From Johan Cruyff to Ruud Gullit, Marco van Basten to Dennis Bergkamp, the Netherlands have exported footballers more successfully than most other countries.
Their best players have helped deliver trophy-laden eras at major clubs and Manchester United hope their latest signing will continue that trend.
Matthijs De Ligt has already played for three giants of the European game — Ajax, Bayern Munich and Juventus — and joins his fourth one at the age of 25. The £43million deal takes his total career transfer fees to nearly £170m. For a player who is not a regular for the Netherlands and has obvious weaknesses, that is pretty steep.
Yet De Ligt’s high fee goes to the heart of a love affair European football has had with the Dutch ever since Cruyff spun past Sweden defender Jan Olsson in June 1974, performing the turn that still carries his name.
The impact Cruyff’s compatriots Arnold Muhren and Frans Thijssen had on English football cannot be overstated. Had they failed at Ipswich, who knows whether Bergkamp, Ruud van Nistelrooy or Virgil van Dijk would have had the chance to succeed? Instead, the pair helped Ipswich win the 1981 UEFA Cup and finish second in Division One two seasons in a row.
New Manchester United signing Matthijs De Ligt joins a long list of Netherlands imports
The defender joins United having already played for three European giants
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Between them, Muhren and Thijssen cost less than £400,000. Such bargains have seldom been available for Dutch players since. Muhren and Thijssen contributed to that, but so did what might be labelled ‘the Ajax tax’.
Ever since the days of Cruyff, Ajax has been a byword for excellence in youth development and the Amsterdammers trade like heck on that label.
Ajax’s 1995 Champions League-winning side, which included Marc Overmars, Frank and Ronald de Boer, Clarence Seedorf and Edgar Davids, featured nine Dutchmen in the starting XI plus matchwinner Patrick Kluivert off the bench.
The combined transfer fees of that group across their careers totalled £120m. If that sounds relatively low, remember the sums being thrown around were much lower 30 years ago, and that many of that Ajax squad ran down their contracts and earned huge signing-on fees and wages by moving on free transfers.
De Ligt, Frenkie De Jong and Donny van De Beek were part of the 2018-19 Ajax side who should probably have won…