There is a nation in South America that is crazy about football. It has produced some of the best players in the world, players who are and have been key figures in the top European clubs and leagues. Fans from this country follow with passion the careers of their football idols, and hope to see some of their own win the world cup. Do you guess which country I'm talking about? Let me give you some clues. It is a country that has never gone to the world cup, has a population of about 400,000 people, an amateur league, and only six stadiums, the largest of which holds about 8000 people. This is a South American country that is affiliated with CONCACAF, but virtually all of its football stars play for a UEFA nation. Let me offer a historical all-star team from this football superpower, and it will all be clear.* .......................Menzo .......Bogarde....Reizinger...Melchiot ..Seedorf...Rijkaard...Winter...Davids .......................Gullit .............Hasselbaink....Kluivert Lets pay tribute to tiny Suriname, the phantom South American football superpower! *I copied Surinam's all time squad as selected by the Argentine magazine El Grafico, (from which I also got some of the above information.) The all-time squad includes some Dutch born players children of immigrants from Suriname.
A quality XI. They would have been a team to fear if they were all on the field. Melchiot and Menzo are probably the only weak points. In fact, I would take Melchiot out and put in Gerard Vanenburg. .......................Menzo .......Bogarde ... Rijkaard ... Reizeger ..Vanenburg ... Seedorf...... Davids .... Winter ....................... Gullit .......... Hasselbaink.... Kluivert
Part of the problem with Suriname is that their nationalistic government does not allow dual citizenship. I think Jamaica used some players who play in Britain who have both British and Jamaican citizenship. Certainly Suriname could use players who are playing in Holland and may not be prominent enough to be considered for the Orange, but are still very good players. But the players are not likely to give up the Euro citizenship and all the opportunities it brings for their family just so they could play for Suriname. If Suriname would accept dual citizenship then I imagine they would be more likely to do so. If that were to happen, watch out CONCACAF!
Nice thread a lot of people don't appreciate the smaller nation where these stars came from. A nice follow-up piece would be to show what these guys have done for the country itself. I believe Davids has been a big contributor to Surinam.
Right. Davids goes to Suriname every year and has done a lot for the country. So have Seedorf, Kluivert, Winter and Bogarde. They are legends in Suriname. I should also add that Surinamese clubs have won a couple of CONCACAF club titles and have been finalists several times. But obviously the exodus of players to Holland has hurt their competitiveness. And even those players born in Holland to Surinamese immigrants still have Suriname strongly in their blood. Here is a quote by Reizenger, who was born in Holland: (taken from 'El Grafico') 'I am a mixture of both cultures. I was born with the music of Suriname around me, I have it in my blood. Over there everybody sings, dances, it's everywhere. Here in Holland I listen to it at home and in my car. I am always in touch with my family and my friends over there, and I try to visit at least a couple of times a year.' The South American/Caribbean mixture of culture which is in the blood of the Surinamese players, combined with the discipline and organization of Holland (which has one of the best youth programs in the world) is certainly a winning combination.
This really hits the nail on the head. It makes me very sad at times that their generation never truly succeeded and generally takes a bad rap.
To be honest, while they have produced talented players, those players all have gotten their entire football education in Holland. The best I can think of is this, BTW: --------------Kluivert------------- ---------------Gullit--------------- ---Seedorf--Vanenburg--Winter--- --------------Davids-------------- ----Bogarde--Rijkaard--Reiziger---- --------------Menzo--------------
These guys have surinam blood but surinam cant claim the credit for producing them as footballers .They got all the football education in holland . I suppose italy can claim credit for all the argentina great players seeing as a load of them have italian blood?
Well you guys say the Caribbean/South American blood.. but do you think Brazilians (let's lose our suspension of disbelief for a second) would have been even better had they been trained in a 'discipline and organization' of a country like Holland? Or maybe that is not a good example, but any of the central American/Caribbean teams, really.
Menzo, Davids and Winter were born in Suriname, but I do not know how long they actually lived there.
If Surinam ever produce a team it will be a similar situation to what England faces with jamaica ,trinidad ,etc. Players who dont quite make the grade with the holland team would head out to Surinam to play .
Maradona, Di Stefano, Batistuta, Caniggia and Passarella learned everything in Italy. It would be nice if that were true.
