Patrick Kluivert

Patrick Stephan Kluivert (Amsterdam, 1976) is a Dutch former soccer player and coach who became famous as a player in the 1990s and 2000s. He is the third all-time top scorer for the Dutch national team with 40 goals in 79 international matches, behind only Robin Van Persie and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and he is the twelfth top scorer in the history of F. C. Barcelona.

A center forward or midfielder, he had great technical quality and a strong physique (he measures 1.88). He was a team striker with great resources, his game has been characterized by his vocation to give the last pass to his teammates. Considered in his day as the best striker in the world playing with his back turned , however, he lacked a greater success in front of goal to be considered a true & # 34;Killer & # 34; from the area, even so he scored more than 250 goals in his career.

He was an assistant to Louis Van Gaal with the Dutch team at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. In 2016 he was presented as a coach of the Curaçao National Team. From July 2019 to April 2021 he was the director of youth football for F. C. Barcelona.

Biography

Kluivert is the son of a father of Surinamese nationality and a mother from Curacao, who met and married in the city of Paramaribo and later emigrated to the metropolitan region of the Netherlands, where they settled in 1970, with Kluivert being born there six years later.

Trajectory

Ajax

He started out as a street footballer, playing in the Red Square in the Shellingwoude neighborhood and at the age of eight he joined Ajax, by order of Bruins Slot. He stood out very young in Louis Van Gaal's triumphant Ajax Amsterdam, which in the mid-1990s would make history by winning all the titles played both in the Netherlands and in Europe.

He made his debut in the Ajax first team on August 21, 1994 in the Dutch Super Cup when he was 17 years old against Feyenoord Rotterdam. In the Dutch league he would make his debut on August 28, 1994 in the Ajax-RKC match that his team won 3-1.

On May 24, 1995, he scored the goal in Vienna that gave Ajax the European Cup, 1-0, against AC Milan, the club he would later join. He thus became the youngest player to score a goal in a European Cup final -he did it at 18 years and 323 days, a mark that has not yet been surpassed-, thus entering history with a great start. On September 9, 1995, Kluivert crashed a borrowed BMW into another car in Amsterdam, killing the driver and seriously injuring a passenger. Kluivert admitted to speeding before the accident and was found guilty of death by dangerous driving. As a consequence, in 1996, he was sentenced to perform 240 hours of community service.

AC Milan

In 1997, at the age of 21, and already one of the most sought-after soccer players in Europe, he signed for one of the best clubs in the world, AC Milan. However, the class of the Dutch striker was not enough for Kluivert to do well in the tough Italian league, where he had countless adaptation problems, and a bitter argument with the coach rossonero Fabio Capello, who brought him to the bench.

F. C. Barcelona

In the summer of 1998, the Italian team agreed to transfer it to FC Barcelona, which paid 2.1 billion pesetas for it.

In Barcelona he met again with the coach who had trusted him the most at Ajax, the also Dutchman Louis Van Gaal. In addition, he also coincided in Barcelona with seven other of his compatriots such as Phillip Cocu, Michael Reiziger, Boudewijn Zenden, Ruud Hesp, Frank de Boer, Ronald de Boer and Winston Bogarde, who facilitated his integration into the Catalan team.

He made his debut for Barcelona in a game against Palamós on September 2, 1998, replacing Sonny Anderson, making his league debut on September 13, 1998. His first season was the best for the Catalan team. Undisputed holder, he was able to show the best of his football. In addition to the aforementioned Dutch, F.C. Barcelona also had players of the stature of Rivaldo, Luís Figo, Guardiola, Luis Enrique, Abelardo, a very young Xavi or Sergi. A great team that won the Spanish league championship comfortably, with an 11-point lead over second-placed Real Madrid. Kluivert played 35 games in the League and scored 15 goals.

In the following four seasons, his performance was irregular, going from less to more, with acceptable goal statistics, but insufficient to be the star striker of a club that aspired to win everything. And it is that, despite the fact that his goalscoring statistics were, respectively: 15, 18, 18 and 16 goals, the truth is that Kluivert was always discussed because of his problems with the goal. In his last season, 2003-04, at FC Barcelona, he would only score 8 goals, due in large part to his poor form and injuries.

In the summer of 2003 Joan Laporta became president of the club and the new board of directors already tried to get rid of Kluivert. The Dutchman was the highest paid player in the squad (10.5 million euros gross per year) and his contract was for an increasing salary, in case these increases were not fulfilled, his termination clause would drop from 36 to 1.8 million euros. The new board of directors not only failed to comply with the increase, but also lowered his salary, and Kluivert was so questioned that, despite the fact that his price had been only 1.8 million euros, no team was interested in signing him.

