Dirk Kuyt: Cycling to Liverpool, his big regrets and why he could have been a fisherman

Dirk Kuyt has been taking a trip down memory lane.

The Dutchman flew in from Amsterdam with his teenage son Roan last weekend for an event at Hotel Anfield, where hundreds of supporters turned out for an audience with a man who remains a Liverpool cult hero more than a decade after his final appearance for the club.

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But that wasn’t all. Kuyt found time to have dinner at one of his old haunts, Italian restaurant San Carlo in the city centre, and watch Jurgen Klopp’s side triumph in the Merseyside derby.

“The day we travelled over, it was exactly 16 years ago that I scored two goals against Everton, including the penalty in the last minute to win at Goodison Park,” Kuyt says. “I always loved playing in the derbies. The bigger the occasion, the better I felt. I’m so happy to be back and it’s nice to be able to share the experience with my son.”

The 43-year-old is no stranger to Anfield of late – he played in a legends game against Celtic back in March – but he has spent the year taking stock after his first senior managerial role, at Dutch second-tier club ADO Den Haag, lasted only six months. He was sacked last November after just four wins in 16 league games.

Kuyt, who was previously in charge of Feyenoord Under-19s, remains firmly committed to proving himself as a coach. He just knows he has to pick his next challenge carefully.

“It didn’t work out well at Den Haag but now I’m looking for new opportunities,” he explains. “I’ve had a couple of possibilities but they didn’t feel right. It’s really important that my second job is a good one.

“In America, they love people who ‘fail’ because they get experience along the way. I learned so much from my time at Den Haag. I’m sure that will help me.”

Kuyt certainly got an education from the coaches he worked with during an illustrious playing career spanning nearly 20 years. He remains in contact with former Netherlands manager Louis van Gaal, whose attention to detail amazed him.

“I’ll tell you a story about Van Gaal,” he says with a smile. “It was the day before we played Mexico in the last 16 of the World Cup in 2014. You would get sent a video before the game about your opponent, highlighting his strengths and weaknesses.

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“I had to go to Van Gaal’s room where he told me that we would play 5-3-2. Normally, I was a striker, but he said: ‘Okay, you are going to start at left wing-back and I expect this, this and this from you’.

“Then he said: ‘But I’m not really happy about the guy on the right, so if he’s not doing well, in the second half, you’ll be playing on the right. And if we go behind and need a goal, I’ll be putting you up front as the target man, so focus on that. And if we are leading the game, we will change back to 4-3-3, so I will need to play you as the right-back’.

“The meeting lasted more than an hour. He sent me all the different clips. The next day I started on the left and at half time he moved me to the right. We were losing 1-0 so then I went up front. Then when we were winning, I went into the defence.

“Van Gaal had detailed every possibility. I had it many times with Rafa Benitez as well. Rafa was one of the best managers I ever had and was so important for me. You realise that very small details can make a massive difference.”

Kuyt’s credentials as a player are beyond dispute. He won trophies in the Netherlands, England and Turkey, earned 104 caps for his country and played in the final of both the Champions League and the World Cup.

However, his journey to the top was very different to many of his peers. He wasn’t an academy graduate at one of the top Eredivisie clubs; indeed, growing up in the Dutch coastal town of Katwijk, he was expected to follow in the footsteps of his dad, Dirk senior, rather than pursue football.

“My father was a fisherman and so was my grandfather,” he says. “My father started to work on the sea when he was 14. When I was a bit younger than that, I had the same attraction to fishing.

“I was playing football in the academy at Quick Boys, a low-level amateur club, but because my parents were religious, I wasn’t able to play football on Sundays as that was when we went to church. They didn’t want me to play at a professional club.

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“Then when I was 17, a letter came from Utrecht. My parents gave me the letter and said: ‘Okay, we know you like football so much, now it’s time that you make your own decision. Whatever you choose, we will support you’.

“It was tough because you always want to respect your parents, but I decided to join Utrecht. First, they would go to the church and after they would go to the second church, the football stadium, to watch me.”

Kuyt had his doubters, but that shaped him as a player.

“My father taught me that if you want to achieve something in life, you have to really work hard for it,” he adds. “Maybe being in the youth academy of an amateur club meant I missed something, but at the other end, it helped me to work that bit harder than the people around me.

“When I was selected for the Dutch under-15s, there were 64 players. They were so much better than me. After the first selection, I was out. I always kept that list. When I first played for the senior national team (in 2004), I looked at that list and there was no one else on it who had got that far. People were always saying I wasn’t good enough, but I always fought my way into a better situation.”

After 58 goals in 176 games for Utrecht and helping them clinch Dutch Cup glory, Kuyt was snapped up by Feyenoord in 2003. He was the top scorer in the Eredivisie with 29 goals in 2004-05 and 12 months later he moved to Liverpool for around £9million.

“I remember the phone call I got from Rafa Benitez just before the 2006 World Cup,” he recalls. “He said: ‘Sorry to bother you, I know you need to focus on the World Cup, I’ve just got one question: Do you want to come to Liverpool?’

“I said to him: ‘If you want, I’ll cycle there from Holland!’ Rafa said: ‘It might take a bit of time, but we will come and get you’.

