A circus called the Jupiler League |

In his latest edition of his weekly column, Jos Boesveld returns with the humorous story about an Eerste Divisie boss…

Haha! I’m still laughing about that moment. A moment that makes the Jupiler League so special. I love it, the clumsiness, the small teams with players no one has ever heard of. And Maurice Steijn.

For those of you who do not know Maurice Steijn, he’s a former player of ADO Den Haag and NAC Breda and he was a trainer for ADO Den Haag for about four years. Now, he has struck down in the Jupiler League, coaching VVV-Venlo and apparently, doing awesome stuff.

I’m talking about the third of October, Friday night. His team leads one to zero in the match against Helmond Sport. I know Steijn as a coach with pure passion for the game. He likes an aggressive style of football and cannot always control his emotions when coaching. Just like the third of October, Friday night.

One of his players was fouled by Charles Kazlauskas, a Lithuanian defender, born in the United States of America. Steijn got angry, screamed at the referee that it was a foul, but the arbiter would take none of that.

It took me back a few years, when I was still attending primary school. When harm was done to you in the schoolyard, justice had to be served. In a sneaky, childish way. Steijn also went back to his younger years. He seized the moment when Kazlauskas appeared near the sideline for a throw-in.

Steijn just pulled one little move, but when I saw it, it was enough to crack me up for days. He tripped Kazlauskas, plain and simple. Like a tree branch between spokes, Kazlauskas could only fell to the ground. It got Steijn suspended for a few games, gave me a good laugh and the thought that we have a very special competition next to the Eredivisie. The Jupiler League, yes!