But the new coach Frank Rijkaard trusted him and was his supporter to keep him in the team. This decision would later be revealed as a mistake. During the 2003-2004 season his performance was not good. Kluivert's divorce with the stands was total, and he came to be booed at the Camp Nou. In addition to this, an injury kept him away from the team for almost three months and he ended the season with a sad record of just eight goals. He ended up relegated from the starting eleven, and he scored his last goal for Barcelona in a Clásico against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, won by Barcelona 1-2. It was his last season with the Blaugrana team and at the end of the season Kluivert would leave F. C. Barcelona through the back door. Instead, he would come to the Samuel Eto'o club.

Newcastle FC

Kluivert signed for one season with English club Newcastle, where he played in the 2004-05 season. Kluivert had been closely followed by several English teams since his first season in Spain, and the player had never hidden his I like English football. However, things did not go well for him in the Premier League. He came to the magpies as the ideal substitute for Alan Shearer, but his performance was not as expected, reaching the point of being relegated to the bench precisely by Alan Shearer, the one whom they already wanted jubilee . At the end of the year, the English club did not execute the clause that allowed it to extend the contract.

Valencia CF

With the letter of freedom, he signed, in June 2005, for Valencia CF, a club with which he committed for three seasons and to which he arrived as a star signing. This should be the resurgence of the Pantera Black. He arrived at Valencia as the head of a new ché project, led on this occasion by Quique Sánchez Flores. He started as a starter in the Intertoto Cup, during the preseason, where he even made his debut with a goal, but at the start of the League he was relegated to the bench. Once again Kluivert showed a rather bad physical background, and the fierce competition up front 'che' I would leave him without opportunities. At the end of the campaign, he terminated the contract that bound him to the club.

PSV

Kluivert in a training with PSV Eindhoven in 2006.

The summer of 2006 was a long one for Patrick Kluivert, who saw his move to Hamburg cut short, as the German club withdrew at the last moment, doubting the state of his knees, which had given him so many problems throughout of his career. Finally, and after considering several offers, Kluivert signed with the Dutch PSV Eindhoven, thus returning to his land, in a year marked by the return to the Eredivisie of old Dutch football glories, such as Edgar Davids and Jaap Stam. At PSV he reunited with old teammates, such as Cocu and Reiziger, with whom he met at Barça and in the Orange team.

In his first season at PSV Eindhoven, things went very well for the team, as they managed to win the Eredivise, and reached the quarterfinals of the Champions League, however, on a personal level, after a promising At the beginning of the season, Kluivert saw how little by little Koeman was separating him from the starting eleven and he finished the last league games always coming off the bench. At the end of the season, a cross between Kluivert and his coach, Ronald Koeman, led to his departure from the club, since they did not even speak to each other during the league title celebration. Kluivert received offers from America, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, England, the Netherlands and even some clubs in Spain, but it was finally an offer from Lille, which Patrick Kluivert decided on.

Lille SC

On August 31, 2007, he signed a one-year contract with French club Lille SC. In addition to football, there were other reasons, such as the location of the French city in the north of the country, since Kluivert wanted to stay close to his children, who live with his ex-wife Angela in Amsterdam. This season Kluivert hardly played, his presence on the bench being common, given that Claude Puel used to choose Kevin Mirallas or Pierre-Alain Frau for his attacking point for his 4-5-1 system. At the end of the season, Lille finished in seventh position and decided not to renew him. He scored four goals, one of them a penalty.

Retreat

On April 29, 2008, a Dutch media outlet reported that he had started a course for coaches for the Royal Netherlands Football Federation. At the same time, he was waiting for a call from a club to play again, but on July 18 of that year, the goal.com website announced that he would be part of the AZ Alkmaar technical team (as forward coach), due to the that the Federation requires a learning period to be completed.

Coach

On January 24, 2010, he spent two weeks coaching the A-League team, Brisbane Roar, as well as being the team's ambassador. The following season, 2011/12, he coaches the youth team of FC Twente. In August 2012 Kluivert joined the coaching staff for the Dutch national team under Louis Van Gaal, as well as at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

In 2016 he was presented as a coach of the Curaçao National Team.

Since July 2019, he has been the director of youth football at F. C. Barcelona.

National team

He played games for the Netherlands under-15 team in 1990 in which he made his debut against Germany, later he would also play in the under-21 team. He debuted with the senior team on November 16, 1994, in a match against the Czech Republic at just 18 years old. Since then he has played in 3 Euro Cups (1996, 2000, 2004), being the top scorer in Euro 2000 with 5 goals, and the World Cup in France 98 where he scored 2 goals.