“Rafa gave me so much confidence. In my first season, I was Liverpool’s top scorer (in the Premier League, with 12). Before my second season, I was on my sunbed on holiday in Aruba, relaxing and reading the papers, when I saw that a guy called Fernando Torres was joining. I got off my sunbed and started running!”

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Kuyt, whose unwavering commitment and willingness to play in various positions endeared him to supporters, had a knack for delivering when the stakes were high. He scored the winning penalty in the Champions League semi-final shootout victory over Chelsea and netted in the final defeat to AC Milan in Athens, then helped Liverpool come agonisingly close to the 2008-09 Premier League title when they finished four points behind Manchester United.

“We always seemed to be playing before United in that title race,” he recalls. “We would be on the plane flying back, United would be losing before we took off, then when we landed they were winning.

“We pushed so hard. Rafa was saying he needed one or two more players to take the next step, but the owners sold Xabi Alonso (to Real Madrid) in 2009 and then Javier Mascherano (to Barcelona) the following year.”

As the divisive and debt-ridden ownership of Tom Hicks and George Gillett took its toll, Liverpool’s fortunes nosedived. Benitez’s departure in the summer of 2010 was followed by Roy Hodgson’s short-lived reign.

It took the appointment of Sir Kenny Dalglish in January 2011 – three months after the takeover by current owners Fenway Sports Group – to spearhead a resurgence.

Kuyt led the way with a memorable hat-trick against Manchester United – the first by a Liverpool player against their arch-rivals since Peter Beardsley in 1990.

“In football, things can change so quickly,” he says. “I see it in Holland now with Ajax. Last year they were saying that for the next 20 years, Ajax will be the Bayern Munich of Holland. Now they are second-bottom.

“Kenny made things very easy when he came in as manager. Luis Suarez arrived the same month and proved to be one of the best winter signings Liverpool have ever made.

“The following summer Kenny signed Jordan Henderson and he replaced me a bit because he was starting games on the right. I wasn’t playing as much as I wanted so I came to the decision to leave, but I still respected Kenny as a manager and even more as a person. He’s a real gentleman. He’s everything that Liverpool is all about.”

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Before he left, Kuyt belatedly got his hands on some silverware with the League Cup final win over Cardiff City at Wembley in February 2012. He scored after coming off the bench in extra time and then held his nerve in the shootout.

Hopes of securing a domestic cup double were dashed by defeat to Chelsea in the FA Cup final, but Kuyt was still able to leave with his head held high and 71 goals in 285 appearances.

“Even though it was only the League Cup, for me, winning that was really important,” he says. “I wanted to leave with a trophy, especially having come so close previously. I didn’t win as much as I wanted to at Liverpool, but this club made me a winner.

“I went to Fenerbahce afterwards and won the league, the Turkish Cup and the Super Cup. Then I went back to Feyenoord and won the Dutch Cup before finishing my career by winning the title with them.”

It was the dream farewell. Kuyt, then 36, scored a hat-trick on the final day of the season in May 2017 as Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side beat Heracles to end the club’s 18-year title drought.

“The week before, I wasn’t even in the team,” he says. “We played Excelsior, who were already relegated, and we lost 3-0 and in the last few minutes the guy in my position (Tonny Vilhena) got a yellow card, which meant he was suspended for the last game.”

Kuyt knows only too well how much luck can play a part in shaping a career. He played at three World Cups and came agonisingly close to the ultimate prize in 2010 when the Netherlands were beaten 1-0 by Spain in the final.

“Together with the Champions League final in 2007, it’s the biggest highlight of my career, but also the biggest disappointment,” he adds. “We’ll always be reminded about the chance Arjen Robben had when he was through against Iker Casillas. We were very unlucky.

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“I had a great career and I was privileged to do what I did. I don’t really miss playing, I’m just thankful I had the opportunity to live that life.”

It is a source of great pride to him that Liverpool’s Dutch connection remains so strong with captain Virgil van Dijk playing alongside Cody Gakpo and Ryan Gravenberch for Jurgen Klopp’s side.

“What Virgil has done for Liverpool is amazing,” adds Kuyt. “He’s had his critics, not only here but also in Holland, but for me he’s still one of the best defenders in the world.

“People forget sometimes that it’s not easy to come back from such a serious injury, especially when the team is not performing the way they did before. It’s been the same for the national team, but I’ve watched every Liverpool game this season and he’s done very well.

“Cody arrived at a difficult time in January and had to go straight into the team. When I came to the Premier League, I dropped seven or eight kilos in the first few months because the intensity is so high here compared to Holland. Players need time to adapt. Cody has shown some quality moments and I think he can become a 20-goals-a-season player for Liverpool.

“Ryan is one of the most talented young Dutch players with a great career in front of him. The transfer to Bayern didn’t work out, so he needs to build rhythm, but the more he plays, he will have the endurance needed because his engine is one of his qualities.”

Above all, Kuyt’s optimism is fuelled by the presence of Klopp – a manager whom he surely would have relished playing for.

“They’re fortunate to be playing for Jurgen,” he adds. “He’s a real inspiration for young managers like me and he’s got another great Dutch guy alongside him in Pep Lijnders. I’m looking forward to seeing what the future holds.”

(Top photo: Rene Nijhuis/Orange Pictures/BSR Agency/Getty Images)

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