Before the 1970s, the Netherlands had only played in two World Cup matches and had never qualified from the group. It wasn't until the seventies that Dutch football really began to really rise. At the club level, the Dutch First Division team dominated Europe, and on the national team, the Dutch reached the final twice in a row, and finally regretted passing by the World Cup champion.
Behind the rapid development of Dutch football is the promotion and promotion of the concept and system of all-attack and full defense under the leadership of a generation of Dutch people, including the famous coach Rinus Michels and the famous Cruyff. Since the 1970s, "All Attack and All Defense" has become a deep imprint of Dutch football. At the 1988 European Championships, the Dutch team successfully stood on top of Europe. After taking off, Dutch football began to usher in a stable cycle of becoming one of the world's greatest powers, with stars with excellent physical and technical performance emerging one after another, and becoming more and more outstanding in terms of fan accumulation in the second home team in the world.
However, it was not until the last decade, when Dutch football abandoned its former philosophy and switched to conservative play, that the Tulip Army once again reached the heights reached in the seventies. Unfortunately, Dutch football is still one step away from the top of the world, and the sad reputation of the World Cup [Uncrowned King] will need to be held for a long time.
When it comes to Dutch football, the names of many stars are naturally familiar to fans. In this article, the author will comprehensively combine three major factors such as career achievement, national team achievement, and personal influence to inventory the TOP10 list for your reference. Of course, if there are lost pearls or a choice of discussion, you are naturally welcome to add them in the comments section.
10. Rijkaard
Rijkaard, one of the famous "Dutch Three Musketeers".
Rijkaard, debuting from Ajax in the Dutch League, had a brief development at Portuguese Sports Club in the Portuguese Premier League and Zaragoza in La Liga, and then won several Serie A titles for Milan with Gullit and Van Basten in AC Milan and reached the top of Europe, and finally returned to Ajax to spend the rest of his career.
In terms of national team career, between 1981 and 1994, Rijkaard made a total of 73 appearances and scored 10 goals. In 1988, the Dutch national team won the European Championship, and Rijkaard was one of the important heroes.
Although he plays at the back, Rijkaard has actually played a midfield all-rounder for many years, and is known for his concise and practical style of football. Like his teammates Gullit and Van Basten, Rijkaard is also an unborn talent. Perhaps there is no dew like the Dutch superstar, but Rijkaard has a lot of calm and thick, and quietly establishes an invisible offensive and defensive order for Dutch football in passing and interception.
9. Ronald Koeman
In the history of Dutch football, Ronald Koeman is undoubtedly the best defender.
As a player, Ronald Koeman was active from the early 1980s to the mid-1990s, playing for Groningen, Ajax, PSV Eindhoven, Barcelona, Feyenoord and other clubs, accumulating 4 Dutch League titles, 4 La Liga titles, and two Champions Leagues. In terms of national team career, between 1982 and 1994, Koeman played 78 games for the Netherlands, scoring 14 goals and winning the 1988 European Championship with the team.
In his long seventeen-year career, Koeman has previously played as a midfielder and free agent. After the mid-term, Koeman mainly played the role of defender, but while completing the post-back task well, Koeman still provided a function similar to that of a central defender. In his 535 appearances, Koeman has scored 193 goals, and the firepower is quite terrifying. Unlike the normal way for defenders to score with their headers, Koeman, nicknamed Hercules, is a well-known heavy gunner, and his penalties and free kicks are also quite good.
VIII. Van Persie
He became famous as a talented winger at Feyenoord, then infamous in football with his stubborn temper; after going through injuries, joining the Gunners, under wenger's tutelage, he eventually became a generation of center killers; switched to Ferguson, Van Persie cashed in on his championship ambitions and showed his might.
His club career has been cut to pieces by injuries of all sizes, but Van Persie has achieved two top ten achievements in the Ballon d'Or, which shows his talent and strength. In addition to perfect shooting, the real strength of Van Persie is that it redefines the modern all-round center. Not only is the exclusion zone dominant, but van Persie is an absolute threat in terms of pulling the edge, retreating, and organizing.
Compared with the club career, in the cup-based national team career, the performance of Van Persie, who is known as the "Glass Man", is extremely stable, and the honors won as the main player have accumulated excellently, which is the biggest advantage of Van Persie as a forward player competing in the top 10 list of Dutch team history.
