By Charwayne Walker
British Guiana led by Police Sports Club fullback, Hubert ‘Senor’ Braithwaite, defeated Suriname 2-0 in their three match international football series played at Georgetown Football Club ground, Bourda, Georgetown, in October 1955.
The two arch-rivals were competing for the Fogarty’s Cup, which was donated by William Fogarty’s Limited of British Guiana.
Suriname playing with George Gullit and Herman Rijkaard, fathers of Netherland Legends Frank Rijkaard and Ruud Gullit, had no answer for British Guiana, who played without star winger Louis ‘Water Boat’ Withers. The first (Test) ended 1-1. However, British Guiana won the second match 3-1 before clinching the final fixture 1-0. Both
George Gullit and Herman Rijkaard left Suriname on the same ship in 1957 and disembarked at the same port in the Netherlands where the latter joined FC Blauw, who played at the Olympic Stadium in the then newly formed Eredivisie, the top flight of professional football in the Netherlands.
In 1961, Rijkaard joined the I.J.V.V Stormvogels competing in the Dutch Eerste Divisie, the 2nd tier of professional football in the Netherlands. He played for one season before directing his focus towards family and the needs of Surinamese expatriates in the Netherlands, thus retiring from professional football as a player.
After his career as a football player, Rijkaard took a job as a social worker in Amsterdam in 1959. He had his first son Herman Harry Rijkaard Jr. Three years later his second son Franklin Edmundo Rijkaard was born.
Herman Gullit, unlike his compatriot and good friend, left his playing days behind him upon arrival in Amsterdam, and initially studied at the VRLJE University in the south of Amsterdam before finding employment teaching economics at a school in Jordaan.
Both of their famous sons were born within a month of each other. After initially settling in Jordaan, the Gullit family made the move to Amsterdam, settling near Balbao Square which was a famed proving ground for the district’s budding footballers. It would be there where 11-year-old Frank and Ruud would first meet.
Before long, Gullit had convinced Rijkaard to move over to his academy side at AFC DWS where the boys would remain inseparable over the next years before diverging to begin their footballing journeys.
How many football fans of Frank Rijkaard and Ruud Gullit know that the fathers of these two legends started their national team duties in British Guiana 67 years ago in 1955? Herman Rijkaard Died on the 30th of September 2010
The touring Suriname Team of 1955
A. Tin Jet Foei (Official)
A. Doest (Trainer)
E. Wolf (Counsel)
A. Barrow: (Half Back)
A. Foe A. Man (Back)
N. Graanoogst (Forward)
J. Slees-Wijk (Half)
J. Leeflang (Half)
E. Wiebers (Half)
George Gullit (Half)
J. Goed Schalk (official)
E. Macnack (Goalkeeper)
S: Acton (Manager)
L: Wilfred (Back)
Herman Rijkaard (Centre Half)
E. Buyne (Captain Central
Forward)
H. Tauw Ngie Tjauw (Forward)
L: Smees (Forward)
Fr. Ljvel (Centre Forward)
F. Macnack (Forward)
Fr. St Hill (Right forward)
E. Dams (Forward)
