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Klaas Jan will come home a multi-millionaire
Comments(25)Johan Derksen’s column in VI
Klaas Jan Huntelaar is a genuine provincial, from the land of typical Dutch boeren-rock band Normaal. Singer Bennie Jolink even lives in the town were Huntelaar grew up. Last week, Huntelaar must have thought he was a popstar himself.
He flew business class from Madrid to Milan, and was confronted with a forest of paparazzi at the airport, amidst a bunch of hysterical fans!
The striker was driven to a five star hotel per limousine while his managers Arnold Oosterveer and Edwin Olde Riekerink negotiated the details of his deal with the AC Milan management.
That night, the whole crew went out for dinner in the extravagant restaurant Giannino with general manager Galliani. Huntelaar will return to the Achterhoek a multi-millionaire. Let’s hope he will also return a happy man.
If Real Madrid wants you, you don’t say no. Huntelaar may not be a player with the charisma of a Beckham, but he is most definitely a good striker. And he didn’t fail in Madrid, he was merely the victim of politics. The new chairman promised superstars and that’s what he gave the fans: Kaka and C Ronaldo. Huntelaar scored eight times in 13 starting games, but was dumped. Real even found a new club for him, but Huntelaar said: thanks, but no thanks.
Huntelaar had his sights set on Milan and even said no to some English clubs. And he might regret that.
Of course, AC Milan is a tremendous club and it does count that the Hunter watched his idol Van Basten play in that jersey. But, his type would be more effective in Germany or England. In Italy, clubs play to not lose and every player is made secondary to that objective.
The defenses in the Serie A are filled with ruthless razorblades and strikers are outlawed. Only the very best (Van Basten, Battistuta) survive that. And the increasingly empty stands in Italy prove that even the fans don’t like the direction Italian football is going in.
Spain, Germany and most certainly England are much more attractive for creative, attacking players. Huntelaar must have been led by romanticism, thinking about the posters above his bed of Gullit and Rijkaard. I wish him all the best in his competition with Pato, Ronaldinho, Borriello, Di Gennaro, Tabare and Inzaghi.
The interesting thing about all these names, is that once they all started as a pupil in football. Like you and me.
Dirk Klaas Jan Huntelaar was born in August 1983. Klaas Jan’s dad was teacher and swim instructor. He also managed the local sports fields.
Klaas Jan started his young career at Go Ahead Eagles. Henk ten Cate scouted him on a tip but the distance from his home to Deventer appeared to big so he moved to De Graafschap. He signed a junior contract when he was 10 years old.
The PSV scouts followed him closely already and when he was 17 years old he moved to a guest family near Eindhoven to play and train for PSV.
At PSV, club legend Willy van der Kuylen became his personal trainer. He’d never made it big at PSV. He only had one game, as a sub against RBC in the big team. The club management thought Klaas Jan was too slow for the top and sold him back to De Graafschap. He failed miserably and the club got relegated. The Hunter was asked to leave and AGOVV was the only club interested. After scoring 26 goals in one season, Heerenveen coach Gertjan Verbeek took the gamble and signed him. In Heerenveen it became clear that PSV and De Graafschap had it wrong. Heerenveen bought Klaas Jan for 100.000 euros. A year and a half later he moved to Ajax for nine million euros!
Ajax made a huge profit too, selling the Hunter to Real Madrid for 27 million euros. Only six months later, they sold him again for 15 million euros to AC Milan. There, Huntelaar will be coached by Brazilian coach Leonardo. The former international preaches attacking football, but no club in Italy will loose sleep over that.
I wonder if his specific skills will be used optimally in Milan. I don’t want to see him humiliated again. Huntelaar’s step to Milan seems fueled by romantic notions and maybe even money, but I feel his qualities would have fitted Arsenal best.
And here’s Normaal (Normal) with their hit Oerend Hard ( Oohrend Fast ) 
madrid were beating dortmund 4-0 in the 80th minute and robben came on at halftime and scored, assisted an higuain goal, and drew a penalty which kaka scored. Drenthe came on in the 76th minutes and was playing pretty well, but no wes. i hope he goes to inter.
Posted from 
United States
wes is gone. after robben scored his beauty he ran over to wes (who was dressed in normal attire) and give gave him a two handed high five.
Posted from 
New Zealand
here are the highlights from the match
http://www.mysoccerplace.net/video/dortmund-vs-real-madrid-04
robbens playing well for madrid in friendlys, im giving him a pass for the england friendly. loved the high five to wes
Posted from United States
inter and madrid agree on a deal for wes
about time
Posted from United States
And what a goal it was! Nice that Sneijder dead kiss
i think Inter and Real wanted this all along. Sneijder cant come to terms with Inter though. I think it’s the same as with Hunter. Soren Lerby, Sneijder’s manager, wants Real to compensate Sneijder for his loss in salaries. Just to punish the bastards!
