Klaas-Jan Huntelaar
![]() | |||
Personal information | |||
---|---|---|---|
Height | 1.86 m (6 ft 1 in) | ||
Position(s) | Striker | ||
Team information | |||
Current team | Ajax | ||
Number | 9 | ||
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of October 15, 2008 |
Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (born August 12, 1983 in Voor-Drempt) is a Dutch football striker who plays for Dutch Eredivisie club AFC Ajax and the Dutch national team. He is the all-time leading goalscorer for the Netherlands U-21 squad, with eighteen goals.
Early club career
Huntelaar was born in Voor-Drempt, a village in the Achterhoek region, but his family moved to Hummelo when he was six weeks old.[1] Huntelaar followed in his two older brothers' footsteps by joining hometown club V.V. Hummelo en Keppel at the age of five, where he remained for the next six years.[1]
Huntelaar signed his first youth contract with De Graafschap in April 1994, at the age of eleven. He played as a left back, left winger, attacking midfielder, and even goalkeeper in his first two seasons before he was deployed as a striker.[1]He scored 33 goals in twenty matches as the starter for De Graafschap's C-team in 1997-98, and was promoted to the B1 team the following season. In 1999–00, he led the B1 league with 31 goals. His goalscoring abilities drew the attention of PSV Eindhoven, who signed him in June 2000.[1]
Club career
Playing for PSV's A1 youth squad, Huntelaar scored 26 goals in 23 games to become top scorer in the youth league.[1] He was moved up to the senior team in his second season, which he spent as a reserve, and made his only on-pitch appearance as a substitute in a 3-0 road win over RBC Roosendaal on November 23, 2002.[2][1]
Huntelaar returned to De Graafschap on loan, and made his senior debut on February 8, 2003, again as a substitute in a league match against Roosendaal, this time in a 1-0 loss.[3] He made his first start eight days later in a 5-1 loss to SC Heerenveen.[4] Huntelaar made a total of nine Eredivisie appearances but went scoreless, and De Graafschap, relegated to the second division, declined extending his contract.[5]
His uncle, Cor Huntelaar, was Graafschap's financial director at the time of his death, and the club played a tribute match against Heracles Almelo on March 15, 2008.[6]
Huntelaar was loaned to newly-promoted Eerste Divisie side AGOVV Apeldoorn.[7] He finished with 25 goals, enough to take home the division's top goalscorer honors, and was named the Eerste Divisie Player of the Year.[8] In 2007, the club named a section of the stands at Sportpark Berg & Bos after him.[9]
After Huntelaar rejected a PSV contract offer, citing lack of playing time, Heerenveen signed him for a transfer fee of €100,000.[10] He scored seventeen goals in 31 matches in his debut season as Heerenveen qualified for the 2005-06 UEFA Cup. In December 2005, his final month for Heerenveen, Huntelaar scored seven goals in four games, six of which were braces against Willem II, FC Twente, and RKC Waalwijk.[11][12][13] After finishing the first half of the season with seventeen goals in fifteen appearances, Huntelaar was sold during the winter break to AFC Ajax for €9 million plus future incentives for the player.[14] A substantial sum was paid to PSV as a result of a training compensation rule imposed by FIFA. His first Ajax goal came in a Gatorade Cup match against Heerenveen.[15]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/29/Huntelaar_Trophy.jpg/175px-Huntelaar_Trophy.jpg)
He finished with sixteen goals in as many appearances for Ajax, which, combined with the seventeen he had scored prior to the transfer, brought his total to a league-best 33 goals in 31 matches.[16] For his efforts, Huntelaar was awarded the Eredivisie Johan Cruijff Award, and was also named Ajax player of the year.[17]
Huntelaar shared the team captaincy with Jaap Stam for the 2006-07 season.[18] He became the first player to score a goal at Arsenal's new Emirates Stadium in a Dennis Bergkamp tribute match on July 22, 2006.[19] He finished with 21 league goals as Ajax finished second and qualified for the Champions League third qualifying round, and he scored four in six KNVB Cup matches, which Ajax won over AZ Alkmaar.[20]
Though Ajax won the Johan Cruijff-schaal at the start of the 2007–08 season, they were dumped out of the Champions League by SK Slavia Praha in the third qualifying round, in which Huntelaar missed a penalty in the first leg.[21] Ajax were thereafter eliminated by NK Dinamo Zagreb in the UEFA Cup on away goals, despite Huntelaar scoring two goals in the return leg.[22] Ajax got off to a better start domestically after an 8-1 thrashing of De Graafschap, with Huntelaar scoring half the goals.[23] Huntelaar won his second Eredivisie scoring title with 33 goals in 34 matches, a distant eleven ahead of Twente's Blaise Kufo.[24]
New coach Marco van Basten named Huntelaar as the first team captain for the 2008–09 season. He scored his hundredth career Ajax goal in a KNVB Cup match against FC Utrecht on September 25, 2008.
