Feyenoord signs Denny Landzaat: yea…!!!!

Im writing an article about what Dutch people think of the Swedish/Swedish league contributions to Eredivisie. Currently, there arent as many Swedes at it has been the last couple of years (about two thirds of our national team has played in Eredivisie). Anyway, if you could help me out about what fans or media think of any of these players, I’d be happy.

Afonso Alves
Ari
Kennedy Bakircioglu
Rasmus Lindgren
Marcus Berg
Fredrik Stenman
George Mourad
Jonas Olsson

I’m sorry… I can’t be of any help. Haven’t seen any of these boys play, really. Goose will know…

I do know Petterson, Allback, Larsson to name a few were immensely popular in Holland. Zlatan is a different story, although everyone saw how skilled he is.

Posted from  Australia

My good friends: a personal tragedy in my family has forced me to leave Australia to visit my family in Holland. My dad suddenly died…

I’ll be away for 1, maybe 2 weeks… I am not sure if I can contribute a lot to the site in that time. So, keep on expanding this thread with topics you want to discuss. I’ll be back here when I can….

Posted from  Australia

Jan, my condolences to you and your family. I am very sorry to hear that. Having had to travel back from the US to Norway two years ago to deal with exactly the same issue, I can really feel your pain as it brings back too many memories. Living in a foreign country, it is especially difficult when you are unable to see your immediate/close family on a regular basis.

Don’t worry, I am sure we all will do our best to keep the blog running as best as we can whilst you are out of pocket

Posted from  United States

My utmost condolences, Jan.

Posted from  Republic Of Korea

Jan: My condolences. My Dad died a few years back. It was a shock, even though he had Alzheimer’s. He was your father. All the best to you and your family. Take your time.

Jan; gecodoleerd en heel veel sterkte…

ik zal(samen met de anderen) het fort voor je bewaken!!

grtz

Posted from  Netherlands

Jan, sorry to hear that. My thoughts are with you and your family at this time and I hope life gets better for you quickly.

Posted from  Singapore

Brother Jan, my heartfelt condolences on ur dad’s bereavement.These are painful moments for all of ur family.May God bless him and allow his soul to lay in peace in heaven.

Posted from  Australia

Jan, I’m sorry to hear. Take care

Posted from  United States

It is difficut to write about soccer right now, but Jan wanted us to hold the fort while he is taking care of much more important issues. So here is my first installment in that process.

I posted my little quiz a few days ago:
1) What single (club) game is the world’s most economically rewarding? Hint: It is actually NOT the Champions League final…

2) Which player is the only ever to win the EPL, English FA Cup, Champions League and the UEFA Cup? Hint: He also actually won the Olympics (soccer)

Here are the answers: Lets start with the easier and non-controversial one first, which is number 2. Jan and Ramy were indeed correct in pointing out that the player to only win those accolades is indeed Kanu and the clubs he played for during that process are also correct.

Now for the difficult one. The first question is actually a bit of a “trick” question and I am not sure if I really like it. But when I think more about it, it makes a little more sense but I think it can be argued… Again, I got this in a pub quiz and I got it wrong (I guessed Champions League final). The correct answer is actually the Playoff Final from the English Championship Division at Wembley (i.e. the winner gets promoted to the EPL). The question does not state “biggest single payout” but says “most economically rewarding”. I guess in those terms it is true because you are looking at 30 million GBP payout over a year (even if you get immediately relegated the next year). Anyway, nobody got it right at the pub either so no need to be ashamed…Still yhink you can argue the value a CL title brings in terms of TV Rights, merchandise, PR etc (especially the impact for a smaller market club like Ajax & Porto whom both have won it)

Anyway, to keep this going, I have added a couple more questions for this week to keep you all busy (answers next Monday):

1) In modern times (i.e. post 1970), who is the only player to play for Real Madrid and beat Barcelona 5-0, yet also play for Barcelona and beat Real Madrid 5-0…(I guess Ferenc may possibly have a leg up on this one…)

2) Which (Dutch) coach once said: “Italians can’t win the game against you, but you can lose the game against the Italians” . I like it a lot:-)

and finally an interesting one:

3) In 1950 India withdrew form the World Cup because FIFA refused them to do what?

Posted from  United States

I reckon I know the answer to the third one.India withdrew because FIFA didnot allow them to play barefooted!!

Posted from  Australia

Hi finnster, here’s my try :p

1) Michael Laudrup?
2) I was thinking of our coach during EURO2000, was he Frank Rijkaard?
3) Refused to let them play barefooted.

Thanks!

