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A few reasons to call up Clarence Seedorf….
Comments(155)
It’s true. He’s one of the most successful players ever from Holland. If you don’t count Oranje, he probably is the most successful one. The player who used to hold that mantle was one Arie Haan. Smart. But not loved. Like Clarence.
He was a wise old man, when he was only 19 years old. I can still see him sitting in the dressing room, next to veteran and icon Frank Rijkaard. When the latter was being interviewed after winning the champions league against his old club AC Milan, Clarence put a hand on Frankie’s knee, lovingly. Seedorf was a huge Rijkaard fan. From since he was little. When his idol came back to Ajax, Seedorf became his shadow, his apprentice and he stayed Frank’s biggest fan. Rijkaard would later say that Seedorf was already wiser and deeper than he would ever be. And that says a lot when Rijkaard says that.
When he was 22 years old, Seedorf wanted to lead Oranje. Best demonstrated by taking every ball for every set piece, including penalties. The problem was, Seedorf wasn’t too good at scoring them. His tv interviews made the fans frown their eyebrows. Here’s a lad talking about philosophy, geo-politics, football and neo-impressionistic art. In the same sentence. And always that knowing smile. He looked like a God, had all the football skills you’d dream of, made heaps of money and was intelligent. In other words: a total wanker!
Seedorf left Holland to play in Italy, when he was only 20 years old. I told you so: a wanker.
He won some cups here and there and turned into this footballing guru. You gotta respect the dude. He’s for real and he’s surely no wanker. At all.
There won’t be too many Oranje players at the top level of Europe after the winterbreak. With some luck we’ll see Van Persie, Boulah, Vaart, Sneijder, Huntelaar… Maybe Robben, Van Bommel and Braafheid.
Eight players, when all goes well and if they get to play. There’s three other candidates though. Van der Sar made it already and will most certainly play. Van Nistelrooy will get his minutes and so will Seedorf at Milan.
They say Van der Sar might want to tag along to the WC. He will take his decision on extending his deal with Man United next month. And his consideration to maybe put his hand up for Bert will be part of that thought process.
Van Nistelrooy is clear about his ambitions. He definitely wants to go. Then there’s Seedorf who naturally played against Olympique Marseille. He didn’t play great, but he only lost possession twice. He dribbled a bit, had some shrewd through-passes. He made himself available in possession and created balance on midfield.
But we all know all that. Has he ever failed at club level? Not really.
The 33 year old has not put his hand up to the national coach. He’s got a history with Oranje and it’s not all wine and roses. But it might be time for Van Marwijk to reconsider his stance towards Seedorf.
Two creative players do not play regularly (Robben, Van der Vaart). A third one has moved up a spot (Van Persie) and the fourth player has a temper and cops a yellow card every now and then (Sneijder). Wouldn’t it be a good thing now to start re-conciliating with Clarence?
Oranje could use the experience of this top midfielder. And if you haven’t noticed yet, he is in glorious form.
And the last reason: Oranje will play in the backyard of Seedorf’s guru Nelson Mandela, which will most certainly motivate Seedorf to give his utmost. Seedorf sees his Oranje career as a huge stain on his otherwise impeccable record.
He is motivated and the last reason will bring out his best behavior.
Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 155 comments.
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@alaa , mario and ferenc ,
My dream is to see vdv in man utd , with the no.23 jersy .. As a starter and one of the best players in the EPL
@Alex: You are right. He is not the Henry type of striker who can run the whole field through every defender but near the box he’s lethal.
The way Madrid sacked Huntelaar was very hard and it had a psychological effect on him. It was the same with Sneijder but Mourinho gave the confidence back and I remember Sneijder’s 1st goal with Inter celebrating with so much fury. Now Klaas has won a decisive match for Milan as they are now in 2nd spot so that will give him a lot of confidence and hope from Leonardo and the Milan supporters.
@alaa
No place for Babel in Munich, Bayern already have Klose, Gomez, Toni, and Muller.
Posted from 
United States
toni will leave munich in january, he wants to play in the world cup 2010
According to a poll in last months World Soccer Football magazine, Hunterlaar is acclaimed to be the 6th deadliest striker in Europe. The poll was conducted by ranking goals over the last 5 seasons i.e. you’d get more points for champs league and international goals than cup goals. For somebody who hasn’t scored since march and has only Villa, Klose, Ronaldo, Torres and Drogba ahead of him i’d say he’s got more than enough talent than some people are accrediting him for!
Posted from 
United Kingdom
as one of those who don’t accredit as much talent to klaas jan as some of us i just wonder how could world soccer football magazine’editors consider him deadlier than for ex. rooney,eto’o,ibrahimovic… if they rank eeredivisie as high as serie a,pl and la ligua i understand them… he scored tons of goal for ajax,went to madrid at the bad moment (schuster wanted and signed him but he was kicked just after signing huntelaar),he starts slowly at milan (not easy to integrate into the team and the system,even clarence had problems at the very beginning). i don’t blame him but the circumstances weren’t be good for scoring in top championships as much as in a less competitive league. hopefully he will be better,yesterday evening is a good sign,but despite his 2 goals and especially the brilliant second and his sympathetic personality i remain sceptical. if he plays and scores regularly my opinion might and probably will change.
