Cornelus Bernardus Rijvers (born 27 May 1926) is a Dutch former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugb ...

who was active as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

and later as coach for

PSV Eindhoven Philips Sport Vereniging (; en, Philips Sports Association ), abbreviated as PSV and internationally known as PSV Eindhoven (), is a Dutch sports club from Eindhoven, Netherlands. It is best known for its professional football department, w ...

and the Netherlands national team. He was born in

Breda Breda () is a city and municipality in the southern part of the Netherlands, located in the province of North Brabant. The name derived from ''brede Aa'' ('wide Aa' or 'broad Aa') and refers to the confluence of the rivers Mark and Aa. Breda has ...

Playing career

Rijvers made his debut at

NAC Breda NAC Breda (), often simply known as NAC, is a Dutch professional football club, based in Breda, Netherlands. NAC Breda play in the Rat Verlegh Stadium, named after their most important player, Antoon 'Rat' Verlegh. They play in the Eerste Div ...

and also played for

AS Saint-Étienne Association Sportive de Saint-Étienne Loire (), commonly known as A.S.S.E. () or simply Saint-Étienne, is a professional football club based in Saint-Étienne in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France. The club was founded in 1933 and competes in ...

Stade Français Stade Français Paris Rugby () is a French professional rugby union club based in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. The club plays in the Top 14 domestic league in France and is one of the most successful French clubs of the modern era. The ...

and Feijenoord. He was a member of the Netherlands team at the

1948 Summer Olympic Games The 1948 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XIV Olympiad and also known as London 1948) were an international multi-sport event held from 29 July to 14 August 1948 in London, England, United Kingdom. Following a twelve-year hiatus ca ...

. In 1950 Rijvers became one of the very first Dutch players to turn professional with his transfer to AS Saint-Étienne. The

KNVB The Royal Dutch Football Association (, ; KNVB ) is the governing body of football in the Netherlands. It organises the main Dutch football leagues (Eredivisie and Eerste Divisie), the amateur leagues, the KNVB Cup, and the Dutch men's and wome ...

suspended him from playing in the national team in response because at the time they didn't allow professional players to play in the national team and it wasn't until 1957 he would play in the national team again. Since the death of

Marcelino Campanal Marcelino Vaquero González del Río (13 February 1932 – 25 May 2020), known as Marcelino Campanal, was a Spanish footballer who played as a defender. He played for Real Avilés CF, Sevilla FC, Deportivo de La Coruña and CD Iliturgi from ...

in May 2020, Rijvers is the final surviving player who received at least one vote during the inaugural edition (

1956 Events January * January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan. * January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, Jim Elliot and Pete Fleming, are kille ...

) of the

Ballon d'Or The Ballon d'Or (; ) is an annual football award presented by French news magazine '' France Football'' since 1956. Between 2010 and 2015, in an agreement with FIFA, the award was temporarily merged with the FIFA World Player of the Year (f ...

Coaching career

As a manager, he took over

FC Twente Football Club Twente () is a Dutch professional football club from the city of Enschede, sometimes known internationally as Twente Enschede. The club was formed in 1965 by the merger of 1926 Dutch champions Sportclub Enschede with Enschedes ...

and coached the team for six years, with good results. After those successful seasons, he moved to

. He led the team to win the

1977–78 UEFA Cup The 1977–78 UEFA Cup was won by PSV Eindhoven on aggregate over Bastia Bastia (, , , ; co, Bastìa ) is a commune in the department of Haute-Corse, Corsica, France. It is located in the northeast of the island of Corsica at the base of Ca ...

. He also won with PSV three

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is ...

titles, in 1975, 1976 and 1978, and the double in 1976. After leaving PSV, he took over the

national team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exa ...

and introduced young players like

Ronald Koeman Ronald Koeman (; born 21 March 1963) is a Dutch professional football manager and former player. He is the younger brother of his former international teammate Erwin Koeman and the son of former Dutch international Martin Koeman. Koeman was capab ...

, Ruud Gullit and

Marco van Basten Marcel "Marco" van Basten (; born 31 October 1964) is a Dutch football manager and retired professional player, who played for Ajax and AC Milan, as well as the Netherlands national team, as a striker. Widely regarded as one of the greatest ...

. The Netherlands failed to qualify for Euro 1984 having better goal difference against Spain until the last day of the qualification, but after Spain's 12–1 win over Malta, the Netherlands ended second in the group. After that Rijvers was sacked by the

and replaced by Rinus Michels.

Honours

Player

;NAC Breda *

Eerste Klasse The Eerste Klasse ( en, First Class) started as the 1st tier of football in the Netherlands and is now the 6th tier. The league is divided into eleven divisions, six for Saturday clubs and five for Sunday clubs. These divisions correspond to the ...

: 1945–46 ;Saint-Étienne *

Ligue 1 Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. ...

: 1956–57 *

Coupe de France The Coupe de France, formerly known as the Coupe Charles Simon, is the premier knockout cup competition in French football organized by the French Football Federation (FFF). It was first held in 1917 and is open to all amateur and profession ...

: 1961–62

Manager

;PSV *

: 1974–75, 1975–76, 1977–78 * KNVB Beker: 1973–74, 1975–76 *

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

: 1977–78

Individual

* Rinus Michels Award: 2004

References

External links

Playing and coaching profile
''(in Dutch)'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Rijvers, Kees 1926 births Living people UEFA Cup winning managers Dutch footballers Netherlands international footballers Dutch expatriate footballers Ligue 1 players Eredivisie players Feyenoord players NAC Breda players AS Saint-Étienne players Expatriate footballers in France Stade Français (association football) players Olympic footballers of the Netherlands Footballers at the 1948 Summer Olympics Association football midfielders Expatriate football managers in Belgium Dutch expatriate football managers Dutch football managers Footballers from Breda FC Twente managers K. Beringen F.C. managers Rinus Michels Award winners