Het Surinaamse legioen

When the first Surinamese soccer players came to the Netherlands in the late fifties, a tough adaptation process began. Most of them failed to reach the top in the Netherlands. Today, things are different. A Dutch national team without any players of Surinamese descent is practically unthinkable. This success did not come about automatically. The Dutch squad first had to become the European Champion in 1988 with players like Frank Rijkaard and Ruud Gullit to dispel the prejudices against Surinamese players. The Surinamese Legion tells this history by using archive footage of amateur soccer from the fifties, interviews with players and images of the Suriprofs, an occasional team that annually plays matches in Suriname for good causes. Have the players meanwhile been absorbed by the Dutch culture? What is left of their ties with Suriname?