ROB RENSENBRINK (1947-2020)

by Keir Radnedge

World Soccer - March 2020

Although he got 14 goals in 46 games for Holland, Rensenbrink will always be remembered for the one he didn’t score. 

After 89 minutes against Argentina in the 1978 World Cup Final, and with the score at 1-1, Holland’s Rudi Krol lofted a long ball down field. His only thought was to clear the lines with extra-time in sight. 

As the host nation’s defence hesitated, Rensenbrink accelerated in from the left and toe-poked the ball past the South American keeper. But his shot struck a post and ricocheted away. Argentina had survived and went on to win 3-1 in the extra half hour. 

“In the Netherlands now people only know me from that shot against the post,” the Dutchman would later say. “That made me a national celebrity... that post will stay with me to my dying day.” 

An Amsterdammer, though one who never played for Ajax, at 21 he turned professional with DWS who, though now an amateur club in the sixth tier of Dutch football, had been domestic champions in1964 and European Cup quarterfinalists a year later. 

Rejecting an offer from Ajax that he says “was a joke”, Rensenbrink crossed the border and won the Belgian Cup with Club Brugge. Two years later he moved to Anderlecht, and although some critics grumbled that he used to save himself for the big occasion – when, as even coach Raymond Goethals conceded, he “put on his tuxedo” – it was a winning style and he was the star of a team that twice won the European Cup-winners Cup and the UEFA Super Cup, as well as two Belgian league titles and four cups. 

In 1976 he became only the second Dutch player, after Johan Boskamp, to be voted Belgium’s footballer of the year. 

In 1974 a muscle strain sustained on the eve of the World Cup Final against hosts West Germany meant he had to be substituted at half-time, but four years later Holland were among the favourites for the finals in Argentina – even after Johan Cruyff had announced his decision to stay at home. 

Rensenbrink made the perfect start in1978, scoring a hat-trick in a 3-0 dismissal of Iran. Next came a 0-0 draw with Peru before he struck the opening goal in a 3-2 defeat by Scotland in Mendoza as the Dutch went through on goal difference. 

In the second round group he scored a penalty in the 5-1 thrashing of Austria, before a 2-2 draw with West Germany and a 2-1 win over Italy took him and his team-mates through to the Final in Buenos Aires. 

“I went back 25 years later, with Johan Neeskens, for TV, and we stood by that post,” he recalled. “But do you know what? Despite that moment I had much better feelings about 1978 than 1974. Then everything revolved around Cruyff.

He often moved to the left so then I had to switch into the centre. In 1978 I played much better. I was allowed to take the penalties and scored five goals. 

“Of course, how the Final finished was a shame. That post. Always that post...” 

Real Madrid and Internazionale came calling but Anderlecht refused to sell, and he eventually wound down his career with Portland Timbers in the original North American Soccer League before an injury-wrecked spell in the French second division with Toulouse. 

Rensenbrink returned to a quiet life in his old home town of Oostzaan. In 2012 he was diagnosed with degenerative muscle disease and died at home surrounded by his family. 

Keir Radnedge