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Godspeed Bryan Ruiz…
Comments(67)
I read this article on AD.nl and can’t agree more. In a series of tremendously talented and loveable players (Luc Nilis, Jari Litmanen, Brian Laudrup, Andrej Jeliazkov, Stefan Petterson, Josef Kiprich) Bryan Ruiz was another one…
When Bryan Ruiz walked into the fanshop of FC Twente to buy some jerseys for friends and family, he immediately fell in love with the girl behind the register. She was only 19 years old and didn’t look the football WAG at all. Something Ruiz actually liked.
For those who want to become a WAG, don’t run to the local fanshop for a job. Because normally, players do not enter a fanshop to buy a jersey. They normally text the materials man or the sponsor or facebook their agent. No worries.
Only Ruiz ( and the guys mentioned before) would walk into a fanshop with their cash. It says a lot about the Costa Rican. He’s a bit shy, standing in line with the euros he counted out in his hand. The girl wants to know which name he likes on the back. “Eh…Bryan please” he says.
The saddest thing of all those transfer madness on 31 August weren’t the lies and deceit or the media circus swept up by megalomaniac manager and greedy and seedy agents…. The moral debate about all this brings a huge draught as a result of all the open doors!
No, let us wonder about Ruiz’ farewell. The most beautiful player of the last ten years Eredivisie and most certainly the fairest of them all. There he was and there he went. To Fulham, of all clubs.
I want to cry. I don’t want to be sentimental, but if one of our top players from our top clubs happily leaves to play with some faceless, grey mediocre team in England, it feels like a defeat.
When Litmanen left us in 1999 for the first time, the fans at NAC Breda applauded the skin from their hands. Their team just got relegated but the fans couldn’t stop chanting and thanking Litmanen who left the pitch with his typical walk and sloppy socks.
Ruiz is like Litmanen. A player so beautiful and skilful, he is beyond club sentiment. All style. Playing in slow motion. Like a 1970s retro-player. Van Hanegem. Nygaard. Van Geel. And such a normal bloke that he walks into the fanshop for a jersey for a mate in Costa Rica and falls in love with the girl in the shop.
When Litmanen left, we still had Van Nistelrooy, Nilis and Laudrup. Now Ruiz is going and I wonder if there’s even one player that can take his place
(Sjoerd Mossou).
Displaying the most recent 25 comments from a total of 67 comments.
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@ Finnster Ruiz could have earned more money at Newcastle – or by holding out til the next transfer window to go to another club, as it’s clear many clubs were interested in him. Not saying money wasn’t important but that it’s not a situation of money being chief incentive, I should imagine the Premiership was the ambition.
@ Jason – Newcastle is a very badly run club at the moment, so it’s probably best he avoids that mess.
Posted from 
United Kingdom
@Sam: Fair point, but money had something to do with it.
I am not sure why Wenger bought 2 attacking mids… and average ones at that. He should have bought a striker and played van Persie in the Attacking Mid slot. And then he should have bought Stekelenberg
Stekelenberg
Defense
Wilshere-Song
Walcott-van Persie-Gervinho
Huntelaar? Falcao?
Well maybe now that Wenger is suspended for two games maybe he can watch his team and figure out how terrible they are.
Jack Wilshere out for 3 months too. Arsenal may not even make Europa League quals next year
van der vaart is fit ( he went to van toorn) and could even feature for tottenham in the weekend.
*did anyone knows if douglas got his dutch passport?
@fares Yes Douglas has a Dutch Passport now.
Posted from 
Singapore
Willem van Hanegem: 11-0 against San Marino was the minimum. Oranje didn’t play great. Should have been 7-0 at half time. San Marino was dramatic.
Indeed: Rafa seems to not as bad as thought! Great!
Twente’s Luuk de Jong could have gone to PSV ( 10 mio) but Twente refused. Why do players like De Jong and Wijnaldum want to go to PSV? It’s like…working for Apple and then deciding to go to Microsoft ( in the 1990s, when MS was much bigger than Apple). Or it’s like playing for Liverpool and going to Man City. (Twente is not Liverpool but Feyenoord, in this comparison. You know what? Forget about it. I’m ranting….)
Nadal at press conference. Journo asking: who is the woman under the table?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ABY0BR8d_z0
It doesn’t take a genius to figure out. Players are moving to PSV to join the revolution– they are the closest thing to Championship aside from Ajax. Trophy means more money, more fame and opportunity to play in Europe (i.e. being seen by scouts all over Europe).
I think both Ajax and PSV are a step above their competitions this season, in terms of quality and the squad depth. That said, I would wager that Twente, as the previous years, will make it interesting until the last few rounds in spite of Ruiz transfer (to be fair, Ruiz last season was only available part-time due to injuries, and Twente did fairly well). AZ is my dark horse, could sneak in to top 3 if all stars aligned. I don’t rate Feyenoord very much this season. No. 4 or 5 (meaning European league next season) will be a massive accomplishment and put them back on track. Overall, the team is lack of leadership and proven goal scorer. And needless to say, Koeman sucks. Feyenoord could become dangerous next 2-3 years, that’s if they can keep them..
Posted from 
United States
PSV is known to be a great working environment. For all these young players it’s important to play at the highest level in Holland before going elsewhere and we should be happy that they are realizing this. No more Drenthes and Zuiverloons who left too early.
