Dutch Football - The Truly Beautiful Game.

 The Eredivisie may not be regarded as the strongest league in Europe, but its impact upon the world game is still sensational. The state of Dutch football may not be at the magical heights of Cryuff’s days and the total football revolution, but a national team that reached a world cup final hardly reflects the strength of the Eredivisie – with the finance available to most around Europe proving to have the clout to belittle Dutch strength in elite European competition.


Rather than the Eredivisie being a place to make your name and become a Ballon D’or contender, the Dutch national league has become much like the Kindergarten of European football, setting up careers for many of the best around and a league of technique and quality but ultimately posing no threat to the order of European football despite having a club of Ajax’s size. The Netherlands national side have shown signs of a change in style, with the brutal tactics employed by De Jong and co. in the 2010 World Cup final as they attempted to obliterate the all-conquering Spain, rarely reflected by the play in Eredivisie that is spouting out players of the best quality for consumption by giants across Europe.

Class oozes out of many of the top Dutch players, Champions League winners included playing at some of the biggest teams in the world as Ajax once where, but turn providers for the very best. By no means doing the Dutch clubs an injustice with transfer fees, the other European leagues are willing to invest in players making their name in Holland before their chance to make their career at the top level – but the risk is hardly negligible, with plenty of big money investments from success in Eredivisie proving embarrassing, Mateja Kezman’s brief yet telling spell at Chelsea an indictment of the mistakes made on successful spells in Holland (Kezman netted 105 times in 122 outings for PSV before his transfer to Chelsea).
Contrastingly to Kezman’s spell in the limelight, we have seen recent moves for Wilfried Bony and Jozy Altidore to English football as a result of prolific spells in Holland as they signed for Swansea and Sunderland respectively. These two are the latest in a line of Dutch exports to hit the English leagues, Ivorian and
American but very much earning their chance in English football with spells in Eredivisie following in the footsteps of some top players who have dominated Europe.

Most notably we have seen the move from Ajax to Liverpool of the trouble-making yet tantalisingly gifted Luis Suarez, followed this summer by the £12million move of Danish playmaker Christian Eriksen to Tottenham after a transfer battle between many of Europe’s giants. Previously, we’ve seen Wesley Sneijder make his name in Holland before travelling Europe including a sensational treble winning season, Rafael van der Vaart begun to impact European football with his time in Holland before he later joined Tottenham and Real Madrid – a running theme in these hugely investable talents has been exquisite technical ability, something heavily lacked from British players, hardly unsurprising they are such a prized asset to their clubs.
Dutch football may no longer have teams competing for the top podium of the European game, but Ajax’s recent Champions League endeavours have won hearts with the style at which they’ve taken on some of the
World’s best sides – their best national team stars around the top clubs, both Robin van Persie and Arjen Robben proving the difference in big games throughout the last season – after Robben’s origins at PSV playing a pivotal role at several big European clubs but topped it all with the winning Champions League goal and van Persie’s season proved massively influential to Manchester United’s regaining of the Premier League title.

The best of the Dutch players may no longer be in the Eredivisie but the league’s influence on European football cannot be underestimated, the popularity of top clubs to loan players to hone their skills in Holland is a testament to the importance of the division on the quality of football played across the world.

By Sam Cox.