Johan Boskamp thought his time was up when he collapsed in the shower about 10 years ago, he has revealed in a new autobiography that hits shelves in the Netherlands this week. A quarter of his heart gave out and his wife Lydia explained: “He looked me in the eye and said, ‘I’m dying’.”
But since it’s Boskamp, ​​that’s only half the story. Lydia added: “The paramedics brought him back to consciousness but when they wanted to put him on the stretcher in the ambulance he started protesting. He didn’t want to go because there was an important game on TV that night. The paramedics had to promise him he would be able to watch it in hospital.”
Lydia co-wrote Mijn Leven – or My Life: Sporting and other confessions – as the former Stoke City manager, now 75, reflects on a career that has seen him play in the Netherlands and Belgium, coach the world and become a colorful and a very popular TV pundit across the Low Countries.
READ MORE: Stoke old boy Steven Nzonzi makes surprise decision
READ MORE: How Stoke use Liverpool and Arsenal to build future
She has long warned him about his weight and the impact on his health, saying: “It’s still a struggle. One that gave me a lot of energy and worry. When I met him, he weighed 140 kilos. He only ate steak and chips and drank liters of Coke. “Vegetables are for rabbits and water for fish,’ was one of his mottoes.’
It wasn’t her first worry about Boskamp though, going back to when they met in the 1970s.
In an interview with HBVL, she said: “In the 1970s, when Jan was still playing football for RWDM, he and his family came to live in our village on the outskirts of Brussels. I did not meet him for the first time until many years later. My son often played football in the square behind his house. He told me that the ball sometimes flew over the hedge, and that it rang the bell of the man who always opened the door in his underwear.
“As a worried mother, I went to get the story – and there he was: effectively in his underwear. But I quickly realized that there was not an iota of evil in him. He came to me the next day and we quickly became a couple.”
The book, unfortunately in Dutch and not yet in English, was written to raise money for the charities that Boskamp and Lydia support and fight against child poverty and orphans in South Africa.
Boskamp himself said: “Everything is discussed. It even becomes a little dangerous because there are things in it that no one knows about. Does that mean you should read the book? No one should read it, but you should buy it, because the proceeds go to two charities chosen by Lydia.”
Boskamp managed Stoke in 2005/06, both sides had spells under Tony Pulis.
He previously said: “If I’m honest: I still regret every day that I handed my contract back at Stoke. Stoke is a really fantastic club and I enjoyed my football experience there. But yes, it seems strange.” If I don’t like something I’ll return my contract Stoke-on-Trent and the surrounding area is one of the poorest areas in England for them and you see it with Port Vale also comes from Stoke-on-Trent. Their club is really all they have.”
What are your memories of Boskamp? Click HERE to have your say
Fancy free takeaway, exclusive discounts, free music streaming and access to some of the best sports documentaries being made? These are just some of the benefits of Amazon Prime. Normally £8.99 a month, you can now get a 30-day free trial just in time for Amazon Prime Day, which brings the site’s best deals of the year exclusively to Prime members.