Patrick Stephan Kluivert is a Dutch former football player, coach and sporting director.
45 Facts About Patrick Kluivert
2.
Patrick Kluivert played as a striker, most notably for Ajax, Barcelona and the Netherlands national team.
3.
Patrick Kluivert was part of Ajax's Golden Generation of the 1990s at the age of 18, scoring the winner in the 1995 UEFA Champions League Final.
4.
Patrick Kluivert spent six years with Spanish club Barcelona where he formed a successful partnership with Rivaldo, where both won the Spanish La Liga championship of 1999 and Kluivert scored 124 goals from 249 appearances in all.
5.
Patrick Kluivert played in three European Championships and the 1998 FIFA World Cup, and was joint top scorer at Euro 2000 where upon the scoresheet he tallied a total of five times.
6.
Patrick Kluivert is considered one of the best Dutch strikers of all time.
7.
Patrick Kluivert was an assistant manager at AZ and NEC, as well as in Australia with the Brisbane Roar, before coaching Jong FC Twente to a national title in the Dutch reserves league.
8.
Patrick Kluivert was assistant manager to Louis van Gaal with the Dutch team that finished third at the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.
9.
Patrick Kluivert then served as a sporting director for Paris Saint-Germain and Barcelona's academy, as well as coaching the Ajax A1 team and assisting Clarence Seedorf for the Cameroon national team.
10.
Patrick Kluivert was born on 1 July 1976 in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
11.
Patrick Kluivert's father, a professional football player, was born in Suriname and his mother in Curacao.
12.
Patrick Kluivert played several different positions as a youth, including defender.
13.
Patrick Kluivert was strong in technique, football intelligence, and speed, but was considered too impulsive.
14.
Patrick Kluivert played for the Dutch national teams under-15, under-16 and under-17.
15.
Patrick Kluivert was part of Ajax's Golden Generation of the 1990s.
16.
Patrick Kluivert made his debut in the senior team of Ajax on 21 August 1994 at the age of 18 in the Dutch Supercup win against the old arch rival Feyenoord, in which he scored his first goal.
17.
Patrick Kluivert was in excellent form during Ajax's defence of their Champions League trophy, scoring in away wins at Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund, but a knee injury prevented him from participating for the full 90 minutes in the team's loss to Juventus in the 1996 UEFA Champions League Final.
18.
Patrick Kluivert ended his spell at the Amsterdam club with 39 goals from 70 Eredivisie matches.
19.
Patrick Kluivert was reunited with Louis van Gaal, a mentor from his days at Ajax.
20.
Patrick Kluivert went on to top score twice more in his next four seasons at Camp Nou but the team completed a period of five years without a major trophy after their title success in 1999.
21.
Patrick Kluivert ended his career at Barca with 124 goals from 249 appearances.
22.
Patrick Kluivert joined Newcastle United on a free transfer in July 2004.
23.
Patrick Kluivert stated that his reasons for joining Newcastle was due to the overwhelming reaction he received whilst playing for Barcelona against Newcastle during a pre season friendly as well as teaming up with Newcastle's star players such as Alan Shearer.
24.
Patrick Kluivert eventually scored five goals in all in that season's UEFA Cup.
25.
Patrick Kluivert decided to return to Spain to play at the Mestalla for Valencia CF.
26.
Patrick Kluivert played for a total of 202 minutes, as he spent most of that season injured.
27.
Patrick Kluivert missed most of the tournament with a knee injury but he scored against host nation England, to enable the Netherlands to qualify for the knock-out round over Scotland on goals scored.
28.
At the 1998 FIFA World Cup, Patrick Kluivert was sent off against Belgium by referee Pierluigi Collina after elbowing Lorenzo Staelens.
29.
Patrick Kluivert made amends when selected to play against Argentina in the quarter-finals of the same tournament where he scored the opening goal.
30.
Patrick Kluivert was the all-time leading goalscorer for the Dutch national team with 40 goals, until he was surpassed by Robin van Persie in 2013.
31.
Patrick Kluivert utilised his height, power, and strong physique to dominate aerial balls and was considered to possess one of the best headers in the then-contemporary game.
32.
On 29 April 2008, Dutch media reported that Patrick Kluivert would take part in the coaching course of the Dutch Football Association to become a professional football coach.
33.
Later on, in an interview on Soccer AM, Patrick Kluivert revealed his role involved coaching the strikers at AZ.
34.
In January 2010, Patrick Kluivert took a position as an assistant coach for Australian A-League side Brisbane Roar FC under head coach Ange Postecoglou.
35.
On 19 May 2010, Patrick Kluivert told journalists he ruled out a comeback as a football player.
36.
On 5 March 2015, it was announced that Patrick Kluivert would take over as manager of the Curacao national football team for the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification.
37.
On 24 February 2016, Patrick Kluivert announced his decision to remain head coach of Curacao ahead of the teams' Caribbean Cup qualifying matches against the Dominican Republic and Barbados.
38.
Patrick Kluivert expressed that his intention was to stay with Ajax, but that he could not refuse the offer made by PSG.
39.
Patrick Kluivert became the academy director of FC Barcelona days after leaving Cameroon.
40.
In May 2021, Patrick Kluivert returned to the Curacao national team on an interim basis while compatriot Guus Hiddink recovered from COVID-19.
41.
Patrick Kluivert has appeared in commercials for the American sportswear company Nike.
42.
Patrick Kluivert is the second son of former football player Kenneth Patrick Kluivert, who played for SV Robinhood in the SVB Hoofdklasse and for the Suriname national team.
43.
Patrick Kluivert's mother Lidwina Kluivert, was born in Willemstad, Curacao, in the former Netherlands Antilles, to a Surinamese father and Curacaoan mother.
44.
Patrick Kluivert's parents were married in Paramaribo, and both his elder siblings were born in Suriname, before the family emigrated to the Netherlands in 1970.
45.
The conviction meant that Patrick Kluivert needed special documentation to enter the United States when Barcelona played pre-season matches there in 2003.