Toon van Driel was born Antonie Marcel van Driel in Amsterdam. He began his career at an advertising agency, but eventually became a steward with the KLM for three and a half-year. During the period of umemployment that followed, he created the soccer gag strip 'FC Knudde'. The series debuted in the newspaper Algemeen Dagblad in 1973. In a land where soccer rules, Toon scored an immediate hit with his dry humor about the best loser soccer players in the world. The quote "Tikkie terug, Jaap" is still a classic remark on soccer fields everywhere.
