Hof der dingen - Leather football from Dynamo Bovekerke

During cycling season, you can hardly miss him on television — but where did sports journalist Karl Vannieuwkerke get his unwavering love of sport? The answer: from his father, Alberic Rik Vannieuwkerke, a long-time goalkeeper for Dynamo Bovekerke. Karl’s earliest memories are of standing in goal with cap and gloves, following in his father’s footsteps. 

Alberic’s amateur football career spanned decades — and at 40, he was still guarding the goal for Dynamo Bovekerke. He was Karl’s first hero: "It’s through him that I got into sport. I was allowed to go to the matches and would stand in goal with my cap and gloves. That’s how I started following all sports, building my own pantheon of heroes — from Romanian gymnast Nadia Comăneci and Russian goalkeeper Dasaev to American diver Greg Louganis. I wrote letters to all of them back then. I never sent them, but kept them in a biscuit tin." 

As a child, Karl was — just like his father — a goalkeeper in the youth ranks of KVK Ieper, the city where he was born. But Dynamo Bovekerke was also the club of …, an editor at Krant van West-Vlaanderen, who donated this leather football: "Dynamo Bovekerke was once a well-known name in amateur football. I played for several years on the sacred grass of Burgemeester Van Ackerestraat. Sadly, a bulldozer turned it back into a pasture in the summer of 2014. This worn-out football is all that remains — a last reminder of the proud history of Bovekerke’s blue-and-black."