Hearts trip stirs memories of a hellhole and Scottish football icon's mistaken mosque complaint
The surreal story of the last Scottish side to visit Trabzonspor - nearly 30 years on
Sometimes events collide in the most obliging ways. As I write, hundreds of Hearts fans are heading to a city on the southeastern shore of the Black Sea, the first Scots to descend en masse to this area since Dundee United supporters made the same odyssey nearly 30 years ago.
In Heerlen in southeastern Netherlands, meanwhile, Sieb Dykstra celebrated turning 60 on Tuesday. At first glance, there might seem to be little to connect these two snippets of information. But the former Dundee United goalkeeper is forever, in my mind at least, associated with Trabzon, where Hearts take on hosts Trabzonspor, Mo Salah et al, on Thursday night.
Dykstra, along with his Dundee United teammates at the time, experienced a memorable visit for a Uefa Cup first round clash one hot August night in 1997.
Already planning a piece reminiscing about this match, which The Scotsman sent me to cover, Dykstra’s age milestone comes as a convenient additional hook. The (then) moustachioed keeper was a legend of the Scottish game, for Motherwell as well as United and is fondly remembered for his prowess between the sticks.
He was also a character. During the first leg encounter in Turkey, Dykstra ran to the German referee, Helmut Krug, to complain that the music inside the ground was too loud. It was putting him off.
Such was the din, how could he be expected to save all the efforts peppered towards him by, among others, Hami Mandirali, who was then reckoned to have the hardest shot in Turkish football? The midfielder scored the only goal of the night from the penalty spot with 13 minutes left. Dykstra actually had a stormer of a match, despite the difficulties.
‘Excuse of the week’
It later emerged that the music was in fact the call to prayer from the local mosque behind his goal. As I wrote on the night, there was confusion when the United keeper was seen “running from his box towards the referee” early in the second half, with Dykstra himself later explaining that his “displeasure stemmed from the incessant drone…that could be heard from the mosque behind a goal”.
Dykstra’s complaint was awarded "excuse of the week" status in The Scotsman, which at the time ran a regular feature highlighting the most ingenious explanations served up by sportspeople for falling short. It remains up there with Manchester United’s grey kits, which manager Alex Ferguson claimed meant players struggled to pick each other out during a defeat against Southampton, and Gordon Strachan blaming “genetics” for Scotland’s World Cup qualifying failures.
Even back then, it was deemed necessary to recognise cultural sensitivities. Dykstra issued an apology a couple of days later. “Early in the second half this music started blaring from behind my goal and it sounded like it was inside the stadium,” he explained. “I complained because I thought it was gamesmanship. It was only later I found out it was from the mosque. If I had realised that, of course I would not have complained.”
Dykstra chuckles at the memory now. “I really had the impression the supporters had a big ghetto blaster and were trying to put me off!” he says. I caught up with him as he was driving to a coaching session. He might be 60 but work never stops (the “big party”, he says, is on Saturday).
Dykstra currently runs a goalkeeping college in six locations catering to 150 goalkeepers aged eight to 18. He also helps coach youth team goalkeepers at several Dutch clubs including Fortuna Sittard and Roda JC, where he started his career. He even still plays – “for the Roda JC oldies’ team, I’m the one who organises all the games”.
Now in his seventh decade, he’s doing well. He notes that when he was at Dundee United in 1997, his father was the age he is now. “It’s hard to believe,” he says.
Welcome to a delapidated hellhole
As soon as Trabzonspor came out of the hat to play Hearts in this season’s Conference League, my mind – and perhaps I'm not alone – instantly drifted back to what feels, and is, another era.
Tommy McLean was Dundee United manager, installed by his chairman brother Jim. Dykstra played behind a young blond-haired centre half called Steven Pressley. Kjell Olofsson, the talented Swedish striker, was up front.
Having dispensed with Andorran minnows CE Principat, whose base of operations was a restaurant, United were drawn with a rather more formidable set of opponents in Trabzonspor. Previews went heavy on the ‘Welcome to Hell’ angle, as they do now whenever Turkey emerges as a destination for a British football team.
In the event it was welcome to a rubble-strewn, dilapidated hellhole. At the time, Trabzonspor played at the Avni Aker stadium, which was nearing the end of its natural life. It’s surprising to learn that it in fact lasted another 20 or so years. Trabzonspor only moved to their current state-of-the-art, fit-for-a-pharaoh home in early 2017.
On the morning of the game the front page of the sports pull-out in The Scotsman featured a large photograph, captioned: "Turkish construction workers watch the Dundee United players train through a hole in the wall of Avni Aker Stadium."
One stand was still being constructed – or was it demolished? Either way, it was considered unfit for human inhabitation. So naturally they put the Scottish press there. A row of reporters looked out from this cracked and broken perch before blowing the dust from the handsets of the rotary dial phones on the desks in front of us and phoning in our copy to relevant sports desks.
The drama had started as early as the morning of the game, when Uefa delegate Kaj Natri picked his way gingerly across the construction debris and threatened to have the game called off.
Given the logistical headaches involved in any postponement, the match survived. The stadium was described as a half-finished furnace. Those areas not condemned would be full of hostile fans.
“If the firecrackers come on, let the firecrackers come on,” shrugged skipper Maurice Malpas on the eve of the match. McLean suggested the opposition might find a trip to Dundee more unsettling. “Let’s see how brave the Turks are then,” the manager said. The aggregate score was tied at 1-1 at Tannadice after Andy McLaren’s header early in the second half but Hami’s strike with nine minutes left proved decisive. United went into European hibernation for eight years.
As for Dykstra, he returned to his Dutch homeland after a contract wrangle with the Tannadice club. He released his autobiography, titled Keeper met een Missie (Keeper with a Mission), three years ago.
The mission in question is Dykstra’s determination to play football despite his parents being told, shortly after his birth, that he would not be able to take part in any sport due to a lung condition.
“Everyone was astonished I was able to play professional football,” he says now. Not just play but excel to the extent that he’s very fondly remembered by fans of opposition clubs as well as those of Motherwell and Dundee United. Motherwell recently launched the "Sieb Dykstra" leisurewear collection based on the classic 1990s goalkeeper kit he is most associated with.
“Good memories," he reflects, before wishing good luck to Hearts, who he notes have a Dutch keeper in Beau Reus, who, like him, once played for AZ Alkmaar. And many happy returns to you, Sieb.
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