Shame ! No offers for vdv at all 
,
the problem is that i can’t find a suitable team for him !,no place for him in arsenal ( arshavin, walcott , nasri , fabregas , diaby )
milan , bayern and man u closed their transfers market !
inter will sign wes ,
he said he won’t return to ajax , and won’t move to another spanish club
i am too worried about him , it will a true disaster for all oranje fans if he didn’t find a suitable club !
Don’t worry about VD Vaart, if worse comes to worse he will return to Ajax. I am convinced the teams are waiting until the lest day to make it happen on the cheap. There is no way he will stay without a club.
Glad for Wes to finally leave those jerks in Madrid. Let them rot.
Posted from United States
What a stunning goal by Robben, and a very nice gesture indeed to go to Sneijder! Amazing! Robben changed the game completely with his substitution in the 2nd half, as he has done throughout the pre-season for Real.
He is currently Holland’s best player, and in the same stratosphere as the likes of Messi, Ronaldo, Kaka.
As far as Huntelaar, I am looking forward to his games in Italy, but he definitely has a lot of pressure to impress.
Van Persie was not spectacular against the Celtics. He doesn’t run after the ball or puts pressure on the opposing player unlike Fabregas, and relies solely on his technical skills to make the right pass.
Posted from United States
Did you see Loovens made the pre-selection? This is the beginning of the long anticipated modification to our rear guard! Next will be Drenthe hopefully or Maduro or Vlaar. Anyway this is certainly a good sign. What did people make of the Robben gesture toward Sneijder? Is that a challenge to Pellegrini and Valdano or to the entire Real organization? If so he may lose in the end as politics always takes precedence over footballing quality. I do support him though 100%.
Posted from United States
I think it’s a supportive gesture to a mate and if I were Pellegrini I would simply accept it as such. Everyone knows Wes is a great player. So does Pellegrini. He doesn’t deserve this and Real should treat these players with dignity.
It’s a fact that Van Marwijk follows Vlaar closely. He worked with both Loovens and Vlaar and knows them well.
Maduro and Drenthe will be close too.
I don’t think Wijnaldum, Biseswar (not a starter at Feyenoord), Kuipers, Krul etc are ready for Oranje yet. Let’s not overdo it.
We don’t need more creative midfielders for now. We need defenders!
http://goal.com/en/news/12/spain/2009/08/20/1450280/real-madrids-arjen-robben-dedicates-goal-to-sneijder
Robben is a very good friend 
Posted from United States
Indeed a very good friend.
You guys are lucky . I dont think he even knows me !!!
Posted from 
Singapore
goal.com – Liverpool to make an audacious bid for Raf vd Vaart !!
Ouch 3 of us at Liverpool – may have to start following them ….altho they are one of my more “liked” teams.
Posted from Singapore
and an interesting little story on one of our young defenders at Chelsea.
Posted from Singapore
@carlos, just read the article. As a Liverpool fan my fingers are crossed. I’d love to see Raf there, although the money issue at Liverpool is a worry. Hopefully C/League will attract him.
Oh please oh please oh please oh please…
Liverpool are my fave English club. I dreamt about Sneijder joining pool but vdVaart would be amazing too!
Make it happen Rafa… you share names! That alone is reason enough to sign him…
And Raf and Raf can speak Spanish!
But I think Raf would do well with Liverpool…. Great stuff…
But, liverpool have just bought Aquillani. In what position will he play at Liverpool? Kuyt and Torres will be their strikers, while VDV supports them? And behind them, there are gerrard, aquilani, and mascherano?
Posted from 
Canada
Liverpool have no cash to go out and sign anyone!
Hopefully VdV goes to Arsenal because at Arsenal he will be guaranteed a starting spot. But at Liverpool where is a going to play. They play a 4-2-3-1 with Torres
Benayoun/Babel/Riera–Gerrard–Kuyt
Mascherano–Aquilani/Lucas
So where does he fit, instead of a player they just bought for 20 Million or on the left instead of Benayoun. So I think it would be better if he goes to Arsenal while Liverpool would be his second choice.
Posted from United States
I would love to see vdv playing for a top 4 epl club (especially arsenal who are my fav english club), however, i don’t think that there is much substance to these rumors. my understanding is that the loans that liverpool’s owners took out need to be repaid soon, meaning that liverpool has no extra cash lying around for transfers. also arsenal have more pressing needs than buying another talented slick passing attacking mid, for examplee adding depth to the defense and most importantly bringing in a defensive mid. while vdv would certainly fit right in with arsenal’s system of pass and move, i don’t see them spending millions on a player that plays a position where they already have arshavin, nasri, rosicky, denilson, cesc etc.
Posted from Canada
“You guys are lucky . I dont think he even knows me !!!”
Lol Carlos, good one! Made my day as I’m sitting here in Japan trying to catch up on the latest Dutch news. Being on holiday, I don’t get to check as often as I normally do, but when I do the comments are always worth it
Posted from 
Japan
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I think that huntelaar and pato will form a great partnership up front. Hopefully with service from pirlo, ronaldinho, and pato he will find his scoring touch back. And I’ve just read that the sneijder deal to inter is almost done. It will depend on whether or not he wants to leave, which he should.
Posted from
United States