Between 2005 and 2017, Van Persie made 102 appearances and scored 50 goals, the first in team history. As early as the 2006 World Cup, the 23-year-old Van Persie sat firmly in the right position and performed. At that time, Van Persie was still playing in the right wing. In 2013, Van Persie completed his overtaking of Kluivert to top the Netherlands' all-time top scorer.
In five consecutive competitions (2006 World Cup, 2008 European Championship, 2010 World Cup, 2012 European Championship, 2014 World Cup), Van Persie has scored goals, and the Netherlands is the only one in the history of the Dutch team, and there is no semicolon.
In addition, Van Persie's performance in the World Cup is the best epitome of the legendary goalscorer's career. In the history of the World Cup, Van Persie is the only player who can score goals with free kicks, penalties, headers, left feet and right feet.
VII. Ajar Robben
Ajar Robben, nicknamed Peter Pan.
Since his debut, Robben has been known in football for his explosive power on the flanks and his insoluble shots after cutting inside the high-speed line. Robben, who often appears in the corridor area 45 degrees to the right in front of the large forbidden area, is like a killing god, and can be taken and stopped under the siege.
Unfortunately, as the sharpest winger in the history of Dutch football, since leaving PSV to join Chelsea, to Real Madrid and then to Bayern, Robben has helped the team win many heavy trophies. However, Robben himself has never made more than 30 appearances in a season. Robben's glassy legs greatly affected the heights he was able to reach in his career. However, in the number of games that can play, Robben can always deliver a dominant performance, which is why there is a popular saying in football that a healthy Robben is the third person in the world.
Between 2003 and 2017, Robben made a total of 96 appearances for the Dutch national team, scoring 37 goals. Although the 2010 World Cup final failed to grasp the precious one-handed opportunity to end the World Cup uncrowned fate for the Netherlands, the honor of a World Cup runner-up and a World Cup runner-up main force was enough to write a note for the glory of Peter Pan.
Vi. Wesley Sneijder
In the history of modern football, Sneijder is one of the few midfielders who has won league titles in four well-known European leagues (Eredivisie, La Liga, Serie A and Turkish Super League) at different stages of his career and also has the Honour of the Champions League. Among them, Sneijder's most successful professional experience was naturally the period when Mourinho served as the core of the midfield and led Inter to conquer Europe.
Looking back at the beginning of his debut, Sneijder, together with Robben, van der Vaart and Van Persie, was called the "Four Talents" of the Dutch Golden Age. Not only is the club career the most satisfying and the least injured, but in the national team career, Sneijder is also the highest status of the four.
As an orthodox attacking midfielder, Sneijder is the dutch team's supercore in several tournaments. Snyder was protected by his teammates in the center of the formation, shouldering the rhythmic girder of the Dutch offensive and defensive conversion. It can be said that behind the Netherlands' world cup runner-up & World Cup third place, Sneijder is more important than Robben and Van Persie. In the case of the 2010 World Cup, Snyder participated in the elimination stage to create seven goals. In a tough battle with Brazil in the quarter-finals, Sneijder almost single-handedly defeated his opponent.
In 2010, at the club and the World Cup, Sneijder was the most prominent figure, and was regarded by the majority of fans as the best player in football that year. However, when it entered the final selection, Snyder only finished fourth in the year, triggering a great controversy rarely seen in the history of this authoritative award for many years.
V. Dennis Bergkamp
Debuting as a winger, and subsequently playing as a center or shadow forward, unlike regular forward players, while maintaining a good goal rate, Bergkamp is a planned striker who is good at organizing and tearing apart the opponent's space. With just two or three combinations of movements, Bergkamp can make the opposing defender stand still and watch him fly away.
Don't say that in the history of Dutch football, even in the history of modern football, it is difficult to find another football artist whose elegance and strength can be as classic as the Ice Prince. There is also something that must be mentioned, Bergkamp's unloading and turning action, just like Cruyff's turning action, has long been a classic personal skill in football that has been crowned as a god of god, and the good impression of Dutch football in future generations.
Looking back on Bergkamp's career, he briefly lost himself at Inter Milan after becoming famous at Ajax, and then at Arsenal, he coincided with Arsene Wenger, who also admired beautiful football, ushering in the peak of the team's honor of his career. In terms of the national team, Bergkamp has been extremely stable in the five major competitions in which he has participated. Although the results of the Dutch competition in the 1990s are sad memories for Bergkamp, his repeated performance of standing up to break the situation is believed that fans are still impressed today.
