Born in Turner Valley, Dwight Lodeweges played for the Edmonton Drillers from 1979-82 and coached FC Edmonton for one season in 2010
If you’re watching the 2024 Euro Cup soccer semi-final on TV Wednesday, the camera might pan to the coaches on the Dutch side and the one with the glasses is Dwight Lodeweges, born in the town of Turner Valley, outside Calgary, and once a barely out of his teens strong defender with the Edmonton Drillers in the last days of the starry North American Soccer League.
Lodeweges, now 66, has had a long and winding soccer journey.
Back in the late ’70s and early ’80s, Lodeweges was pinching himself, going against one of the greatest players of all-time, Johan Cruyff, the Dutch-born attacking midfielder who was voted the European footballer of the century in a poll 25 years ago.
Lodeweges, one of six kids, born to Dutch parents who had emigrated to Alberta after World War II before they returned to Holland, idolized the incredible Cruyff. He had come out of retirement after apparently some bad investments to play in the NASL, which popularized the game in America for 20 years until it ended in 1984.
“That was a big honour for me, trying to mark Cruyff, one of the biggest players in the world, and a Dutch guy,” said Lodeweges, who went back to Holland, and later became a youth international for his country.
“That was an exciting time. I played against Franz Beckenbauer, George Best… I just missed Pele but there was Gerd Muller, Cruyff, a lot of big players who wanted to finish their careers in America,” said Lodeweges, who played 96 games for the NASL Drillers from 1979-82.
“I never asked for an autograph as a player but I did ask (great Dutch midfielder) Johan Neeskens once for his shoes after a game, the first and last time I ever did that. Neeskens said he wouldn’t mind doing it but if he gave them away he would have to pay for another pair, so no,” said Lodeweges, who was part of the fun-times Drillers’ Dutch contingent with goalie Jan Endeman, Jan Goosens, Alex Schoenmaker, Henk Ten Cate, Hans Kray Jr. and Andre Oostrom.
Now Lodeweges is on the sidelines with the Dutch side, assisting his friend Ronald Koeman, helping with the strikers but his main role is being in charge of the team’s training sessions.
What a long and winding road.
His Dutch parents settled on a farm 35 km southwest from Calgary, with the Rocky Mountains as a backdrop, but it was physically hard making ends meet for his dad and they went back to Holland when Lodeweges was just entering elementary school.
“My father was scared of flying and when they decided to take a ship across the Atlantic, my mother was sick for six or eight days,” said Lodeweges, who is on the short most famous Turner Valley-born list with Stephen Harper’s wife Laureen and Stanley Milner, the oil titan.
Lodeweges returned to Canada for the NASL at the behest of a coach named Hans Kraay, playing for the team that Peter Pocklington owned.
“The NASL team was originally in Oakland, then the franchise moved to Edmonton. It was -35 C at that time and in California it was like 20 C, huge difference but I wanted to go back to the province where I was born. That was when Pocklington owned the Oilers and Wayne Gretzky was making his (NHL) debut. I saw that game, wow!. I didn’t know much about hockey but I loved it,” said Lodeweges, , who says he visited Turner Valley often back in his NASL soccer days and has been back to Canada about 10 times for visits to Western Canada.
His playing career ended because his ankle was bad. He started coaching with Go Ahead Eagles in Holland, first as a youth coach. That started an odyssey that included stops in Japan and Abu Dhabi (Al Jazira) in the Emirates, also a brief stay as head coach with FC Edmonton in 2010, along with several head jobs in Holland, including PSV Eindhoven and SC Heerenveen.
When Koeman left the national side to coach FC Barcelona in 2020, Lodeweges was caretaker head coach for two games until Frank de Boer came in. Then when de Boer resigned in 2021, Lodeweges again was the interim field leader.
FC Edmonton was owned by the Fath brothers, Tom and Dave. They played in the new North American Soccer League from 2010-2017, but Lodeweges only lasted a year in what was a vagabond first season with mostly Alberta-trained players, just friendlies before going to Japan. Long-time soccer expert Joe Petrone, once the head coach and GM of the Drillers in Lodeweges’ playing days, was the FC Edmonton director of soccer operations in 2010 and brought over Lodeweges.
“Joe was a pleasant man, very good for the club and the players,” said Lodeweges.
As is Lodeweges in Holland at the Euro Cup.
Netherlands, who lost to Argentina in penalty-kicks in the 2022 World Cup quarter-finals, beat Turkey 2-1, scoring twice in about seven minutes in the second half. They’re in the Euro Cup final four against England for the first time in 20 years.
“We’ve been very good, sometimes periods in games where we’re very bad. Sometimes it didn’t look like we wanted to fight and other times it’s been unbelievable through the five games (Euro),” said Lodeweges.
“In the game (Saturday) against Turkey (Berlin) there were 70,000 in the stadium. About 20,000 for Holland, the rest for Turkey. Back in Holland, the fans are going crazy. England is not doing that well in how they’re playing. They’ve struggled a bit… they won on penalties against Switzerland (quarters). I don’t know if we’re going to win, but we do have a chance,” said Lodeweges.
Lodeweges is also enjoying watching Canada make history in the Copa America tournament, as Canada is punching above its weight, playing Argentina in the Copa America semifinal on Tuesday.
“I know (Alphonso) Davies for Bayern Munich. When we played against Canada, they made a good impression. The score was 4-0 but you could tell they have a plan. Five or six years ago it wasn’t good but they had the coach (John Herdman) who left and went to Toronto (MLS). He did a good job and now they have an excellent coach (Jesse Marsch),” said Lodeweges.