The Netherlands has been a hotbed of top footballing talent since the 1970s – and it's produced more than its fair share of truly great players.
With that in mind, here at FourFourTwo, we've been hard at work coming up with a definitive countdown of the best Dutch footballers ever.
Let's get straight to it, shall we?
A safe pair of hands between the sticks who also got his hands on plenty of silverware, Hans van Breukelen was the Netherlands’ number one goalkeeper as they lifted their first major trophy: the 1988 European Championship.
Voted Dutch Goalkeeper of the Year four times and capped 73 times overall, earlier that year he did the treble with PSV – with whom he won six Eredivisie titles in the space of seven seasons.
Born in the former Dutch colony of Suriname, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink went on to enjoy a goal-laden career in Europe, representing the Netherlands on 23 occasions.
At club level, Hasselbaink – who possessed a seriously powerful shot – posted 20-goal campaigns in Portugal, Spain and England with Boavista, Atletico Madrid and Chelsea respectively, sharing the Premier League Golden Boot in 1998/99 and winning it outright two years later.
Many consider Mark van Bommel to be one of the dirtiest players of all time – getting sent off in his final career appearance was certainly on brand – but the ex-Bayern Munich, Barcelona and AC Milan man was a world-class all-round midfielder at his peak.
Capped 79 times by his country, notably helping them to the 2010 World Cup final, van Bommel – who won league titles with the three aforementioned clubs as well as PSV – was named Dutch Footballer of the Year in 2001 and 2005.
A vitally indefatigable presence in Liverpool’s engine room during their most glorious years under Jurgen Klopp, Gini Wijnaldum played a pivotal role in Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup, League Cup and Club World Cup triumphs with the Reds.
One of the Netherlands’ main men throughout the 2010s, Wijnaldum also won league titles in his homeland and France with PSV and PSG respectively.
A 1998/99 LaLiga champion with Barcelona, enduring midfield powerhouse Phillip Cocu would go on to captain the Catalan giants and wear the armband for his country.
Among his country’s most-capped internationals with 101 appearances, Cocu – who won the Eredivisie title with hometown club Eindhoven as a player and manager – turned out for the Oranje at two World Cups and three Euros.
Dutch Footballer of the Year in 1994 and 1996, the highly versatile Ronald de Boer lined up in all manner of midfield and attacking positions throughout his career.
Included in the Oranje’s 1994 and 1998 World Cup and Euro 96 and Euro 2000 squads, the twin brother of Frank de Boer won league titles with Ajax, Barcelona and Rangers – and the 1994/95 Champions League with the former.
Captain as the Netherlands finished as 2010 World Cup runners-up – in what proved to be the final game of his career – Giovanni van Bronckhorst was immense whether deployed at left-back or in a defensive midfield capacity.
Integral to Barcelona’s 2005/06 Champions League triumph – helping them to victory over his former club Arsenal, where he won the 2001/02 Premier League title – Van Bronckhorst also scored one of the best ever goals by a defender: a veritable piledriver to open the scoring in the 2010 World Cup semi-final against Uruguay.
Rotterdam-born Coen Moulijn spent the vast majority of his 18-year career with local giants Feyenoord, starring in their 1969/70 European Cup triumph.
A 38-time Dutch international, the tremendously technically gifted left winger was an immensely entertaining, eminently watchable talent who drew comparisons with icons such as Stanley Matthews and Garrincha.
Bestowed with the honour of Best Young Player at the 1994 World Cup, Marc Overmars was one of the Netherlands’ standout performers of the 90s.
Part of Ajax’s famous 1994/95 Champions League-winning side, the highly productive wideman played an instrumental role in Arsenal’s maiden Premier League triumph of 1997/98 and is considered among the Gunners’ greatest players of all time.
Sir Alex Ferguson admitted that he regretted selling Jaap Stam to Lazio in 2001 – and it’s not hard to see why: the formidable centre-back was one of the best defenders of his generation.
A key member of Manchester United’s legendary 1998/99 treble-winning team, Stam was named 1997 Dutch Footballer of the Year and earned 67 caps for his country, helping them to the semi-finals of the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000.
A mainstay of the great Dutch team which reached back-to-back World Cup finals in 1974 and 1978, Arie Haan is undoubtedly one of his country’s greatest midfielders of all time.
Playing alongside the likes of Johan Cruyff and Johan Neeskens in the Ajax side which won three straight European Cups between 1971 and 1973, Haan also won two Cup Winners’ Cups across the border in Belgium with Anderlecht.
Lining up at right-back as the Netherlands established themselves as one of world’s football’s major forces during the 70s, Wim Suurbier was a key figure in the Total Football movement.
A two-time World Cup runner-up, he spent the first 13 years of his career with Ajax, starring as the Amsterdam giants won the European Cup three times on the spin from 1971 to 1973.
