's revival
(FIFA.com)
© Getty Images
Mid-table mediocrity tends to signify a season that won’t live long in the memory. Without having something to raise the pulse, be it silverware, European hopes or relegation fears, that year of action can be left gathering dust at the back of the mind soon after the final whistle blows. That’s unlikely to be the case for Mike Havenaar, who has seen it reignite his FIFA World Cup™ dreams again.
An 11th-place finish in the Dutch Eredivisie with ADO Den Haag symbolises a year that has brought him back into the Japan fold and the top of his game, after trying times left him questioning his place in, and his love for, football.
After pulling on the shirt of Japan at the FIFA Confederations Cup Brazil 2013, as well as being a regular face in helping Samurai Blue reach the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil, the striker of Dutch heritage had hoped to get the call from Alberto Zaccheroni to return to South America. But he was passed over and an ill-fated move to Cordoba from Vitesse followed, where Havenaar admits “there were a lot of problems”. After less than six months in Spain, he ended a frustrating 2014 without a club.
But the most challenging period was still to come. As his time without a team stretched into the new year, his confidence and fitness plummeted. “It was tough maintaining my condition, while there was a lot of stuff going on in my mind too,” he told FIFA.com.
“My motivation was so bad that it was difficult to get back up. But the important thing was that I didn’t stay down and started playing football again.” That opportunity came in Finland, of all places. He joined HJK Helsinki after three months out of the game, though adjusting from league debuts in front of 70,000 fans in the Bernabeu to 1,200 in Rovaniemi less than eight months later was a shock to the system.
“The first few months were very difficult,” the Hiroshima native admitted, where temperatures rarely get far below freezing – which is certainly not the case in the Finnish capital. “But it didn’t matter where I played, I started to enjoy football again. My father always told me when I was younger that being a footballer is the best job in the world and that’s what I thought too. As soon as I got a new team I started working hard again, and it paid off.”
Retracing steps
That it was fatherly advice which kept him going is apt, as Havenaar Jnr was about to follow in some familiar footsteps. “A good offer came from ADO, my dad’s old team,” Mike explained, whose goalkeeping father Dido began his career there. “He said it was a good club and had enthusiastic fans, and he was excited as well. It was nice,” the Japanese international said with an audible smile, recalling that turning point.
That it was fatherly advice which kept him going is apt, as Havenaar Jnr was about to follow in some familiar footsteps. “A good offer came from ADO, my dad’s old team,” Mike explained, whose goalkeeping father Dido began his career there. “He said it was a good club and had enthusiastic fans, and he was excited as well. It was nice,” the Japanese international said with an audible smile, recalling that turning point.
“A lot of fans knew my father. It’s nice seeing old pictures around the stadium and in the museum, then you catch sight of your dad with this very weird haircut,” he laughed. Mike’s career has often featured shades of his father’s path through football, no less than starting out at Yokohama F Marinos while Dido was the club’s goalkeeping coach.
“It was kind of difficult,” the forward hesitantly recalled. “The players know that your dad is also a coach, so they realise they can’t say anything bad in the locker room,” seemingly akin to a son whose father teaches at their school. “But I didn’t really care, it was only for a year or so.”
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