Dirk Kuyt

Sometimes, in a team full of classical players, a man with slightly lesser amount of talent goes unnoticed despite the fact that he is as much responsible for the team’s success as those ‘Classical’ players.

The story of Dirk Kuyt is pretty much the same. He is not a typical Holland footballer. He is far from being artistic. He perhaps is not talented enough to be called world class either. But, over the years, he has contributed a lot in the success of Netherlands national team at big stages.

The ongoing World Cup in Brazil is the third World Cup of Kuyt’s career. He had been one of the stand-out Dutch players in the last World Cup in South Africa and was one of the key reasons why Netherlands had made it to the final.

The players like Kuyt are not flamboyant. They don’t score too often, but, the room that they make for the other players by running constantly on the pitch help their teams a lot. The fans might not notice that, but, the coaches sitting in the dugout know that perfectly well. That’s why, Kuyt despite crossing his thirty long back never fell out of favour for Netherlands.

Apart from being a workhorse, Kuyt is quite selfless too. He doesn’t play each and every match for Netherlands. Even in the ongoing World Cup, he was warming the bench in the matches against the reigning champions Spain and the Socceroos, but, he never complains about anything.

He is happy to play whenever his manager wants him to. He would have hardly made a statement ever in his international career about not being a certainty in the starting line up. Any manager in the world would be delighted to have a guy like him in the team.

Former Liverpool striker Dirk Kuyt says that he expects Manchester United to once again return to the top of the English league under the regime of Louis van Gaal. Dutch national team boss van Gaal has been appointed as the successor for David Moyes, who was sacked towards the end of last season. It was a disappointing campaign for United in every competition, as they finished in a lowly seventh place. This was the first time they had finished outside the top four since the inception of the Premier league in 1992.

The lack of European football in the coming campaign has been cited as one of the reasons for United being a favourite to get back into the top four. This coupled with the presence of van Gaal should make them contenders for the league title according to Kuyt. The former Liverpool man may not be a first-team regular for the Dutch national team, but he has worked closely with the former Bayern Munich and Barcelona boss to be well aware of his strengths. He says that one of the first jobs van Gaal will be doing is to get the best out of van Persie.

The former Arsenal man has already stated that he enjoys a great relationship with the 62-year-old. “I think Robin van Persie is an amazing player. He has shown that at United. ­Unfortunately, he was injured too many times this season. But I’m sure, with Van Gaal and Robin together, great things are going to happen with Man United – unfortunately! Van Gaal is an open style of manager. He has a clear idea of what footballers need in training and also outside of training. And if you want something to change, his door is open – but you also have to have a very good ­argument,” said Kuyt.

Having made consistent appearances for Fenerbahce in this season as well as the previous one, Dirk Kuyt even at his 33 years of age, the Dutchman remains being an influential player for his club and things are only getting better for the former Liverpool player as he was named in Louis van Gaal’s provisional list of players which he will be taking into the plane as they hop on board and go to Brazil.

Dirk Kuyt and Fenerbahce have enjoyed a successful campaign as the club managed to win their 19th Turkish Super Lig and Kuyt helped the club on securing the silverware as he scored 10 goals as well as a number of assists throughout the season.

The former Liverpool man will be training with Netherlands for the next couple of weeks along with the rest of the squad which includes figures such as: Robin van Persie, Klaas- Jan Huntelaar and Arjen Robben as some of the more prominent figures of the team.

Dirk Kuyt has performed for Netherlands making over 90 appearances since 2004 and his contributions are being taking into consideration as the veteran forward has a chance of representing the nation on what will probably be his last World Cup considering his age and the upcoming youth players which are starting to develop.

Louis van Gaal announced his 30 man list of players which will be training for the upcoming weeks but the coach has to cut down that list to 23 which means that Dirk Kuyt has to make an immediate impact with the team, if he wants to be chosen ahead of other standout players such as: Van Persie, Arjen Robben and Rafael van der Vaart.

Kuyt is hoping he can help push Netherlands to their first World Cup trophy ever.

Sky Sports pundit and former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher has said that Chelsea midfielder Andre Schurrle reminds him of former Liverpool striker Dirk Kuyt. The Dutchman was often used as a right-winger despite being a striker.

He was converted into those new position by former manager Rafael Benitez. After having played with Kuyt for several years, Carragher is one of the few players who can comment on his style football. Carragher recently saw Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho experiment by using Schurrle as the striker in the first leg Champions League match against Paris St Germain.

