Having missed out on captaining the Netherlands at Euro 2020 because of an ACL injury, Virgil van Dijk will be looking to make the most of his 2022 World Cup campaign in Qatar.
The Liverpool defender’s tournament will get underway on its second day, with the Netherlands' clash with Senegal the third game on Monday 21 November, following on from England and Wales' maiden matches against Iran and the United States respectively after Sunday's opener in which Ecuador beat Qatar 2-0.
When the draw was made back in April, it didn’t go unnoticed, at Anfield at least, that the Oranje Army would be locking horns with the Teranga Lions in Group A, setting up a intriguing battle between Van Dijk and Reds team-mate Sadio Mane. Alas, the forward, who would end up leaving Anfield for Bayern Munich back in June, has since been ruled out of the tournament because of injury.
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As a result, any Liverpool fans who tune in to see Van Dijk’s opening game on Monday won’t be treated to the sight of their two club legends, who both won every major honour going at Anfield, going head to head. However, what they might not be aware of it, they are likely to spot the unmistakable figure of Edgar Davids on the Netherlands bench.
The former midfielder is one of the most famous faces in modern football, partly thanks to his dreadlocked hair and the protective goggles he wore due to glaucoma. Of course, the fact that he played for Ajax, AC Milan, Juventus, Barcelona, Inter Milan before his career started to wind down at Tottenham Hotspur would also aid such recognition.
Now assistant coach to former Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal with the Netherlands, Davids joined the Dutch national set-up back in May. And while he’ll be hoping to play his part in a successful World Cup, it’s something of a step up compared to his previous coaching roles to date.
Davids was sacked as S.C. Olhanense (a third division Portuguese side) head coach after a seven-month stint in July 2021, while he previously worked as an assistant coach at Dutch second division side Telstar the year before. Yet his his most famous coaching role came in the unfamiliar lower depths of English football after he was appointed player-manager at then League Two Barnet in October 2012.
Despite initially guiding the struggling side off the foot of the table and out of the relegation zone, Barnet dropped back into the bottom two on the final day of the 2012/13 season following a defeat to Northampton Town and were relegated out of the Football League. Yet despite that setback, it was announced in May 2013 that Davids would keep his job ahead of the 2013/14 season in the Conference.
And it was here in the national league, having infamously handed himself the number one shirt and given himself the Barnet captain’s armband, where the 1995 Champions League winner would be sent off for his involvement in a bloodied altercation with one former Liverpool starlet in the midst of a 20-man brawl.
Given he earned several nicknames throughout his career, such as ‘The Piranha’, ‘Tubarao’ (The Shark), and, most memorably christened by Van Gaal, ‘The Pitbull’, due to his aggressive and hard-tackling playing style, perhaps the above should be no surprise. Yet that didn’t make the incident any less shocking.
Former Liverpool defender Stephen Wright made 21 appearances for the Reds, scoring one goal, after progressing through the Academy. Handed his debut in an 8-0 League Cup win over Stoke City in November 2000, he’d memorably score in a 2-0 Champions League victory over Borussia Dortmund at Anfield the following October.
Yet in 2013/14, as Brendan Rodgers’ Reds side found themselves challenging for a maiden Premier League title, the defender was in his second season with Wrexham, having enjoyed stints with Stoke City, Coventry City, Brentford and Hartlepool United after leaving Liverpool for Sundaland in a £1.5m deal in 2002.
And it was with Wrexham, in the Conference in October 2013, where he’d end up on the receiving end of Edgar Davids’ elbow. To add insult to injury, the former Reds defender would also be shown a red card for his troubles.
Barnet were winning 1-0 thanks to Anthony Acheampong's early opener when things turned ugly at the Hive after Wrexham were awarded a late free-kick. As the two sets of players squabbled over the free-kick, Davids, who started centre-back that day, grabbed hold of the ball and pushed away one Wrexham player.
This prompted Wright to charge over and push into the Dutchman in a failed attempt to retrieve the ball from him. Refusing to let go of the ball, Davids responded by elbowing the former Liverpool star in the face, sending him flying to the floor and initiating a 20-man brawl in the process.
When the dust settled, referee Nick Kinseley decided to send off both Davids and Wright, who had blood gushing from his mouth as he left the pitch. He’d then confront the Dutchman as both players left the pitch, though they wouldn’t exchange any further blows.
Wrexham’s Dean Keates would end up scoring from the resulting free-kick to earn a 1-1 draw, while the Welsh outfit would have a second player sent off in stoppage-time as Johnny Hunt was dismissed for a knee-high challenge on Curtis Weston.
It later emerged that Wright needed a skin graft to treat the wound, with team-mate David Artell tweeting: “Edgar Davids should be ashamed of himself. Wrighty needs a skin graft in his mouth the hole is that big.”
Wrexham manager Andy Morrell was understandably critical of Davids’ conduct after the game, telling reporters: “Wrighty has gone in and tried to get the ball back, there's nothing in it.
“He's not tried to punch him to get the ball off him or anything like that and Davids has reacted to it and belted him in the face. I think he's [Davids] a straight red, and if Wrighty gets a yellow I'm disappointed. We'll definitely have a look. I think we'll have an appeal there for us."
Wright would have his suspension reduced by one match following Wrexham’s appeal. However, having already been sent off against Halifax Town earlier in the season, he still had to serve a three-game suspension due to it being his second red card of the season.
Meanwhile, Davids, who would also serve a three-game ban, would admit his red card was ‘fair enough’ after the game, but added his ‘intention was to protect the ball.’
“I’ve got the ball and he wanted to get it off me,” Barnet’s player-manager explained. “I was just a little bit too eager to hold onto the ball and he ran into my elbow. If you look at it from that perspective, my intention is to protect the ball.
“But from the other point of view you can give a red card. So it is what it is. I don’t have too many complaints because if you do something with aggression then you can hurt somebody. So it is fair enough and it is a red card. My intention was to protect the ball though.”
Having been booked in each of his first three appearances of the season before being sent off in his fourth outing against Wrexham, he'd be sent off twice more in December in successive games against Dartford and Salisbury for second bookable offences. As a result, he’d been dismissed three times in six matches and his disciplinary record stood at six yellow cards and three red cards from just nine matches in 2013/14.
Davids would threaten retirement after the third dismissal, insisting he was a target because of his record in the game.
"I am a target but it is OK. I don't think I am going to play anymore because they're taking away the fun," he said. "I want the team to do well. If you look at the red cards, some are definitely red cards and some are exaggerated. It is hard to complete our tasks when a lot of decisions are against you."
He’d ultimately never play for Barnet, or professionally, again, and, with further controversy arising after it emerged that he would not attend away games that required an overnight stay, would resign by mutual agreement in January 2014.
"We all get frustrated (with Davids). 100 percent,” former Barnet winger Mauro Vilhete would later admit when reflecting on his former manager's disciplinary record. “Every time, especially when it costs us. It's frustrating as hell. But what can you say, at the end of the day? He's our boss."
A surreal managerial stint in the Conference, it's fair to say Davids left an unorthodox mark on Barnet as his playing career ended with those three red cards. But perhaps not as impactful a mark as the one he left on the face of former Liverpool defender Stephen Wright.
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