Posted from  Singapore

Answer to #2 is Cruyff.

Posted from  Republic Of Korea

I’ll have to think about #1 and the barefoot thing sounds right for #3…

Posted from  Republic Of Korea

Was it Bernd Schuster?

Posted from  Republic Of Korea

answer #1 is definitely michael laudrup..

answer #2 is definitely cruyff

Posted from  Canada

I’m really sorry to hear that Jan. My condolences. Take care!

1. Michael Laudrup
2. Cruyff
3. Play without shoes

@Lerkot; heres what i know:

Afonso Alves; well respected as a striker, not at all respected for the rest … in Holland, behavior like he showed isnt appreciated at all… last week a reporter asked GertJan Verbeek; any comments on Alves?? he answered; who??

Ari: seen as a failure, seen as not a good buy for Az

Kennedy Bakircioglu; seen as a great player at Twente… dont hear about him too much since his maove to Ajax … is seen as a decent player

Rasmus Lindgren; dont hear too much about him .. played very good at Groningen but hasnt made a mark at Ajax (yet)

Marcus Berg; seen as a great talent, popular guy (also with the women!), this is the kind of people we dutch like … easy going, no big mouth…this is why almost all Scandinavian players are very popular with the fans in Holland (like Stefan Petterson or Jari Littmanen)

Fredrik Stenman; dont know

George Mourad; dont know

Jonas Olsson; dont know

well, hope its any help!! haha

importent thing is that the “scandinavian mentality” is some what like the dutch … low profile, not too loud, always humble.. i actually think that Stefan Petterson has to be one the most popular foreigner ever to play in the dutch leguea (i actually have met him and he was indeed very friendly)

btw; you never told me what you meant with the comment on how it was a difficult generation for Jonk to ‘get into’?

grtz

Posted from  Netherlands

Hi all, thanks a lot for your support. It’s indeed tough to be far away when this happens… YOu can only really “feel” it when you are there, when you share with your family etc. So, I’m in Holland now, and although it’s not fun, it’s definitely a warm and rewarding process…

My 2cents:

1. Figo
2. JC
3. Because they wanted to play barefoot

Posted from  Netherlands

Thanks Goose. Interesting about Ari and Berg.. it took some time before Ari started to play well when he came to sweden as well so he might get better…

What I meant was that it was hard to take a place on the Dutch midfield in the 90s when we had so many good players there, so thats why he didnt get the attention he should have got, and only got to play 49 caps (42 from start) which is a decent number but if he would be young and fresh now, he would play every cap the next.. fifteen years.

@Jan; welkom thuis ..

@lerkot; well, i hope he does get better..looks like Alves is not coming to Alkmaar…i just heard vanGaal say how much they need a striker who scores goals…guess Averladze wanst too bad after all, maybe they should have kept Koevermans…
i think its great to have all those scandis coming to Holland, is the dutch legeau seen in Sweden as a nice step up and a good place to play yoursels in the picture of the big teams in GB, Spain or Italy??
Berg already scored 11, pretty good.

grtz

Posted from  Netherlands

Marcus Berg is a really good upcoming talent for Sweden, I could see him playing with Rosenberg once Ibrahimovic retires for Sweden. As for the questions.

1. I couldn’t honestly say i no, but most ppl r goign with laudrup.
2. Definitly Johan Cruyff, and I complete agree.
3. The barefoot thing was funny, because their feet would kill if they played like that.

Posted from  Canada

Yeah… many people would like to see Berg in the national team already. He got called up now for the next game but Sweden will play with something of a B-team. I dont think he will play in the EC in the summer. Zlatan Ibrahimovic (you know, former Ajax-player), Johan Elmander (formerly Feyenoord), Marcus Allbäck (Heerenveen) and Markus Rosenberg (Ajax) are all rated above him.

Goose: Many Scandinavians, Swedes at least, sees Holland as the ultimate first step. We had a period when everyone moved directly to Premier League, which made most end up at the bench, and we had a period where people would move to Germany or France, but there they just didnt seem to develop as quickly as in Holland.

Since Marcus Allbäck came to Heerenveen and Zlatan came to Ajax, there’s been increasingly much players who openly say that they’d like to play in Holland before going to a bigger team. I know Dusan Djuric said it (but he moved to Switzerland because no-one wanted him) and Behrang Safari said it (very promising player, plays in the national team now, as left defender, 22 years old, watched by Ajax).

Berg, Lindgren, Allbäck and others have all said that they had a really good time in the Netherlands because its basically the same deal as Sweden, but bigger and better in a football perspective.