Even though this was one of the important games of the season for the club, Mourinho took the gamble and decided to use the 23-year-old as the striker. This decision baffled many because he had the likes of Fernando Torres and Demba Ba on the bench. This was also not to the first time the Portuguese has decided to go with this selection, as Schurrle had been used in the same position against Manchester United earlier in the season. On both occasions, he did not create much impact, but Carragher says that the way Schurrle played reminded him of Kuyt.

The Dutchman is now playing for Fenerbahce, but he has been linked with a return to Premier League with West Ham United.

“He reminds me of Dirk Kuyt, he’s a managers dream. He can play left, right, centre, and always puts a shift in. You know what you will get, is he the greatest technically, probably not, but he (Jose Mourinho) doesn’t know what he will get from his strikers, not an awful lot. He probably wants graft and grit in there. He [Torres] hasn’t done enough to complain, knock on a manager’s door. He’s done nothing to back it up, and not been good enough,” said Carragher about Schurrle and Torres.

Former Liverpool striker Dirk Kuyt could be on his way back to England after it has emerged that West Ham United are interested in bringing him to the Premier league once again.

The Dutch striker has been playing in Turkish football with Fenerbahce, who are top of the Turkish league right now. They have a substantial lead over second placed Galatasaray. Despite the chance to win the Turkish league and play in the Champions League almost on a regular basis, Kuyt could be open to the possibility of returning to England – one of the best leagues in the world.

West Ham United are severely short of firepower upfront. The presence of Andy Carroll should solve the striker crisis, but the £ 15 million man has largely been on the sidelines this season. His injury record is unlikely to improve in the coming years. Hence, it has been learnt that Sam Allardyce is looking at Kuyt as a potential option. The striker spent six years at Liverpool before moving to Fenerbahce in a £ 1 million deal a few years ago. The 33-year-old only has months left on his contract with the Turkish outfit and he could be brought for a relatively low transfer fee.

Allardyce has been extremely successful at getting the best out of players who appeared to have gone over their best spells. The likes of Ivan Campo and Nicolas Anelka are great examples of the man managerial abilities of the former Bolton Wanderers manager. After flirting with a relegation during the middle of the campaign, West Ham are now safely closer to mid-table with only nine matches remaining in the season. He will be hoping for European qualification next season if he can add a striker like Kuyt to the squad.

Kuyt is also experienced at international level with the Dutch squad.

Dirk Kuyt announced his retirement from playing for his national country Holland after the 2014 World Cup comes to an end. The Dutchman is currently helping Fernerbahce fighting in their league and he is expected to get past the 100 matches mark with Holland during the upcoming World Cup.

“I will never stop calling myself an international. But I have to be realistic. This will be my last tournament. I am 34 years old. Other players will take my place’’.

“It’s very special that my last World Cup will be in Brazil. Hopefully we can achieve the same level as in 2010. I think it’s going to be a really good tournament with Brazil as absolute favorites. You just want to be there with the best players and best countries in the world. Hopefully we can achieve the same as we did in 2010 when we reached the finals’’.

”For my country it’s an honor to play. I will never say that I will retire for my country but to be realistic this is going to be my last tournament as I will be 34 and probably that’s the right time for other players to pick up my place’’.

Liverpool’s impressive sees them fighting in the top 5 spots of the Premier League and the main engine behind the side of Brendan Rodgers is Luis Suarez who has displayed abilities so impressive that he has even received praise from players and coaches stating that the Uruguayan forward is good enough to compete for the Ballon d’Or.

“He’s definitely, for me at the moment, at that level. What Ronaldo has done this year I think is amazing, while everyone knows the quality of Messi. But, after these two guys, I think he is a serious contender,” Kuyt told reporters.

Liverpool’s charge to the top spots of the Premier League continue rolling on in sensational form with a 3-1 triumph over Cardiff City and Luis Suarez once more being the central figure of the club as he scored twice and gave the assist for the remaining goal.

Even though Suarez is going through a marvelous time in Liverpool with Brendan Rodgers and his teammates, the January wish-list for the Premier League club is going to be a busy one as they have a number of players hoping to land when the transfer window re-opens.

The 21 years old defender of Oldham, James Tarkowski is one of the targets that Brendan Rodgers has as he is a huge fan of the defender and has a contract that expires at the end of the next season but Rodgers should be able to offload more money in order to snatch him away from his current club even if it hasn’t ended.

Barcelona’s Pedro is another player that Rodgers is keeping a close eye on. Pedro is still uncertain about his future with the Catalan club although some recent statements from the 26 years old forward will disappoint Rodgers as Pedro said that he is happy playing in Barcelona.

“I am happy with Barcelona, but things have to be evaluated every season,” Pedro said .