Teammate of twin brother Ronald for Ajax, Barcelona, Rangers and the Netherlands, Frank de Boer was one of the finest defenders of his era, wearing the captain’s armband en route to the semis of the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000.
Adept at centre-half or left-back, he got his hands on nine major trophies with Ajax – most notably the Champions League in 1995 – and represented his nation at two World Cups and three Euros, amassing 112 caps in total.
During the late 90s and early 00s, few centre-forwards in world football could hold a candle to Rudd van Nistelrooy, an utterly clinical marksman at the peak of his powers.
Capped 70 times by the Netherlands, netting 35 times, in 2002/03 his Golden Boot-winning tally of 25 goals fired Manchester United to the Premier League title – and he later won two LaLiga titles with Real Madrid.
Remarkably, of Van Nistelrooy’s 150 goals for United in all competitions, only one came from outside the box.
One of the standout midfielders of the 90s, Edgar Davids was also among the most instantly recognisable stars of his generation – thanks to his neatly tied back dreadlocks and, later, the protective glasses he had to play in due to glaucoma.
A 1994/95 Champions League winner with Ajax, Davids – who later turned out for the likes of Juventus, Tottenham and... Barnet – helped the Netherlands to the semi-finals of the 1998 World Cup, and of Euro 2000 and Euro 2004.
Free-scoring and highly creative out wide or in a central attacking role, Rob Rensenbrink was one of the Netherland’s biggest stars of their Total Football era.
A 1974 and 1978 World Cup runner-up, Rensenbrink spent most of his career with Belgian giants Anderlecht, amassing the best part of 200 goals and winning two Cup Winners’ Cups.
He finished second in the voting for the 1976 Ballon d’Or, and third two years later.
An absolute nightmare to defend against, Arjen Robben established himself among the world’s very best wingers during the 00s and 2010s.
A domestic champion with PSV, Chelsea, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich – and a European champion with the latter – Robben, who was at his most devastating when cutting in from the right onto his favoured left foot, helped the Netherlands to the last four of the 2010 and 2014 World Cups, scoring 37 goals in 96 caps altogether.
Perhaps the Netherlands’ first footballing superstar, Faas Wilkes banged in 35 goals in 37 caps for the Oranje between 1946 and 1961 – and those numbers would no doubt have been considerably higher had the KNVB (the Dutch football association) not banned professionals from representing the national team for six years of that period.
At club level, Wilkes starred abroad for the likes of Inter Milan and Valencia, finishing as top scorer for both.
Named in Pele’s ‘FIFA 100’ list of the greatest living footballers in 2004 (ok, he actually picked 125 players), Patrick Kluivert was among the game’s very best strikers around the turn of the 21st century.
Averaging better than a goal every other appearance in his 79 caps for the Netherlands, an 18-year-old Kluivert – who netted 122 times in 257 outings for Barcelona – famously scored Ajax’s winner in the 1995 Champions League final against AC Milan. He came fifth in that year’s Ballon d’Or vote.
Still playing professionally into his late 30s, Clarence Seedorf is one of the finest midfielders of all time – and one of the most enduring of football’s modern era.
Three times a Champions League winner (twice with AC Milan and once with Real Madrid), the Suriname-born all-rounder brought great class to the pitch for club and country, featuring at three Euros and a World Cup.
The epitome of modern defensive greatness, Virgil van Dijk established himself as a complete centre-back of the highest calibre at Liverpool, getting has hands on every major trophy on offer.
Later captain of the Reds and his country, Van Dijk – who scooped the 2018/19 PFA Players’ Player of the Year award – was once the most expensive defender in history, having joined Liverpool from Southampton for £75m in January 2018.
Record appearance maker for the Netherlands with a whopping 134 caps – during which he scored 31 goals – Wesley Sneijder was right up there with the very best midfielders around at his peak in the late 00s and early 2010s.
A 2009/10 treble winner with Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan, Sneijder also won league titles with Real Madrid, Ajax and Galatasaray – and made it into teams of the tournament at Euro 2008 and the 2010 World Cup.
An iconic one-club man who won three European Cups and six Eredivisie titles with Ajax – where he wore the captain's armband – Piet Keizer served as a superb foil to Johann Cruyff for both club and country.
In 1974, he starred in the Netherlands’ run to their first of successive World Cup finals – before suddenly retiring later that year aged only 31 due to a row over tactics with Ajax boss Hans Kraay.
Predominantly a right-sided winger, Johnny Rep scored 12 goals for the Netherlands – with seven of those coming at World Cups.
His knack for notching big goals extended to club football: his goal clinched victory for Ajax in the 1973 European Cup final against Juventus, making it three in a row for the Amsterdam giants.
Rep later enjoyed success in France, winning the title with Saint-Etienne and helping Bastia to the UEFA Cup final.
