Cupfighters

De Kortste Weg naar Europa was published in 2021, in which sports writer Ernst Bouwes sketched a picture of the emergence of the Dutch top players during the coming of age of professional football on the basis of ten seasons of the KNVB Cup during the 1960s. It is precisely the dramatic knockout system that makes the cup tournament a wonderful guideline to retrieve this part of our football history.

Reviews wrote “The book is a real must-have for football fans” (Staantribune) and “Bouwes serves up tasty currants from the football porridge with beautiful anecdotes.” (De Sportwereld), while Voetbal International valued the release with eight balls out of a maximum of ten.

Just before the cup final in April 2023, Bouwes publishes Cupfighters, in which he exhibits the successful 1970s in Dutch football. Through stories about ten cup seasons, the reader travels back to a time of World Cup finalists, European Cup winners, but also of cup sensations and unusual players. Memories of the ultimate cupfighter IJsselmeervogels, Wageningen’s 1-6 at PSV, TV presenter Frank Kramer, two balls in the field at Feyenoord and the sawed through goalposts in the Zuiderpark.

In addition to a lot of reading pleasure, Cupfighters also offers a beautiful visual image of the time with many beautiful photos and a hymn to the beautiful football pictures from the time.