For­mer T&T and Hol­land foot­ball coach Leon ‘Don Leo’ Been­hakker passed away yes­ter­day at the age of 82, and the trib­utes from for­mer So­ca War­riors, led by 2006 FI­FA World Cup cap­tain Dwight Yroke, paid spe­cial trib­ute to the Dutch­man, who be­gan his man­age­r­i­al ca­reer in 1967 at SV Epe, with his last role be­ing in 2017 back in his home­land as a spe­cial ad­vi­sor at Spar­ta Rot­ter­dam.

In a state­ment on Thurs­day, the T&T Foot­ball Fed­er­a­tion said, Leo was more than a coach to T&T. He was a vi­sion­ary leader, a men­tor, and above all, a be­liev­er. When he ac­cept­ed the chal­lenge in 2005 to lead our na­tion­al team dur­ing the fi­nal stretch of the FI­FA World Cup qual­i­fi­ca­tion cam­paign, he walked in­to a dream many thought un­reach­able — and turned it in­to a liv­ing re­al­i­ty.

It said that un­der his calm, con­fi­dent, and mas­ter­ful stew­ard­ship, T&T achieved the un­think­able: qual­i­fi­ca­tion for the 2006 FI­FA World Cup in Ger­many — the first and on­ly time we have reached the world’s biggest stage in foot­ball.

Cap­tain of the So­ca War­riors at the FI­FA 2006 World Cup and cur­rent T&T coach, Dwight Yorke was sad­dened to hear of the pass­ing of Leo Been­hakker.

He said, “In 2005-06, Leo led us with vi­sion, dis­ci­pline, and a be­lief that trans­formed our dream in­to his­to­ry. Un­der his guid­ance, Trinidad and To­ba­go reached the World Cup for the first time, and I had the ho­n­our of play­ing un­der a man who brought out the very best in us.

He was more than a tac­ti­cian — he was a leader who re­spect­ed the cul­ture, earned our trust, and in­spired a na­tion. I will al­ways be grate­ful for his im­pact. Rest in peace, Leo. Your lega­cy lives on.”

John lauds Leo’s be­lief in him.

Stern John, T&T’s all-time lead­ing scor­er with 70 goals in 115 match­es, said, “Words can’t ful­ly ex­press what he meant to me. He wasn’t just a coach; he was a fa­ther, a men­tor, and one of the great­est bless­ings in my life. He be­lieved in me when I didn’t be­lieve in my­self and peo­ple didn’t be­lieve in me. He pushed me be­yond lim­its I thought I had and guid­ed me not just as a play­er but as a per­son.

I re­mem­ber go­ing through a goal-scor­ing drought right be­fore one of the World Cup qual­i­fiers, and he said to me, “Lis­ten, I be­lieve in you; you can do it , and when you do it, go straight to the naysay­ers and tell them… I don’t have to say the rest. But it meant so much more when I did score the goal, and I owe it to him en­tire­ly.

He loved me like a son, and I loved him like a fa­ther. His wis­dom, warmth, and end­less pas­sion for the game will stay with me for­ev­er. Every time I step on a field with my play­ers now, I’ll car­ry his lessons in my heart and his spir­it in every step.

Sha­ka His­lop: Leo will al­ways be re­mem­bered.

For­mer T&T goal­keep­er and ES­PN an­a­lyst Sha­ka His­lop: When I heard of Leo Been­hakker’s pass­ing on Thurs­day, the first thing I thought of was the last time I saw him.

“Ac­tu­al­ly, it was the on­ly time I have seen Leo af­ter the 2006 World Cup.

“T&T was play­ing in the Gold Cup (Con­ca­caf), and we were in At­lanta, and Leo was work­ing as an ad­vi­sor for the team (T&T) at the time, and I was there for ES­PN. I was so hap­py I got to see him, es­pe­cial­ly now re­flect­ing on it.”

“This was ob­vi­ous­ly af­ter the World Cup, so there was no ten­sion of an up­com­ing game, and there was no talk of tac­tics and noth­ing to talk about oth­er than two men who I’m go­ing to as­sume had a mu­tu­al re­spect for each oth­er from my per­spec­tive.”

“I have the ut­most re­spect for Leo Been­hakker, and just shar­ing a mo­ment and un­der­stand­ing the role that we each played, I guess, in each oth­er’s lives and cer­tain­ly in the 2006 World Cup and be­ing able just to kind of chat and laugh about noth­ing in par­tic­u­lar, it will al­ways re­main a spe­cial mo­ment for me.”

Re­flect­ing on T&T’s World Cup cam­paign, which be­gan with a 0-0 draw with Swe­den be­fore a late 2-0 loss to Eng­land and a sim­i­lar de­feat to Paraguay in Group B, the for­mer West Ham and New­cas­tle goal­keep­er said, “But, of course, Leo Been­hakker is best known as the coach that took us to the 2006 World Cup and will for­ev­er be a part of T&T foot­balling his­to­ry, al­most folk­lore, giv­en what we ac­com­plished, not just in qual­i­fy­ing, but how we were able to stun and al­most stun a cou­ple of Eu­rope’s big boys dur­ing that tour­na­ment.”

“Leon was an in­cred­i­ble coach, an in­cred­i­ble mo­ti­va­tor and an in­cred­i­ble com­mu­ni­ca­tor, and he was ex­act­ly what we need­ed at the time, and speak­ing for my­self, Leo will be missed, but more to the point, Leo will al­ways be re­mem­bered,” stat­ed His­lop.

Re­al Madrid paid trib­ute to ‘Don Leo’.

Leon Been­hakker guid­ed Re­al Madrid to three con­sec­u­tive Span­ish ti­tles from 1986-87 to 1988-89 and re­turned for a sec­ond stint at the Bern­abéu in 1992, earn­ing him­self the nick­name “Don Leo” dur­ing his time in Spain, and yes­ter­day on the club web­site, Re­al Madrid C. F., its pres­i­dent and board of di­rec­tors, were deeply sad­dened by the death of Leo Been­hakker, 82, the leg­endary Re­al Madrid coach who led the Whites be­tween 1986 and 1989 and in 1992.

Re­al Madrid would like to ex­press their con­do­lences and af­fec­tion to his fam­i­ly, clubs, and loved ones.

Dur­ing the four sea­sons that he man­aged Re­al Madrid, Leo Been­hakker al­so won a Co­pa del Rey and two Span­ish Su­per Cups.

Been­hakker had a long ca­reer man­ag­ing nu­mer­ous clubs in Eu­rope and Mex­i­co, along with sev­er­al na­tion­al teams. With Ajax Am­s­ter­dam, he won two Dutch leagues, and with Feyeno­ord, two Dutch leagues and two Dutch Su­per Cups while he al­so man­aged Sau­di Ara­bia and Poland as a na­tion­al coach.