Widely regarded as one of the greatest defenders in the history of the game, Ruud Krol was among the Netherlands’ most important players of the 70s, forming a crucial part of the defensive foundation on which the Oranje built their runs to the 1974 and 1978 World Cup finals, serving as skipper at the latter tournament.
Capped 83 times in all, Krol – who starred in all three of Ajax’s European Cup triumphs that same decade – placed third for the 1979 Ballon d’Or.
The Netherlands’ best goalkeeper of all time – and one of the best ever from any country, for that matter – Edwin van der Sar was first choice for his nation for a decade, amassing 130 caps across his international career.
A Champions League winner with Ajax in 1995 and Manchester United 13 years later, the six-foot-six custodian picked up four successive Dutch Goalkeeper of the Year awards between 1994 and 1997.
Few players – if any – have combined defensive and goalscoring prowess to such stunning effect as Ronald Koeman – who scored more than 250 career goals.
Up there with the finest sweepers ever to play the game, Koeman played a prominent part in the Netherlands’ Euro 88 victory – which came in the same year that he helped PSV to an historic treble.
Blessed with a cannon-like shot, Koeman was a free-kick specialist – as he showed with his extra-time winner in the 1992 European Cup final for Barcelona against Sampdoria.
A scorer of great goals – start with his impossible goal for Arsenal against Newcastle and his last-gasp 1998 World Cup quarter-final winner against Argentina, then go from there – Dennis Bergkamp was a magician in footballer form.
The two-time Dutch Footballer of the Year’s unique brilliance yielded major trophies with the Gunners, Ajax and Inter Milan – and 37 goals in 79 international appearances.
Another Dutch Arsenal favourite with more than a few tricks up his sleeve, Robin van Persie was borderline unstoppable in full flow, chalking up just shy of 100 Premier League goals across the 2010/11 to 2014/15 campaigns alone (he totalled 96 for Arsenal and 48 for Manchester United).
The ex-Feyenoord youngster’s 18-yard volley for the Gunners against Charlton Athletic in 2006 is one of the most spectacular goals in Prem history – and his Puskas Award-nominated flying header against Spain at the 2014 World Cup wasn’t bad either…
A prominent member of the all-time great Dutch crop of the late 80s and early 90s, Frank Rijkaard finished third in the voting for the 1988 and 1989 Ballons d’Or.
One of the finest defensive midfielders in history, Rijkaard lifted the European Cup / Champions League on three occasions (twice with AC Milan and once with Ajax) and was named in Pele’s ‘FIFA 100’ (or, as we established earlier, 125).
In 1989, he scored the only goal of the game as Milan defeated Benfica to retain the European Cup.
The second-greatest Dutch footballer named Johan, Johan Neeskens complemented his namesake Cruyff wonderfully in the inimitable Total Football team of the 70s – as well as at club level.
A prominent figure in the Oranje’s 1974 and 1978 World Cup runners-up campaigns, Neeskens was a tirelessly hard-working midfielder with an eye for goal who won three straight European Cups with Ajax – and later the Cup Winners’ Cup with Barcelona.
Ballon d’Or winner in 1987, Ruud Gullit featured among the all-star cast of world-class Dutch talent during the 80s and early 90s, captaining the Oranje to Euro 88 success and opening the scoring in the final against the Soviet Union.
Comfortable in defence, midfield and attack (it’s almost as if he came from the country that conceived Total Football), the two-time Dutch Footballer of the Year won back-to-back European Cups with AC Milan in 1989 and 1990 – scoring twice in the former – alongside compatriots Frank Rijkaard and Marco van Basten.
There’s a case for Marco van Basten being considered the greatest centre-forward of all time – and he almost certainly would be universally seen as such if injury hadn’t forced him to retire at just 28.
His iconic goal – the Netherlands’ second – in the Euro 88 final is rightly regarded as one of the best ever scored (who else would even have attempted something so audacious?!) and he finished his career with 307 goals for club and country, at an average of 0.7 per game.
Ballon d’Or winner in 1988, 1989 and 1992, Basta starred in AC Milan’s back-to-back European Cup victories, bagging a brace in the 1989 final against Steaua Bucharest.
Johan Cruyff is the greatest Dutch player of all time – and he’ll probably remain so forever, because he was so much more than just a footballer.
Rarely has someone had such a transformative impact on the game as the man who, along with legendary Ajax and Netherlands manger Rinus Michels, refined the Total Football philosophy.
The figurehead of Ajax’s triple European Cup-winning team and the Netherlands’ 1974 World Cup runners-up (it was at that tournament, wearing the armband, that he introduced the world to the Cruyff turn), Cruyff also won major honours with Barcelona and Feyenoord (joining the latter pretty much purely to spite Ajax – even his rustling was elite level).