International career
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7a/Huntelaar_RVN.jpg/150px-Huntelaar_RVN.jpg)
Huntelaar participated in the 2001 FIFA World Youth Championship, in which he scored two goals before the Netherlands were eliminated in the quarterfinals by Egypt.[1] He was part of the preliminary squad prior to the 2006 World Cup, but was not actually called up as coach Marco van Basten felt that Huntelaar would benefit from more experience at the UEFA Under 21 football championships.[25] Huntelaar was the competition's top scorer with four goals as the Netherlands were victorious, and he was named to the UEFA Team of the Tournament.[26]Huntelaar retired from the under-21 squad with the team's all-time scoring record of eighteen goals in tow.
Huntelaar's first cap came in August 2006, in a 4-0 win over Republic of Ireland, during which he scored twice and dished out two assists.[27] He was the first player to score in his Dutch international debut since Dick Nanninga in 1978.[1]
He was not called up again until October 2007, for the Netherlands' Euro 2008 qualifiers against Romania and Slovenia;[28] he started the latter due to Ruud van Nistelrooy's suspension, and scored his first international goal in a 2-0 win.[29] Following the Netherlands' elimination in the Euro 2008 quarterfinals, van Nistelrooy retired from international football, and Huntelaar stated that while he was disappointed at his departure, he was now hopeful to take his place as the new first-choice striker.[30]
Career statistics
Club
Club | Season | Domestic League | Domestic Cups[33] | European games[34] | Total | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
App | Goals | App | Goals | App | Goals | App | Goals | Goals per match | |||
PSV Eindhoven | 2002–03 | 1 | 0 | - | - | - | - | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
De Graafschap | 2002–03 | 9 | 0 | - | - | - | - | 9 | 0 | 0 | |
AGOVV Apeldoorn | 2003–04 | 35 | 26 | - | - | - | - | 35 | 26 | 0.74 | |
SC Heerenveen | 2004–05 | 31 | 17 | - | - | 7 | 3 | 38 | 20 | 0.53 | |
2005–06 | 15 | 17 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 3 | 22 | 21 | 0.95 | ||
Total | 46 | 34 | 1 | 1 | 13 | 6 | 60 | 41 | 0.68 | ||
AFC Ajax | 2005–06 | 16 | 16 | 7 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 25 | 24 | 0.96 | |
2006–07 | 32 | 21 | 10 | 6 | 9 | 9 | 51 | 36 | 0.71 | ||
2007–08 | 34 | 33 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 39 | 37 | 0.92 | ||
2008–09 | 9 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 12 | 8 | 0.67 | ||
Total | 85 | 71 | 19 | 15 | 15 | 12 | 120 | 100 | 0.83 | ||
Career Totals | 176 | 131 | 20 | 16 | 28 | 18 | 224 | 167 | 0.74 | ||
Updated September 25, 2008 |
International
National Team | Year | Friendlies | International Competition |
Total | Goals per match | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
App | Goals | App | Goals | App | Goals | |||
Netherlands | 2006 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 0.5 |
2007 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 0.2 | |
2008 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 7 | 1 | |
Total | 11 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 16 | 10 | 0.63 |
No. | Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | August 16, 2006 | Lansdowne Road, Dublin, Ireland | ![]() |
0–1 | 0–4 | Friendly match | |
2 | August 16, 2006 | Lansdowne Road, Dublin, Ireland | ![]() |
0–3 | 0–4 | Friendly match | |
3 | October 17, 2007 | Philips Stadion, Eindhoven, Netherlands | ![]() |
2–0 | 2–0 | Euro 2008 Qualification | |
4 | February 6, 2008 | Poljud Stadium, Split, Croatia | ![]() |
0–2 | 0–3 | Friendly match | |
5 | March 26, 2008 | Ernst Happel Stadion, Vienna, Austria | ![]() |
3–1 | 3–4 | Friendly match | |
6 | March 26, 2008 | Ernst Happel Stadion, Vienna, Austria | ![]() |
3–4 | 3–4 | Friendly match | |
7 | May 24, 2008 | De Kuip, Rotterdam, Netherlands | ![]() |
2–0 | 3–0 | Friendly match | |
8 | June 17, 2008 | Stade de Suisse, Bern, Switzerland | ![]() |
1–0 | 2–0 | UEFA Euro 2008 | |
9 | September 6, 2008 | Philips Stadion, Eindhoven, Netherlands | ![]() |
1–0 | 1–2 | Friendly match | |
10 | October 11, 2008 | De Kuip, Rotterdam, Netherlands | ![]() |
2–0 | 2–0 | FIFA World Cup 2010 qualifying
HonoursAjax
International
Individual
References
External links |
- 1983 births
- Living people
- Dutch footballers
- Eredivisie players
- Eerste Divisie players
- PSV Eindhoven players
- De Graafschap players
- AGOVV Apeldoorn players
- SC Heerenveen players
- AFC Ajax players
- Netherlands international footballers
- Netherlands under-21 international footballers
- People from Gelderland
- UEFA Euro 2008 players