Is Koeman making a mistake?
The current European Championship selection includes only one player from the province of Utrecht: Abcoudenaar Matthijs de Ligt. There have been more than that. In 1996, Johan de Kock was joined by Utrecht native John Veldman. Also in 1976 (Writers from Jutphaas and Utrechter Willem van Hanegem), 1980 (Piet Schrijvers and Hans van Breukelen from De Bilt), 2008 (Utrechters Wesley Sneijder and Ibrahim Afellay) and 2020 (Matthijs de Ligt and Utrechter Jurriën Timber) the Orange selection two Utrecht faces.
In 1992 and 2012 there were even three: the Utrecht players Marco van Basten and Jan Wouters, and again Hans van Breukelen, were eliminated in the semi-finals in Sweden. Twenty years later, Wesley Sneijder, Ibrahim Afellay and Michel Vorm experienced the worst European Championship ever: in Ukraine and Poland, the Dutch team lost all three group matches and were eliminated without a point.
But never have more Utrecht players been part of a European Championship selection than in 1988, when, in addition to Van Basten, Wouters and Van Breukelen, Utrecht’s Gerald Vanenburg was also a starter. And that team, with four Utrecht players (and Utrecht Nol de Ruiter as assistant to national coach Rinus Michels), won the only international title with the Dutch team.
This raises the question of whether Koeman should perhaps have called up more Utrecht players for this European Championship. The second question is: who?