Monday, September 30, 2024

Brotherly Love; A History of Oranje Brothers.

The Netherlands National Team has a rich history of brothers representing the Oranje over the years. With today being Nationale Broer en Zus Dag (Brother and Sisters Day) in the Netherlands, it’s a fitting tribute to remember the incredible bonds of brotherhood that have shaped Dutch football over the years, from the early 20th century to the modern game. Some brothers have even played on the same pitch together at the biggest stage in different decades. The most recent brothers to share that honor are Jurriën and Quinten Timber.

  • By Ibrahim Ayyub
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Since the 1970s, the Oranje always had been known for their orange home shirt, Total Football, and the presence of brothers in the squad. It is surprising that such a small footballing nation has provided so many footballing brothers, including twin brothers, to the national team. Some have played together on the same pitch at the big stage, and there has been the rare occasion of both brothers scoring in the same game. However, the history of brothers representing the Oranje dates back to the early 1900s.

The first pair of brothers to ever represent the Netherlands were Tonny and Dé Kessler back in 1913 against an England amateur side. That would be their first and only match together. The next brothers to follow in their steps would be Mannus and Jacques Francken a year later against Belgium. In 1928, Wim and Gerard Tap would be the last brothers to represent the Netherlands against Italy, until 1974.

The next few decades would see more brothers get the honor of being siblings who played for the national team, but not represent the Oranje together. That would change in 1974 when the twin brothers René and Willy van de Kerkhof would be part of the Oranje. Both were called up for the 1974 World Cup, but only René would get to play in that competition. However, they did start all seven matches during the 1978 World Cup where the Netherlands would lose to Argentina in the Final. They also represented the Oranje at the 1976 and 1980 European Championships. They would collect a combined 110 caps, and to this day, no other pair of brothers would feature in four different international tournaments for the Netherlands.

The van de Kerkhof era would end in the 1980s, but a new era would begin in 1983 through the Koeman brothers. Erwin and Ronald Koeman amassed a combined 109 caps and would become the only brothers to win a major international trophy for the Netherlands. The Koeman brothers made their debut together in 1983 against Sweden and five years later, they played their part in helping the Oranje win Euro 1988. Erwin did not play in the opening game of that tournament but would go on to play with his brother Ronald in the following four matches that the Oranje won, including the Final. The 1990 World Cup would be the final major competition that the Koeman brothers would play together and their era would end in 1994 against Tunisia in which was their 26th and final match together.

The 1990’s would kick off with the Witschge brothers and the de Boer brothers featuring for the Oranje. Rob and Richard Witschge represented the Oranje throughout the 90s with a combined 61 caps, and would feature in four different tournaments, but never together. In fact, they only played together once, in 1992 against then Yugoslavia. A year later, another set of twin brothers would go on to feature the Netherlands for the next decade.

Frank and Ronald de Boer made their debut against San Marino in a 1994 World Cup Qualifier in 1993 and would go on to feature for the Oranje a combined 179 times. They would also play together a record 56 times, The de Boer twins also have the famous distinction of both scoring a goal, which was against Wales in 1996. Moreover, the de Boer twins got to play with the Koeman brothers on three separate occasions. The set of brothers would start against England in 1993 in a 1994 World Cup Qualifiers and all four brothers would start the next match against Poland. In those matches, the Ronalds would each score for the Oranje. Ronald Koeman scored against England and Ronald de Boer scored against Poland. Ronald Koeman would also score in their final appearance with the de Boer twins in a friendly against Tunisia in 1994.

The de Boer brothers would go on to represent the Oranje into the next decade, with Frank de Boer becoming the first player to gain 100 caps for the Dutch. They would feature together in the 1994 and 1998 World Cups and Euro 2000. Ronald de Boer’s final cap would come in 2003 against Moldova with his brother Frank on the pitch. Frank’s final cap would come in 2004 after picking up an injury in the Euro 2004 Quarter-Final against Sweden. Since then, we would see Collins and Ola John, and then Siem and Luuk de Jong brothers represent the Oranje, but not together at the same time, squad or on the same pitch.

It wasn’t until this month that we would finally see another set of brothers representing the Oranje again. On September 8, 2024, the twin brothers Jurriën and Quinten Timber got to sit together on the team bench and then appear as substitutes against Bosnia and Herzegovina in a UEFA Cup Nations. The Timber brothers became the third set of twins to play for the Netherlands and would repeat that feat two days later against Germany.

Time will tell whether we will continue to see future brothers representing the Oranje for many years to come. The Timber brothers’ presence bridged the past of the Oranje with the present and we hope we will see many brothers perform well for the Oranje in the future. Special recognition goes out to the hard work of Karel Stokkermans for his hard work and research in collecting all the data regarding Oranje brothers, “A Century of Brothers in Oranje” for the Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation.


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