The First Surinamese Player in the Dutch National Squad - Humphrey Mijnals
Humphrey Mijnals, the first player with Surinamese roots to play for the Dutch international squad. In the last decades, it has been very common to see players with Carribean, South-East Asian and African backgrounds play for the Dutch international team. However in 1960, the team was completely white until Humphrey Mijnals made his debut.
Mijnals moved from Suriname to the Netherlands in the winter of 1956. When he made his debut at the Dutch club, Elinkwijk, the Surinamese defender was confronted with the true nature of Dutch football in the 1950s. Midfielder Hans de Koning gave Mijnals a kick that injured him and while laying on the stretcher he heard one of the supporters yell: ‘’Stick a 15 cent stamp on his ass and send him back!’’ In the years that followed, Mijnals got confronted with racism a few more times. Mijnals didn’t complain though, as years went by he saw more Surinamese players join Elinkwijk.
In 1960, Humphrey Mijnals made his debut for the Dutch national team in a match against Bulgaria. Tickets to the match sold out quickly and many people from the Surinamese community came out to show their support for Humphrey. It was at his debut match where Humphrey did his iconic bicycle kick. This move emphasized the difference between the way the Dutch and the Surinamese played the game. One of Mijnals’ contemporaries, Hans Kraay, recalled this moment. ‘’That was such a great action, we Dutch defenders didn’t do that at that time, we couldn’t. And if we accidentally tried, we would have to be carried away on a stretcher, with a hernia.” The Netherlands won the match with a score of 4–2 and Mijnals got carried on the shoulders of supporters as if he won the World Cup.
Surinamese players such as Aron Winter, Gerald Vanenburg, Ruud Gullit, Frank Rijkaard, Clarence Seedorf, Edgar Davids, Patrick Kluivert all wrote history in their own way. And for that to happen, Humphrey Mijnals opened the doors. With that in mind, it only makes sense that the defender was named Surinamese football player of the century in December 1999.
