Soccer: De Jong in twilight of top career

By TERRY MADDAFORD

Fred de Jong had it all planned.

Score a goal against his old club, get subbed off and watch the Football Kingz hold on to beat Marconi in last Friday night's National Soccer League game. And retire.

Three out of four ain't bad.

Yes, he did score, yes, he was replaced and yes, the Kingz did win.

Retire? Well, not just yet.

"That was going to be it," de Jong said yesterday. "But Wynton and Shane [Rufer] want me to stay until the end of the season even though I won't be playing in Sunday's away game against Melbourne."

It's that dicky knee again.

"My body is packing up. And I won't be playing beyond this season. That's for sure."

But, haven't we heard that before? Like the time, your nose spread over your face after a game at North Shore, you rang your wife from hospital to tell her that that was it.

"I know," he laughed. "But this time it's definite. The month I have just had off with injury showed me just how hard it has been to juggle football, my family and work."

At 36, de Jong is not the quickest. But any lack of boot speed is compensated for with the experience which only 18 years of senior football, some of it in the cauldron of the European professional game, can bring.

De Jong first played for Mt Wellington against Hamilton. Within a couple of years he was an All White. Even quicker, he was off to Australia - and Marconi.

"I had three seasons there," he said. "We won the league the first two years and lost the grand final in the third."

De Jong spent much of his time playing with Socceroo great and incumbent Australian coach Frank Farina. It was a lethal strikeforce broken only when de Jong headed to Dutch first-division club Fotuna Sittard in the summer of 1992.

He was there for four years before returning to New Zealand and a career which, while winding down, refused to end.

"I love playing but injuries mean I haven't been able to train as much as I need to. Now, with three young children and the workload at work it is time to quit."

As manager of a computer software company with a team of 20, his commitment is obvious, but retiring is a decision you know does not rest comfortably with him.

While he will miss Sunday's game, de Jong hopes to be ready to play against the Parramatta Power at North Harbour Stadium on Wednesday and the Adelaide Force three days later.

"I would love to see us in the playoffs," he said. "But it is not going to be easy."

You can count on de Jong to give it his best shot. And all his team-mates as well.