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Henk Penseel on Rod Stewart, still a soccer fan!

Last week  there were three moments my attention was drawn to Rod Stewart. The first was the announcement that he is going to perform again in Amsterdam on June 12^th next year. The second was an article in De Volkskrant about the release of his autobiography, Rod. And the third was when I watched flashes of the already legendary match Celtic versus Barcelona. The camera spotted Rod Stewart sitting in the crowd crying with joy over the victory by the Scots.

On May 22, 1976 I welcomed Rod Stewart and his then girlfriend Britt Eklund at Schiphol airport . They came from Paris as part of a European road show. My task was to arrange a series of meetings with the press. And at his request, we had a football match organized in Hilversum between a team of his music company Warner Bros, including Rod Stewart of course, versus a team of Radio Veronica, which consisted of disc jockeys and Dutch celebrities.

Rod Stewart had at that time huge success with the album Atlantic Crossing. The single Sailin' was a world hit and his new album A Night On The Town was on the point of hatching. It was not difficult to get journalists interested in doing an interview. The first night we had dinner at a seafood restaurant, which had a large aquarium with fish in it that you could point out to eat. This was too horrible for Britt Eklund. She had no problem eating fish, but not one that she had seen a few minutes before alive and well swimming in front of her eyes.

The second evening Rod Stewart wanted do an interview, but the journalist had to play a game of soccer with him first. He wanted to prepare himself for the match the day after. He asked whether I knew a nice playfield. Near my home was a park, where there were always people playing some soccer with each other. You need opponents too, don’t you.

We arranged a car plus chauffeur who was available for Rod, every minute of the day. Punctually at a quarter to six in the evening a limousine stops at the entrance of the park. Mister. Stewart gets out dressed in the outfit of the Scottish national football team. Even stockings to just below the knee with tassels.

Fortunately I had my sneakers on and wore a pair of shorts and a T-shirt. With a leather ball in my hand  we, the journalist, me and a couple of friends, walked to the field where a game already was  in progress between a number of Surinamese and Antilleans. We asked whether they want to do a game. "Sure, no problem." The teams were a bit mixed and we started. Rod played fanatically. All I wanted, was to prevent him from an injury. He had fun and we all had a good time. We stopped because the drizzling changed into a heavy rain. I have forgotten the outcome of the game the next day. But sure is, that the famous Scottish singer Rod Stewart was a fan of soccer 36 years ago and he still is.

WUP 19/11/12

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