The team was eliminated by Brazil in the semifinals of the World Cup in France 98 in a penalty shootout. Despite this disappointment, his career with the & # 39; Oranje & # 39; He was faultless, since he is currently the second highest scorer in the history of the national team, with 40 goals in 79 games, ahead of players like Dennis Bergkamp, Johan Cruyff, Marco Van Basten or Ruud Van Nistelrooy.

The European Championship in Portugal in 2004 was the last major competition that Kluivert played with the other clockwork orange. Since then he has not worn the 'orange' shirt again, and it is that Marco Van Basten cleaned up the selection, sentencing historic players and already in full decline, such as: Reiziger, Davids, Stam, Frank and Ronald de Boer among many others.

Participations in the World Cup

World	Headquarters	Outcome	Parties	Goles
1998 Football World Cup	France	Fourth	4	2

Participations in Eurocopa

Euro	Headquarters	Outcome	Parties	Goles
Euro Cup 1996	EnglandEngland	Final rooms	5	2
Euro Cup 2000	BelgiumBelgium and NetherlandsNetherlands	Semifinals	5	5
Euro Cup 2004	Portugal	Semifinals	0	0

International Goals

(source)

Gol n.o	Date	Place	Rival	Gol	Final	Competition
1.	29 March 1995	From Kuip, Rotterdam, Netherlands	MLTMalta	4-	4–0	Euro 1996
2.	13 December 1995	Anfield, Liverpool, England	IRLIreland	1-	2–0
3.				2-
4.	18 June 1996	Wembley Stadium, London, England	ENGEngland	1-4	1-4	UEFA Euro 1996
5.	29 March 1997	Amsterdam Arena, Amsterdam, Netherlands	SMRSan Marino	1-	4–0	1998 Global Classification
6.	6 September 1997	From Kuip, Rotterdam, Netherlands	BELBelgium	2-	3-1
7.	24 February 1998	Pro Player Stadium, Miami Gardens, United States	MEXMexico	1-	3-2	Friendly
8.				2-
9.	1 June 1998	Philips Stadion, Eindhoven, Netherlands	PARParaguay	3-1	5-1	Friendly
10.	5 June 1998	Amsterdam Arena, Amsterdam, Netherlands	NGANigeria	3-	5-1	Friendly
11.				4-1
12.	4 July 1998	Stade Vélodrome, Marseille, France	ARGArgentina	1-	2-1	World Cup of France 1998
13.	7 July 1998		BRABrazil	1-1	1-1
14.	5 June 1999	Mangabeira, Nazaré, Brazil	BRABrazil	1-2	2-2	Friendly
15.	4 September 1999	From Kuip, Rotterdam, Netherlands	BELBelgium	3-2	5-5	Friendly
16.				4-4
17.				5-4
18.	23 February 2000	Amsterdam Arena, Amsterdam, Netherlands	GERGermany	1-	2-1	Friendly
19.	29 March 2000	Estadio Rey Balduino, Brussels, Belgium	BELBelgium	1-2	2-2	Friendly
20.				2-2
21.	27 May 2000	Amsterdam Arena, Amsterdam, Netherlands	RomaniaRomania	2-	2-1	Friendly
22.	4 June 2000	Stade de La Pontaise, Lausanne, Switzerland	POLPoland	2-1	3-1	Friendly
23.				3-1
24.	16 June 2000	From Kuip, Rotterdam, Netherlands	DENDenmark	1-	3–0	UEFA Euro 2000
25.	21 June 2000	Amsterdam Arena, Amsterdam, Netherlands	FRAFrance	1-1	3-2
26.	25 June 2000	From Kuip, Rotterdam, Netherlands	YUGYugoslavia	1-	6-1
27.				2-
28.				4-
29.	7 October 2000	GSP Stadium, Nicosia, Cyprus	CYPCyprus	4-	4–0	World rankings 2002
30.	24 March 2001	Mini Estadi, Barcelona, Spain	ANDAndorra	1-	5-0
31.	28 March 2001	Stadium das Antas, Porto, Portugal	BYPortugal	2-	2-2
32.	25 April 2001	Philips Stadion, Eindhoven, Netherlands	CYPCyprus	3-	4–0
33.	2 June 2001	Lilleküla Stadium, Tallinn, Estonia	ESTEstonia	3-2	4-2
34.	13 February 2002	Amsterdam Arena, Amsterdam, Netherlands	ENGEngland	1-	1-1	Friendly
35.	7 September 2002	Philips Stadion, Eindhoven, Netherlands	BLRBelarus	2-	3–0	Euro 2004
36.	20 November 2002	Arena AufSchalke, Gelsenkirchen, Germany	GERGermany	1-	3-1	Friendly
37.	30 April 2003	Philips Stadion, Eindhoven, Netherlands	BYPortugal	1-	1-1	Friendly
38.	7 June 2003	Dinamo Stadium, Minsk, Belarus	BLRBelarus	2-	2–0	Euro 2004
39.	6 September 2003	From Kuip, Rotterdam, Netherlands	AUTAustria	2-1	3-1
40.	11 October 2003	Philips Stadion, Eindhoven, Netherlands	MDAMoldova	1-	5-0

