Photo from RangersPedia
Name: Pieter Egge Huistra
DOB: 18/01/67
POB: Goenga, The Netherlands
Position: Winger
Clubs: Groningen, Veendam, Twente, Rangers, Sanfreece Hiroshima, Lierse.
International Caps: Eight
The seeds of Huistra’s professional career were planted in the tiny Dutch village Goenga, situated in the north of country in the Friesland province. Little over 250 people inhabit the town and with few means of entertaining oneself, football became the obvious hobby of choice to pass the hours of the day. The young Huistra was seven when the Dutch team, led by Johan Cruyff, reached the final of the 1974 World Cup and 11 when the Cruyff-less team repeated the feat four years later. This was more than enough for a impressionable youngster to harbour aspirations of becoming a footballer.
The professional route started a few hours to the east in Groningen where the youngster would make his debut and play the bit-part prospect over the next two seasons. Finding that his opportunities lessened in his second full season he decided that his personal growth would be able to flourish further in regular first team football. Newly promoted Veedam gave him such a platform at the beginning of the 1986/87 season and the still only 19-year old played consistently in the first team, notching 33 appearances in total. The minnows located within the Groningen province were playing only their second season in the top flight and soon found themselves dropping into more familiar surroundings once more.
Despite his club’s relegation, Huistra had done enough to impress FC Twente coach Theo Vonk. The Dutchman had just finished his first season with the club after taking over from Fritz Korbach; the German who had successfully brought the club back into the Eredivisie following their 1982/83 relegation, the first in the club’s history. Korbach was the victim when the club regressed in the 1985/86 season and came dangerously close to slipping out of the league once more. Vonk was his replacement and he hauled the side back into the top half of the table but foresaw greater things for the club if they were able to strengthen their greatest weakness: a lack of goals. The 39 notched by Twente that season was the lowest tally for any team in the top half of the league table and a goal fewer than Excelsior, the side that finished rock bottom.
In came Huistra and striker Pieter Keur, who had made a successful living for six years being a constant goal threat for HFC Haarlem. The plan was simple, Huistra would provide and Keur would score. It worked better than even Vonk could have imagined. For the next two seasons Twente finished in third place, bettered only by the giants Ajax and PSV. Keur netted 33 league goals over the two years while Huistra faired pretty well himself for a wide player, scoring 14 in the league. The partnership was broken up when Keur left for Feyenoord, a bigger club but one that had been outperformed by smaller sides like Twente the previous two seasons.
Vonk didn’t miss a beat, quickly snapping up striker Claus Nielsen and the Danish internationalist picked up the slack felt by Keur’s departure, scoring 14 goals as Twente again finished third in the table and qualified for the UEFA Cup. For Huistra, however, that would be the end of the run with the Dutch champions. The two had been mutually beneficial with the club enjoying consistent high league placings for the first time since the early 70’s and Huistra developing himself into a Dutch international, but after a sluggish 1989/90 season that saw him struggle with injuries it was time to move on.
It was Graeme Souness who snatched up the available attacker, signing him in the same summer that he managed to persuade Mark Hateley to come to Ibrox. Paradoxically, the pair were signed for a combined total of less than a million pounds in an age when Rangers continually spent big in order to guarantee league titles and success in Europe. Money was not the objective to Huistra, he wanted to play for a title contending side and to get away from the duopoly of Dutch football. ”In Holland, there are two championships,” stated Huistra. “One is the business of PSV Eindhoven and Ajax, the other is an unofficial race among the rest for third place.” It is a comment that is beyond ironic in hindsight.
Inside of cementing his place in the national team and helping Rangers to conquer Europe the winger soon became somewhat of an irritation in the Ibrox squad. There was little doubting his quality and on occasions he would show flashes of brilliance that would only fuel the fire in his critics among the support who doubted his mental ability to succeed in Scotland. Appearing the archetypal Dutch stereotype he was often languid in his style and hesitant to mix it up with physical opposition.
Every now and then Huistra would turn it up and convince Souness, and later Walter Smith, that he was deserving of a run in the team. In spite of his inconsistencies he still managed to play 125 league games over a four-and-a-half year spell that saw him win five league titles. Even to this day Rangers fans will debate whether he was over or underrated in a blue shirt.
Finally, five months into the 1994/95 campaign his time in Glasgow came to an end with the surprising news that the 28-year old Huistra would be leaving to join Sanfrecce Hiroshima in Japan. The kind explanation for the sale from an official Rangers’ standpoint was that after the acquisition of Brian Laudrup the Ibrox club were at odds to keep the Dutchman on their books due to the three-foreigner rule that was imposed on squads in European competition. It would have been a plausible reason were it not for the fact that the decision to sell came in January with the club already out of Europe. In fact it was far more likely than an unwilling player and stringent club had taken six months to find a suitable move – Queens Park Rangers, Swindon Town and an unnamed Dutch club had all been muted before Sanfrecce sealed their bid – after manager Walter Smith had promised to ring the changes following the Scottish Cup final defeat to Dundee United the previous season.
Regardless of the reasons, Huistra went out in style. The winger scored twice in a 3-2 away win at Falkirk (dispatching a penalty and scoring with a 20-yard curler) bringing his side level on both occasions before Stuart McCall netted the winner in injury time. It was the culmination of an impressive final few months at Ibrox and ensured he left with a loftier reputation that the one he had garnered over the previous four years.
His trip to the J League echoed the stunning move made by Gary Lineker three years before. Where as Lineker had gone over to pick up a wage and work on his suntan, Huistra stayed fit for the majority over his two seasons and contributed to the sides that reached the final of the Emperor’s Cup in consecutive years.
Upon the completion of the 1996 Football Season he ended his Japanese adventure and returned to his roots, signing for Groningen. In his half a season he scored twice in nine games before chasing something more permanent in Belgium with Lierse. The 1997-98 season was a unquestionable success on an individual level for the player who scored a career high for one season with 11 league goals. However for the club the campaign was a disaster. The reigning Champions finished in a dismal 7th place, 23 points worse off than the previous season.
Lierse retained the player and the position in the final standings in what was a disappointing, and premature, final season for the winger. After 22 games he’d score no goals before being injured and ruled out indefinitely. He stayed on the books for another season but could not recover from his injuries sufficiently enough to feature in the first team. Determined to keep going he joined the tiny club RBC Roosendaal in a bid to regain fitness and offer himself to clubs at the top level once more. However, age and injuries had caught up with him and he officially retired at the end of the season.
Where is he now? After quitting the playing side of the game Huistra went into coaching; managing small clubs at various levels and taking backroom jobs at the bigger sides. It all led to him being offered the Groningen job in 2010 but just like his two stints there as a player, this did not have a happy ending. After being sacked in 2012 he took the vacant manager’s position at De Graafschap with the promise of leading them back into the Eredivisie. They finished eighth in his first season.
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