The highest level in Holland means either PSV, Ajax or FC Twente. Twente doesn’t have the financial means to invest as PSV and Ajax do and Ajax is full of arrogant pricks and anyone who is not an Ajax supporter is brought up to despise Ajax.
Posted from United States
So there it is: PSV
Posted from United States
Cheers eric, we’ll brring the lame finnsters of this world back to ground…any country that can’t even field 11 of their own players is a bit of a joke 
with all due respect
Posted from 
Bosnia And Herzegovina
Posted from Bosnia And Herzegovina
with all due respect, haha
Posted from 
Canada
if i compare the level and the quality of international football to clubfootball,international football is becoming a joke,except 4-5 counttries (spain,oranje,germany,uruguay,and that’s it),but even these countries would be severly beaten (2-3 goal-margin) by topclubs i.e. barca,real madrid,manu,city,chelsea. champions’league is definitely much more interesting than world cups,european championships. france 98 was the last quality world cup. it’s sad because world cups and european championships should be the best and penultimate events of world football,but unfortunately it’s no more the case. if the quality is getting better i’m for incorporating naturalized players into national teams,if these teams becomes more multicultural it’s a good sign for the future and follows more the clubtendency. only national teams based on and work on clubmodels can function in the future. oranje is one of these teams,but 10-15 years ago at least 7-8 national teams were nice to watch,today only 3-4. since the world cup i have only enjoyed oranje’s performance against sweden and uruguay this summer (copa),but haven’t watched spain and germany. world cups and european championships should be as interesting and entertaining as the champions’league and fifa+uefa must do something for it.
Posted from 
Hungary
i do like danes,spent one wonderful year in the 90s in danemark,love the beautiful danish girls and in the 80s and 90s admired the danish dynamites,but this danish national team is crap. i’m balanced between danemark and norway,my memories say i should support danemark,but i cannot support this danish team. on the other hand,i’d like to “see” our friend Finnster happy,so the better side should win 
Posted from Hungary
How Netherlands will qualify today to EC2012 finals :
1- Netherlands must win against finland.
a- If Sweden draw with San marino then Netherlands will qualify
b- If Sweden beats San marino, but Croatia vs Israel, Denmark vs Norway ends with a tie only. then Netherlands will also qualify.
Posted from 
Greece
Jad – thats so interesting and sooooo mathematical Will Holland (at worst) be the best second placed regardless of losing next 2 games ?
Posted from Singapore
@Carlos: Not necessarily (assuming the lost the next 2 matches after Finland which they never will). Holland have 21 points right now. Beat Finland, you get 3 more. 6 points will be deducted for being in a group of 6 teams (all points from the bottom team to be ignored, i.e. San Marino), yielding a total of 18 pts.
In the Norway group (5-team group), Norway currently sits on 13 points with 2 games left. Denmark sits on 10 with 3 games left. Either one of them can finish on 19 pts.
So Oranje better hope for a draw in the Denmark-Norway game.
which my good friend will never happen!
i think it’s clear now, Strootman is vBommel’s replacement for the WC, we have a full team again, or should i say already.
At least that was the main position i was worrying about for next WC (I’m not really looking at the EC, that’s just the first course).
Posted from 
Netherlands
GREY AND FACELESS CLUB?? HAHA. COMPARED TO THE EUROPEAN GIANTS THAT ARE FC TWENTE. DON’T MAKE ME LAUGH YOU IGNORAMOUS. WE ARE ONE OF THE MOST HISTORICAL CLUBS IN ENGLAND – THE OLDEST TEAM IN LONDON, PLAYERS OF THE CALIBRE OF HAYNES, BEST, MOORE, ROBSON, MULLARY HAVE ALL TURNED OUT FOR US. RECENT EUROPA LEAGUE FINALISTS – AND ALL ON THE BUDGET THAT MOST OF OUR PL RIVALS WOULD LAUGH AT. DUCTH FOOTBALL IS MICKEY MOUSE MY FRIEND, AND NO OTHER TEAM WOULD HAVE TAKEN A RISK ON A PLAYER WHO SCORES IN A LEAGUE THAT PRODUCED FLOPS A’LA ALFONSO ALVES, VENEGOOR OF HESSELINK ETC. SO TAKE YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR ARSE AND AND LOSE THAT SENSE OF SELF IMPORTANCE – WE ARE SUPERIOR AND THIS WILL SHOW IN OUR FUTURE EUROPA MEETINGS. SEE YOU THEN 
Posted from United Kingdom
Yo Fulham Boy… I didn’t want to insult the Fulham fans or the club. But in all honesty: if Kalou, Kuyt, Suarez, Van Persie and Van der Vaart can play in the top of the EPL, why not Ruiz?
Fulham is no Liverpool, Man City or Chelsea, is it?
I expected Ruiz to stay with Twente or move to a big club.
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I couldn’t care less about that big-mouth Bendtner, but the team have some quality, at least on the individual level. Agger and Kjaer are probably in the bunch of most underrated CB’s in Europe. I think Eriksen will become a huge hit in the near future. Euro’12 will be a proper stage to introduce himself to the rest of the continent. And Ajax will be hard-pressed to keep him beyond next year. Same with Boilesen, clearly seen as Frank De Boer’s prodigy by… hmm, Frank De Boer himself. It’d be shameful if the Dynamite fails to stay at home next summer.
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United States