Personal Life

Kluivert is the second son of former soccer player Kenneth Kluivert, who played for Robinhood in the SVB Hoofdklasse and for the Surinamese national team. His mother, Lidwina Kluivert, was born in Willemstad, Curaçao, in the former Netherlands Antilles, to a Surinamese father and a Curaçaoan mother. His parents were married in Paramaribo and his older siblings, Renato and Natascia, were born in Suriname, before the family immigrated to the Netherlands in 1970.

Kluivert has four children: Quincy, Justin, Rubén and Shane, the first three from his marriage to Ángela, and the last from his current relationship with model Rossana Da Lima, whom he married in January 2008 in Paris.

In 2006 he published an autobiographical book entitled Kluivert.

At the beginning of 2017 his son Justin Kluivert made his debut for Ajax at the age of 17.

Statistics

In clubs

Club	Div.	Season	League		National Cups(1)		International Tournaments(2)		Total		Average score(3)
			Part.	Goles	Part.	Goles	Part.	Goles	Part.	Goles
Ajax Amsterdam NetherlandsNetherlands
	1. a	1994-95	25	18	3	2	13	3	41	23	0.56
		1995-96	28	15	4	2	8	5	40	22	0.56
		1996-97	17	6	1	0	4	2	22	8	0.36
	Total club		70	39	7	4	25	10	102.	53	0.52
AC Milan ItalyItaly	1. a	1997-98	27	6	6	3	-		33	9	0.27
	Total club		27	6	6	3	0	0	33	9	0.27
F.C. Barcelona SpainSpain	1. a	1998-99	35	14	3	1	-		38	15	0.40
		1999-00	26	15	4	3	14	7	44	25	0.57
		2000-01	31	18	5	2	12	5	48	25	0.52
		2001-02	33	18	-		17	7	50	25	0.50
		2002-03	36	16	-		15	5	51	21	0.41
		2003-04	21	8	2	0	3	2	26	10	0.38
	Total club		182	89	14	6	61	26	257	121	0.46
Newcastle United EnglandEngland	1. a	2004-05	25	6	6	2	6	5	37	13	0.35
	Total club		25	6	6	2	6	5	37	13	0.35
Valencia CF SpainSpain	1. a	2005-06	10	1	1	0	5	1	16	2	0.13
	Total club		10	1	1	0	5	1	16	2	0.13
PSV Eindhoven NetherlandsNetherlands	1. a	2006-07	16	3	2	0	3	0	21	3	0.14
	Total club		16	3	2	0	3	0	21	3	0.14
Lille OSC France	1. a	2007-08	13	4	1	0	-		14	4	0.29
	Total club		13	4	1	0	0	0	14	4	0.29
Total career			343	148	37	15	100	42	480	207	0.43
(1) Includes data from the Netherlands Cup (1994-07); Netherlands Super Cup (1994-95); Italian Cup (1997-98) King Cup (1999-06); Spanish Super Cup (1999); England League Cup (2004); FA Cup (2005) and France Cup (2008). (2) It includes data from the UEFA Champions League (1994-07); Intercontinental Cup (1995); UEFA Super Cup (1996); UEFA Cup (2000-05) and UEFA Intertote Cup (2005). (3) Half goals per game. It does not include data from friendly parties.

Honours of Prizes

National Championships

Title	Club	Year
Super Cup of the Netherlands	Ajax Amsterdam	1994
Eredivisie		1994/95
Super Cup of the Netherlands		1995
Eredivisie		1995/96
First Division of Spain	F. C. Barcelona	1998/99
Eredivisie	PSV Eindhoven	2006/07

International Cups

Title	Club	Headquarters	Year
UEFA Champions League	Ajax Amsterdam	Vienna	1994-95
European Super Cup		Amsterdam	1995
Intercontinental Cup		Tokyo	1995

Individual awards