It has been 25 years since Jan Paaymans was shot in his cigar shop in Tilburg by a robber and later died of his injuries. The striking football coach of Nieuw Woensel and PSV/AV was loved in the region and his death caused a shock in the entire amateur football.
On Saturday evening he was commemorated in the canteen of football club Nieuw Woensel. There were almost a hundred interested people, who recalled all kinds of memories of Paaymans. The most crazy anecdotes were told and according to Rob Renders (66), who was leader of Nieuw Woensel for about twelve years from the mid-eighties, ‘you have to have been there, otherwise you wouldn’t believe certain things’.
“When it rained, he sometimes came onto the field in a long raincoat, looked up once and then directed his players to the canteen. We sat down to play cards, with a nice glass of beer. He got away with it, because on Sundays we simply won”.
According to Renders, Paaymans brought out the best in the players. “They went through fire for him. A year after Jan became trainer here, we suddenly even had a women’s team. I mean! Haha!”
‘Bag squash’
After new recruits Magendans and Bruel came to Nieuw Woensel, even more players came. Enthusiastic about the stories of and about Paaymans. Boys who were prepared to start in the minor Brabant division, but then advanced quickly to the third division of KNVB (Dutch royal football society). And then even reached the first group stage of the Amstel Cup in 1993”.
Leader Ruud Luining: “Jan was back at Nieuw Woensel after three seasons at PSV/AV and it was as if he had never been away. During the away games, Nieuw Woensel always made sure there was a party, whether we had won or lost. The atmosphere was always good and was often concluded with ‘builtje poef’, (‘bag squash’), where bags of crisps were smashed on the head. It made no sense at all, but oh well… that was Nieuw Woensel. A bit crazy”.
Shin guards
The absolute highlight in the history of Nieuw Woensel was – as mentioned earlier – the participation in Amstel Cup in 1993. As losing finalist of the amateur cup final, the third division club qualified for the national cup competition.
Premier league club Roda JC, the first division clubs Fortuna Sittard and FC Eindhoven were the opponents. Nieuw Woensel didn’t win, but did write history and was always controversial. With Paaymans in a starring role.
Renders: “We played against Eindhoven and both had black trousers. The referee didn’t allow this. Through intermediaries, Jan managed to get a bag with white trousers from a material shed somewhere. How? No idea. He knew someone everywhere.”
“And the referee’s requirement that shin guards were mandatory was also circumvented. From the box, that contained our (new, sponsored) shirts, ‘shin guards’ were expertly cut from the carton. The referee even approved it!”
Cement
“He arranged everything or had it arranged”, Luining laughs. “We, as players and supervisors, were crazy about him and did everything for him. A training evening regularly got out of hand and we would sit in the canteen until two in the morning or end up in town. There was a lot of fun, but there was also good performance”.
“Jan was the cement between the bricks. After his death, we got together several evenings to seek comfort and reminisce. The massive interest, also at his funeral, says enough about how loved Jan was”.
Source: Studio040
Translated by: Bob