Iv. Luther Gullit
In the Dutch-dominated full-attack, all-defensive football system, where all players on the pitch are required to take on both offensive and defensive tasks, any player in the team may have to briefly play the role of another player at any time in a certain offensive and defensive end. As a result, dutch football has produced many all-round players of the level of "hexagonal warriors" in the history of Dutch football.
Among them, Gurlitt, one of the "Three Musketeers of the Netherlands", should be called the most representative of the big man. The three major individual honors of the 1987 European Ballon d'Or winner, the 1987 World Footballer of the Year and the 1989 World Footballer of the Year are enough to illustrate the horror power of Gurlitt's heyday. Aside from goalkeeper, Gurlitt can play almost any position.
In his early years, when playing for Feyenoord and PSV Eindhoven, midfielder Luther Gullit was able to score 76 goals in 153 games, scoring a huge number of forwards in seconds. In Gurlitt's first year with AC Milan, Van Basten was injured in the middle of the way, and Rika Gerd had not yet come to shoot, And Gullit had to hand over the god-level performance of being a father and a mother in the midfield position, leading AC Milan to regain the Serie A title, so the performance was impressive to the author.
At the 1988 European Championship, the collective outbreak of the "Dutch Three Musketeers" finally made Dutch football win the heavyweight championship. That year, Gullit's performance was perfect, and he even took the dutch football first in the final. Unfortunately, due to a serious knee injury and personnel disputes at the club and national team level, after entering the 1990s, Gullit's state declined and he left the center stage of world football prematurely.
Iii. Marko van Basten
During his career, Marco van Basten won three European Ballon d'Or awards, tied for the most in the twentieth century with Cruyff and Platini. Between the mid-to-late 1980s and 1990s, Van Basten was arguably the most famous football superstar.
In the first six years of his career, Van Basten scored 142 goals for Ajax in 155 games, and in the last eight years of his career, Van Basten scored 125 goals for AC Milan in 201 games. In that slow-paced football era, Van Basten's goal stats were extremely dominant.
In addition to his outstanding performance in the penalty area, Van Basten's passing ability is as good as his passing ability, and his movements are as elegant as ballet, thus winning the reputation of "The Prince of Ballet". Because it was impossible to be defended by a normal one-on-one, Van Basten was often maliciously intercepted from behind by defenders on the field, and had to retire at the age of thirty-one with a scarred body.
In addition to the regret of leaving early in the year, the premature arrival of injuries has also affected Van Basten's mood and performance in the national team to a certain extent. Nine years of national team career, 58 appearances, 24 goals, the performance is not bad. However, the highlights of Van Basten's orange career were mostly concentrated in the first half, while in the later national team competitions, he played quite hard, and once became a sinner who was crusaded by Dutch fans.
John Neskens
Back in the 1970s, the best player in Dutch football was Cruyff. As for the second-best player, most of the media considered it to be another legendary figure who enjoyed the name of "Cruyff's Shadow": John Neskens.
Technically, Neskens in midfield is also a leader in one. In the Michels system, John Neskens' tactics were nearly as important as Cruyff's. In that classic Ajax or Orange Army, John Neskens played an extremely important role, no less than Cruyff in terms of interspersed running and connecting the whole team.
At the 1974 Fifa World Cup, Neskens played in seven games and scored five goals. In the final, Cruyff created a penalty but gave it to Neskens, which shows the player's position in the team. In the 1978 World Cup, in the absence of Cruyff, Neskens still led the team to the final. Unfortunately, the Dutchman was careless, and before the game, there was a controversial incident of drinking and celebrating in advance, and finally he was defeated by the host Argentina and once again hated the runner-up.
I. John F. Cruyff
What is even more valuable is that Cruyff's mental awareness and way concept, like the wonderful spark that came to the world football world in advance, has promoted the rapid sublimation of football at the technical and tactical level, opening up a generation of young players' vision of the ideal football model in the future.
514 professional games, 290 club goals; 48 national team matches, 33 international goals; three European Ballon d'Or trophies, are still far from enough to show the strength and charm of Kesheng. The blank honors and short-lived resumes of the national team inevitably cast a tragic hero over Cruyff.
The flying ball saint has long been a desperate sound. Looking back, in the beauty of modern football, you can still see the shadow left by Cruyff.