Hi all, I hope you are all doing well, despite the threat of that virus or the disadvantages of the lockdowns and not working etc? And of course, being without some serious football….
I have some posts in the making but I’m very busy as well, trying to keep my business alive. If you are doing well, this is the time to donate some beer money, hahaha… Thanks in advance!
I have more posts on our talents coming up, more videos for you guys to enjoy and the 1990 Johan Cruyff Debacle story… A cool interview with Donny van de Beek and a profile on Justin Kluivert.
Who is NOT signed by Man City. The headlines in the sports media were quite fun: Kluiverth signed by Man City. But Kluiverth being his first name. Aguilar his surname.
His dad was a fan of Barcelona and enjoyed Patrick a lot.
A fun fact: this is not the first player to be named after a Dutch player. This can definitely result in cool names for cool players: Yohan Cabay, named after our Johan. Or Dennis Bergkamp, named after Denis Law…
Rudigullithi da Silva Henrique
Kluiverth is not a bad first name to have….
The most beautiful name of a player, based on a Dutch player is…hold for it….not Cruyff, Vandervaart or Persie, no no… Wanderkhof! Yes. Dad was a fan of the PSV Twins Willy and Rene van de Kerkhof! And it gets better, because this is his second first name, so to speak. His actual first name is Petroswickonicovick. Yes. Imagine you’re the match commentator when he plays.
This kid was a prolific goal scorer for Corinthians.
Then there is a striker in Albania. He made it to the Albanian national team. The name: Marko van Basten Cema.
Or the Brazilian defender, 26 years old, with a short stint in Portugal. He was with Cruzeiro and Sao Paolo and is now playing in Brazil again, for Bento. The name is Rudigullithi da Silva Henrique. He has competition, there is A Finnish player called Gullit Zolameso, named after Ruud Gullit (duh) and Gianfranco Zola who once played together at Chelsea. This kid plays regularly for Finnish youth rep teams.
In Malta, the 26 year old Cruyff Grixty plays at the second tier on the island, something JC would be ashamed of.
Neeskens Kebano vs Vertonghen of Spurs
The best career of them all is for Neeskens Kebano. France born’s dad was huge Johan Neeskens fan. He played for Fulham and for Paris St Germain. He is a national team player for Congo. In Honduras, we have Neeskens Almendares, who played for Lobos.
Wulf Koronia Kluivert Shevcengko Horota. Yes indeed! Named after Dutch Defender John de Wolf (what??), the Corona virus, Patrick Kluivert and Andrej Shevcencho. The Indonesian does play pro football for Persipura.
And it’s not just Dutch player names which are used for kids, who then become players themselves. There are the most amazing concoctions. I will mention a series here, but one name is false. One name I made up. You leave a comment with your best guess. Winner gets a prize :-).
There is Creedence Clearwater Couto, we had Metuzalem, Mozart, Adriano Michael Jackson, Ziyech Ziyech, John Lennon Silva Santos, Lineker da Silva Matos, Ben-Hur and Mahatma Gandhi. Stalin Motta played national team football, and Kluivert Aguilar? He has a brother: Rijkaard.
Life is wonderful
This is how transfermark site evaluate Dutch player so far:
van Dijk, de Jong, de Ligt, Vrij, be Beek, Depay, Wijnaldum, Bergwijn, Aké, Malen, Kluivert, Weghorst, Ihattaren, Blind, Roon, Boadu, Steng
It reflect exactly our players level & performance i believe. From this we can see Kluivert,Malen, Ihattaren, Boadu, Steng are our best wonderkid with very big potential & almost get level of the top but not Gravenberg/Hoever/vandenBerg/etc
While de Beek is same level as Depay even though he’s playing at Eredivisie & didn’t contribute much for Orange. Vrij value is very high but almost bench in national team.
De Vrij is considered a world class defender in Italy. That is saying something. The Italians don’t get it why De Vrij is not in the 11 for Oranje, instead of de Ligt.
Van de Beek impressed in the CL with ajax.
@Jan, this article is hilarious. Thank you.
I’m Looking at the list Ruud provided. Considering RB issues and that Blind played so well as a wingback in the 2014 WC, and considering how well De Vrijplayed in the 3 man backline in the same, would a 3-5-2 be considered?
Def.’s: De ligt, De Vrig, VVD (with Ake available as the first sub)
Wingbacks: Blind and Promes
MF: Frenkie De Jong and Wijnaldum in the holding roles; Van De Beek more forward;
Forwards: Depay, and Bergweijn/Mallen,
Leaving open the possibility that a younger player could have a break out year, and be slotted in where appropriate.
I reckon the missing puzzle for NT is in the midfield. Going forward the coaches need to build the midfield both with and without frenkie. His situation at Barcelona with busquets has thrown the spot ligt on his limitations when playing with a DM or deep lying midfielders. Again you have players like Gravenberch,Koopmeiners,Veerman, Matusiwa who at same stage will be competiting for that spot and this is where consideration has to be given which combination is the best overall and not just around one player only. You look at the 90s when all davids,Seedorf,Numan,jonk,cocu were in the mix for the midfield spot and how they used to be deployed.
And also a very creative midfielder.