René van de Kerkhof Biography

Dutch footballer

In this Dutch name, the surname is van de Kerkhof, not Kerkhof.*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Reinier Lambertus van de Kerkhof (Dutch pronunciation: ; born 16 September 1951) is a Dutch former professional footballer who played as a right winger for FC Twente, PSV Eindhoven and the Netherlands national team.

Career

Van de Kerkhof and his twin brother Willy were squad members of the Dutch national team that made the World Cup final in 1974 and became key players in the team that made the 1978 final, losing to hosts West Germany and Argentina, respectively. Overall, van de Kerkhof appeared 47 times for his country, scoring five goals.

He is well remembered due to the incident before the 1978 World Cup final, when the opponent Argentia national team objected to the cast he wore on his injured forearm since it could have injured an Argentinian player. Despite the bandage having been p*ed by FIFA and worn in previous matches, the referee, Italian Sergio Gonella vacillated. The Dutch players threatened to walk off the field in protest, delaying the kickoff of the game. Finally an extra layer of padding was applied to the bandage as a solution, and the match could start.

1978 was his most successful year, besides becoming runners-up at the World Cup, he also won the UEFA Cup, the Dutch championship and the KNVB Beker with PSV that year: "we had won everything possible – the *le, the Dutch Cup and the UEFA Cup, and we had five or six players who had been runners-up at the FIFA World Cup in Argentina with the Netherlands. It was a beautiful period under coach Kees Rijvers", van de Kerkhof later would tell to Berend Scholten.

Van de Kerkhof was named by Pelé as one of the top 125 greatest living footballers in March 2004.

Career statistics

Club

Honours

René van de Kerkhof in 1978

PSV Eindhoven

  • Eredivisie: 1974–75, 1975–76, 1977–78
  • KNVB Cup: 1973–74, 1975–76
  • UEFA Cup: 1977–78

Seiko

  • Hong Kong First Division: 1984–85
  • Hong Kong Senior Shield: 1984–85

Netherlands

  • FIFA World Cup runner-up: 1974, 1978
  • UEFA European Championship third place: 1976
  • Tournoi de Paris: 1978

Individual

  • FIFA 100

References

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