Luis Suarez has made a buy-out in his new contract with Liverpool that will allow him to leave the Premier League club if any non-English club makes a bid in the region of £60-70 million and even though Liverpool would be losing their star player, the injection of cash would see them reinforcing other areas of the squad that have been showing weaknesses. Real Madrid and PSG are some of the clubs already interested in signing the Uruguayan player but still no contacts have been made although it could change in January.

Turkish giants Fenerbahçe are keen on signing Paris Saint Germain playmaker Javier Pastore, according to manager Ersun Yanal.

The Argentina international joined the French giants in the summer of 2011 in a big money move from Italian club Palermo and was the first marquee signing for the club under their new Qatari owners.

But since the move, he has failed to produce the kind of form in France that prompted the Parisian club to part with almost £ 40 million for his signature, the kind of form that he displayed with Palermo, which made him one of the most sought after youngsters in Europe with the likes of Manchester United and Real Madrid keen on bringing him to the club.

He has been a more or less regular player in his two seasons at the club and won the Ligue 1 title with them last season but his failure to produce any real magic has called the future of the player in question and Fenerbahçe are keen on taking advantage of that situation by offering him an escape route.

English giants Liverpool have already registered their interest in bringing the 24 year old playmaker to the club while Italian giants AC Milan are also looking at the prospect of bringing the player back to Serie A where he cut his teeth since his move from his homeland.

But it is Fenerbahçe who are looking to make a firm offer for the player as the January transfer window opens and move ahead of the rest of the pack as they look for a genuine playmaker. According to Yanal, he has told the club hierarchy to set up a meeting with PSG and see what direction they want to go with Pastore and stated that he wants a genuine #10 at the club.

Fenerbahce forward Dirk Kuyt has rubbished recent rumors in the English press that has seen him linked with a move back to the Premier League with the likes of Fulham and newly promoted Cardiff City weighing up a bid for the Netherlands international.

Kuyt, who enjoyed an extended holiday before returning to pre-season training with the club in Turkey, tweeted that holidays are over for him and it is time that he put in the hard yards to regain the required fitness. He also added on that tweet that he really missed Fenerbahce and was also looking forward to meeting his friends and reconnecting with the fans once again.

He posted another tweet where he denied reports in Turkish media which had stated that he had spoken to Dutch radio and completely denied that he had done so. He went on to add that he had not spoken to any media outlet during the vacations.

Fenerbahce completed the signing of Dirk Kuyt from Premier League giants Liverpool last summer for just € 1 million after he was deemed surplus to requirements by new manager Brendan Rodgers and having signed a three year deal at the club, the Dutch international has rubbished claims that he is looking to move away.

The 32 year old’s three year contract with the club guarantees him € 2.85 million in basic fees per season as well as € 17,500 in performance related bonuses. He will have to take a pay cut anyway if he did move back to the Premier League with the two clubs being mentioned as his suitors not capable of paying so much to a player.
Dirk Kuyt played 54 matches for the Yellow Canaries last season and scored 17 goals and got 15 assists for the team as they won the Turkish Cup.

The agent of Dirk Kuyt, Rob Jansen, has made it clear that his client is not going to join Napoli this summer.

There were speculations that the newly appointed Napoli manager Rafa Benitez who was Kuyt’s boss at Liverpool wants to sign him again and the Dutch winger might move to Italy this summer. But, his agent has denied those speculations.
When asked about the reports of Kuyt joining Napoli, Jansen said, “I have no idea about Napoli’s interest in Dirk. They haven’t called me yet.”

“I don’t think Dirk is looking to join any other club this summer. He enjoyed his first season at Fenerbahce and he wants to stay there.”

At Liverpool, Kuyt played under the guidance of Rafa Benitez for 4 years before the latter left the club in June 2010.

Kuyt stayed at Liverpool for two more seasons before making a move to Turkey at the start of the last season. Fenerbahce bought him after paying a transfer fee of 1 million Euros.

Kuyt’s performance in his debut season for Fenerbahce wasn’t that bad. He did look rusty in a few games, but, overall, he did well. He featured for the Turkish club in a total of 31 games and found the net 8 times.

In one of his interviews at the end of the season, when Kuyt was asked if he is satisfied with his performance in his first season for Fenerbahce, he had said, “It would have been better if I had scored a few more goals. But, overall, it was not a bad season for me. I enjoyed a lot playing in Turkey.”

Fenerbahce finished at no. 2 in the 2012-13 Turkish Super Lig points table with 61 points in 34 games. They remained 10 points behind the title winners Galatasaray SK.