Puck Van Heel

1923/40 Feyenoord Rotterdam (NL) 386 matches, 46 goals

With the National Team :

64 caps, 0 goal

(Friendly matches: 57 caps)

(World Cup qualifiers: 4 caps)

(World Cup: 2 caps)

(Olympic Games: 1 cap)

1st cap: April 19, 1925 against Switzerland (1-4)

Last cap: October 23, 1938 against Denmark (2-2)

Gerardus Henricus "Puck" van Heel 

Born January 21, 1904 in Rotterdam (NL)

Died December 18, 1984 in Rotterdam (NL)

Dutch, Inside Left, Left-Midfielder

Gerardus Henricus van Heel was born on 21 January 1904. He was the fourth of eleven children of a Catholic dockworker. It was on the streets of Rotterdam that "Puck", a small man, started playing football. At the age of 15, he decided to join the "Rotterdamsche Voetbal Vereeniging Feijenoord", a club that had become the best in the city and seemed to be able to reach the highest level of Dutch football.

He joined the first team in 1923, and in his first season, in a team composed of Kees van Dijke, Bertus Bul and Kees Pijl, he won his first Dutch championship. Admittedly as a rotation player, but it was already a great entry into the world of football for the 20-year-old.

It would take a few seasons for the player to truly take a starting place in one of the best teams in the country. In 1928, he was an unshakeable player on the left flank of the team's midfield. Van Heel was also there when Feyenoord won the KNVB Cup for the first time in 1930.

During the 1930s, he was joined by a new generation with players such as Adri van Male, Jan Linssen, Manue Vrauwdeunt, Jaap and Bas Paauwe. With this young and technical team, Van Heel won two national championships and a Dutch Cup.

He was the captain and playmaker of this team. The ball passed through him and he is considered one of the best passers of all time. It is therefore logical that the player played for the Netherlands selection in 1925 and 1938 on 64 occasions, being one of the best players in the country. Very humble and modest, Van Heel is the favorite player of the supporters for whom he is a living legend.

In love with his club, Puck Van Heel managed to maintain his level throughout his career, his game not being particularly based on the physical aspect but on the player's extraordinary intelligence. Known for his vision, his sense of passing and his technical quality, he was not known for great speed, on the contrary.

The only thing that will overcome a slight drop in level will be a discomfort in his left knee. A left knee that as a left-hander, he uses too much. Stocky, he seemed more imposing when you know that he wore bandages around his knees because of this discomfort. The older he got, the more he retreated on the field, in a role of pure and hard leader, capable of setting the pace of his team's game and offering a certain maturity in the offensives.

At 36, the Dutch player decided to say goodbye, he who had always been loyal to his club leaves on a high note. Indeed, he won the Dutch championship for the 5th time in 1940. Puck Van Heel was the symbol of this golden generation of Feyenoord.

At a time when football was not yet professional, the player had to work as a worker in Van den Bergh's margarine factory, as a representative of Cor Kieboom's coal trade, as a member of the Feyenoord board and as a cigar merchant. After his retirement in 1940, Van Heel was active for a number of years as a coach at clubs in the Rijnmond region, including Fortuna Vlaardingen, Flakkee and SSS de Spijkenisse. In addition, like many former footballers, he ran a café from 1939 onwards.