Posted from 
Hungary
looks like Elia’s injury is not so bad; he prob. be out till about january
Posted from 
Netherlands
Regarding the injury situation, I think many countries would love to be in our enviable postition of having to rely on our emergency backups of Ruud and Clarence. We have quite a luxury to have those two guys sitting there “just in case”.
Posted from United States
Alex:
I misunderstood what you said but with your latest post about Huntelaar I get your point across. I also share the view that he is not very fast and spectacular player but in the box he is a deadly striker but he needs to create more chances himself and work in his mentality.
By the way, I haven´t seen Douglas. Is he better than Ooijer and Heitinga?.
maxwell hold dutch passport, we should call him?
Posted from United States
what I know about Douglas is he is good attacking set pieces with 4 goals already, actually vlaar scored last week aswell.
Hmm Maxwell he plays leftback. Not a bad idea. And the main critiscm about braafheid I believe are that he is not good attacking but with Robben on his side that is no problem.
You sure he has a Dutch passport? I never heard of it.
Posted from Netherlands
Maxwell has already played for Brazil !
Posted from 
Singapore
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=705640&sec=england&root=england&cc=5901
Good Article on Kuyt from ESPN
Dunno if it’s already been posted but apparently our Clarence hooked up with George Clooney’s girlfriend or something.
http://www.haisentito.it/articolo/elisabetta-canalis-e-clarence-seedorf-pizzicati-a-londra/19337/
Posted from United Kingdom
Paul – yep we should always have room for Kuyt – not a glamour boy, not a wizard – just pure hard work and works for 2. He gives us an extra man on the field. When was the last time you heard of this guy being injured ? He’s top fit and thats the rule for not getting injured.
Re Seedorf Romance – he’s been known to chase after “attached” women but hey, there are a lot bigger vices out there. You could be chased out of the house by a golf wielding mad woman after being scratched all over your face. Boy that would make a man drive into a fire hydrant and tree that have been fixtures there for decades. But then if your stuck in a front seat of an SUV only a “Blonde” would smash the REAR window to drag you out thru 3 rows of seats!!
Posted from Singapore
Interesting article from goal.com. Really opened my eyes to how important the draw is going to be and how many tough groups we could get. Please for once we need some luck!
Posted from United States
Great news to see Hunter finally scoring! And not just one, but two goals, and the last one super classy! Hopefully this gives him the confidence he needs and gives his coach the confidence to start playing him. I always knew he had the potential, but didn’t understand why the stupid Milan coach never gave him a chance. Hopefully this is his break and he grabs it.
Goosebumps!!! Did you guys see on the clip how the team responded after the final whistle??
I think it will come good with KJH. Simply the dynamics in the team, the way they responded to his goals. Fantastic.
Robin who??
Man City wants v.d. Wiel, apparently it’s serious too…might be looking at a winter transfer.
Posted from Netherlands
Finn, I saw the game too but I highly enjoyed Kuyt! He didn’t play superb – no one at Pool did, not even Mascherano – but Dirk’s work ethic blows me away. He is constantly alert. Constantly uses his brain and his lungs and legs.
There was a situation in the second half (everyone tired) where the ball in the Everton defense went wide and an Everton defender chased it. 90% of the attackers would let the defender clear it. Not Kuyt! He chased the defender, blocked the clearance, got lucky with the bounce and dribbled with the ball into the box almost creating a 100% chance for N’Gog. I love those types of actions!! And as for the goal: it was a simple tap in, but it’s Kuyt’s class that he gets there. As it was his header that allowed Gerrard to pull the ball back. He is always alert and ready to poach, and he does that 90 minutes of the game! The focus and dedication! The commentator said: “Goals win games…”. And Kuyt won the game.
I hope van der wiel stays at Ajax a little longer. City aren’t the right team to go too. They’ve got too many good players who don’t get a game backed by a manager who knows everything about nothing and nothing about anything. Furthermore I don’t want another good dutch prosepect trawling the continent in search of a home!
Posted from United Kingdom
@Lucas: Rumour has it City is after Guus Hiddink to replace Hughes.
I that van der wiel is free to go lol 
No serious note now even if guus does go there he needs to finish his education at Ajax and not become another drenthe!
Posted from 
Ireland
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It would be very good to see douglas playing for the oranje , he is an excellent defender with a great potential
Mathijsen , vlaar , douglas and Loovens will be perfect defence , with boula and weil on the Rt. , bouma and emanuelson on the Lt. .
it’s fantastic that all the blog is happy for huntelaar