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The Netherlands is one of the European football's strongest and proudest nations: 3 times runner-up in the World Cup; winners of the 1988 European Championship tournament. The main league in the country, the Eredivisie, has spawned some famous teams throughout its history, stretching back to the pioneering Ajax team led by Johan Cruyff that conquered Europe in the 1970s.
It has, however, more often than not seen its best talent picked off by bigger leagues, for the Eredivisie cannot compete with the top 5 leagues in Europe due to the size of the Netherlands and the smaller resources.
Each decade, the Dutch have consistently produced fine young footballers, and each decade the fans have had to watch them leave for England or Spain or Italy. Recall the generation of Arjen Robben, Robin Van Persie, Wesley Sneijder, and Rafael van der Vaart who learned their trade at home before departing for some of European football's biggest clubs to find success.
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What is also true, though, is that the Dutch are a fiercely proud people and there are numerous examples of players, having made their career elsewhere in Europe, returning to play their remaining professional years in their home country.
The chance to play in front of their countrymen, in the league they grew up watching, and giving something back has been embraced by many. This slideshow looks at 5 notable examples of this trend. Here are 5 legendary Dutch footballers who made sure to return to the Eredivisie where they duly found success in their final playing days.
#5 Dirk Kuyt (Feyenoord)
The most recent example, Dirk Kuyt, cemented his place as a Feyenoord legend when he returned in 2015 and helped them to their first league title in 18 years. He initially joined the Rotterdam club at the age of 23, after impressing for FC Utrecht and Kuyt would improve his game here.
In 3 seasons, the forward scored 71 goals in just 101 league games; a dazzling feat. What he didn't achieve, unfortunately, was team success and Kuyt would leave for English football with no trophies during his time at Feyenoord.
A popular figure with fans of his new team Liverpool, Kuyt's game changed while here, as he found himself operating more from the right wing due to manager Rafael Benitez's decision: he was less focused on scoring and became a workmanlike player, full of tireless effort and running. He wasn't the most fluid attacker but he was mightily effective for his team. Kuyt still contributed 71 goals in total for Liverpool, leaving a cult icon at the club despite only winning 1 League Cup trophy in 2012.
He didn't quite return to his homeland at this point, instead venturing to Turkey to ply his trade for Fenerbahce. Kuyt relished the added responsibility he had for this team and reached double figures in each of his 3 seasons, helping the Istanbul giants to the league title in 2013/2014.
When he finally rejoined Feyenoord in 2015 at 35, many would have been forgiven for thinking that he would merely wind down his days quietly in Dutch football, but that wasn't the way for the passionate Kuyt.
His side finished a massive 21 points off PSV in first place in that first season, Kuyt providing 19 goals, his best return since his previous time at Feyenoord. In his last season in 2016/2017, an emotional Kuyt scored a hat-trick on the final day of the season to secure that historic league title and ensuring his place as one of Feyenoord's greatest ever players. He announced his retirement only 3 days later, the Dutch legend having achieved what he had failed to first time around with the club.
#4 Frank Rijkaard (Ajax)
A graceful but forceful defensive midfielder, Rijkaard boasts a trophy haul to rival most. He began his career with his local club Ajax and played over 200 times for them in this spell, ending up with 3 league titles to show for it. One uneventful year with Real Zaragoza in Spain followed before Rijkaard joined AC Milan, where he would really make his name.
As one part of the legendary Dutch trio with Ruud Gullit and Marco van Basten that formed the soul of the Italian side during this period, Rijkaard won 2 league titles as well as 2 European Cups in just 5 seasons. His aggressiveness dominated the midfield, allowing the flair of the other two Dutchman to shine.
He left Milan at 31, ready to return to Ajax and he would remarkably enjoy almost as much success as he did when he first played for the Amsterdam club. Rijkaard was the experienced old head that acted as manager Louis van Gaal's voice on the pitch as both guided a youthful Ajax side to legendary status: they won the league in 1994 and 1995, before triumphing in the Champions League final in 1995 over, ironically, his former team Milan.
That was to be Rijkaard's last game for the club and it was the perfect way to bow out; Rijkaard's influence over emerging talents like Patrick Kluivert, Marc Overmars, and Clarence Seedorf cannot be underestimated.
#3 Roy Makaay (Feyenoord)
The Dutchman is remembered as one of Bayern's best strikers of the 21st century
A supreme and perhaps underrated goal scorer, Makaay played for 5 clubs during his professional career and his strike rate at each is highly impressive; a classic centre-forward, he used his aerial ability and quick thinking to great effect.
He started out in the Eredivisie with the relatively small Vitesse Arnhem where his talents earned him a move to La Liga at 22 with Tenerife. After 2 productive seasons here, Makaay's form got him a move to a bigger club again, this time to Deportivo La Coruna. In his first season at the club, his 22 goals in 36 appearances propelled Deportivo to their first league win in their history, surprising most neutrals.
