Van Basten Waiting On Kalou Decision

If you see Marco Van Basten turning a funny colour it’s because he’s holding his breath over Salomon Kalou.

Kalou was born in the Ivory Coast but plays his (impressive) football for Feyenord. Though he doesn’t have a drop of Oranje blood in his veins Kalou is hoping to become a Dutch citizen and represent Holland at the World Cup this summer.

Kalou hasn’t lived in Holland long enough to apply for citizenship through residency, but there has been an attempt to fast-track his application on grounds of ‘outstanding cultural merit’. If the ability to skin defenders alive has ‘cultural merit’ then Kalou is indeed ‘outstanding’.

Immigration Minister Rita Verdonk disagrees; she rejected his application for accelerated naturalization. Van Basten and others (including Johan Cruyff) took the matter to court and overturned Verdonk’s decision on December 9th 2005, but just as Kalou was being fitted for an Oranje jersey the determined Verdonk appealed that decision. Kalou’s case will now be decided by a higher court (similar to the U.S. Supreme Court)

Of course the big irony is that Holland will face Ivory Coast (whose overtures Kalou has firmly rejected) in Group C this summer. If Salomon Kalou plays for Holland on June 16th he will line up against his older brother Bonaventure Kalou (of Paris St. Germain). But if the court decides against Kalou there’s always the possibility he could line up alongside Bonaventure in an Ivory Coast jersey…

This is the hot topic in Dutch football right now, and I can’t decide what’s for the best. My heart tells me that Kalou is not Dutch so shouldn’t play and my gut tells me not to trust a man who refused to play for his motherland, but at the same time Kalou could make all the difference to a Dutch team short on decent wingers. For my own good as well as yours I’ll run through each sides arguments in the near future.