4 further good campaigns followed for the striker, including ending his final season as the league's top marksman before he transferred to Bayern Munich in 2003 for a then club record fee. He would win the Bundesliga twice in his time at the club and scored an incredible 102 goals in 178 total appearances.
After Bayern signed forwards Luca Toni and Miroslav Klose, Makaay decided to return to Dutch football in 2007, this time with Feyenoord. He wouldn't enjoy the success Kuyt managed with them a decade later, but he was the man most responsible for Feyenoord winning the KNVB Cup in 2008, having plundered 7 goals in just 5 games.
After retiring at 35, Makaay had scored almost a goal every other game for Feyenoord, a tremendous record for a player at his age. It's unfortunate that the striker doesn't receive the acclaim that his career deserved.
He had the misfortune to play in an era when the Netherlands were awash with great strikers like Ruud van Nistelrooy and Dennis Bergkamp, meaning Makaay only got 46 caps for his national side, scoring 6 goals, and Bayern weren't the European force they are now when Makaay was there, but based on his goals alone, Makaay was one of Europe's strongest strikers of his generation.
#2 Phillip Cocu (PSV)
A lesser heralded player of the great but tragically unlucky Dutch side of the late 1990s, Cocu was the solid and dependable midfield shield that enabled the Dutch to be so devastating in attack; that's why he earned 101 caps for his country, putting him 5th in the all-time appearances list.
Cocu left his homeland comparatively late, at 28, spending the first decade of his career in the Netherlands. After making a name for himself at AZ and Vitesse, Cocu joined PSV in 1995 and won his first trophy in Eindhoven that season, the KNVB Cup. The Eredivisie title followed in 1997 and after the good showing at the 1998 World Cup, Cocu transferred to Barcelona.
Under countryman Louis van Gaal, the Spanish giants had an amazing number of Dutchman in their squad when Cocu linked up with them, including international teammates Michael Reiziger, Frank de Boer, and Patrick Kluivert. This inevitably helped the midfielder settle and he rarely missed a game as he won the La Liga title in his first campaign at the Camp Nou.
Despite playing 5 more full seasons for the club, Cocu never tasted success with Barcelona again. He did, however, end his career there as their record appearance holder for a foreign player with 291 total appearances (later surpassed only by Lionel Messi).
After receiving a reduced contract offer, Cocu was only too happy to return to PSV and he would end up performing a similar role to Rijkaard's with the exciting young Ajax team: Cocu was the wise head in the midfield that bolstered an inexperienced but talented PSV side as they won the league 3 seasons in a row from 2005 to 2007.
In the 2nd of these triumphs, Cocu not only captained the team but scored an excellent 10 goals from the defensive midfield. He also was instrumental in PSV's shock surge to the 2004/2005 Champions League semi-finals, where they fought bravely against AC Milan before exiting. Cocu chose to continue playing football for 1 more season after his time at PSV, with Al Jazira in the UAE, but he can always look fondly on his achievements in his homeland.
#1 Johan Cruyff (Ajax and Feyenoord)
The undisputed greatest Dutch player of all time, Cruyff is perhaps only behind Lionel Messi, Pele, and Diego Maradona on the list of the best footballers ever to play the sport. An incredible player and a great coach too, Cruyff's mark is all over modern football (Pep Guardiola counts him as his inspiration).
Focusing on his playing career, Cruyff began his career at Ajax and helped to transform the Amsterdam outfit into European powerhouses. He won 6 Eredivisie titles during his first spell at the club but it was the team's achievements in European club competition that really put them on the map: Cruyff and Ajax would win the European Cup 3 seasons in a row from 1971 to 1973, and he and coach Rinus Michels were hailed for their invention of Total Football as their team played some of the most fluid and pleasing attacking football ever to grace a football pitch.
Cruyff scored 190 league goals during this time, despite not playing as the main forward, and was sold in 1973 for a world record transfer fee to Barcelona. His star propelled the club to win their first La Liga since 1960 but Cruyff would only add a Copa del Rey title in 1978 to this, a startlingly poor return for a player of his talents.
At 31, Cruyff shockingly considered retirement but instead travelled to the United States to play, increasing the image of the unheralded sport in the country massively. He played 2 seasons there, for Los Angeles Aztecs and Washington Diplomats respectively, then suffered a bad spell in the Segunda Division with Levante, before journeying home to his beloved Ajax.
Cruyff soon put the years in the wilderness behind him, scoring a decent 7 goals in both campaigns as Ajax won the league title in 1982 and 1983. What happened next is legendary in Dutch football: having been angered at not being offered a new contract by Ajax, Cruyff responded by joining their arch-rivals Feyenoord, where he duly helped them to wrestle the league title from their foes.
Cruyff scored 11 league goals and won the Dutch footballer of the year award for the 5th time, all done at the incredible age of 36. There are few players who could be remembered fondly by both Ajax and Feyenoord, but Cruyff was a special talent, one embraced by all those involved in Dutch football.
