To Sandra, who nine years ago was given 18 months to live, it is asustaining place of friendship. To Jackie, diagnosed with a terminalillness six years ago, it is a place of laughter. She’s sharp as atack, Jackie. “They can’t take your sense of humour away - and theycan’t give you one if you didn’t have it in the first place,” sheobserves.
To Dirk Kuyt, although this is his first visit, it isa place that resonates. We are at Woodlands, a day hospice in Aintreethat through the Premier League’s Creating Chances initiative wasawarded £4,000 towards its appeal to build a new bedded unit, plus aplayer appearance from one of the Liverpool squad.
More than 100terminally ill people and their families are supported by Woodlands.Kuyt has come to talk football. The hospice holds discussion groupsthat encourage participants to focus on a subject bringing thempleasure and to treasure positive memories connected with it. Footballis today’s topic and attending is important to Kuyt. His wife,Gertrude, was a geriatric nurse before their children were born and inJune 2007 he lost his father, Dirk senior, to cancer, after a longstruggle.
“I look at the families visiting the people here andof course I’ve had the same moments a couple of years ago,” says Kuyt.“I know what people are feeling when they come here. It’s one of thereasons I wanted to visit and maybe leave some people with a bit of apositive feeling. You know, put something else in their minds. I thinkthe way of life in Liverpool is to be positive and the people look tothe future and not so much to the past. It’s good to see the peoplehere laughing and sharing some moments and trying to forget theirproblems.”
The death of his father, such a proud supporter ofhis son’s career, who when he was ill still travelled over from Hollandto see games at Anfield, affected Kuyt badly. He is a lesson in how thepublic sometimes see footballers in two-dimensional parameters no morerevealing than the pictures on their television screens. Kuyt,Liverpool’s top league scorer in 2006-07, scored just three leaguegoals last season, two of them penalty kicks, and was criticised forhis loss of form. Few took into account the personal grief that wasweighing on him.
“It was difficult last year,” he says. “It’shard to play when you are losing somebody who’s really close to you.It’s hard, with your life, just to keep moving. Football is alwaysmoving on and the world keeps going on and you are just standing stillby a moment, a very sad moment. I needed some time. These things happenand of course they can also happen to a footballer, so the only thingyou can do is keep working really hard and try to get your form back asquick as possible. Now I’m feeling stronger than I was feeling a yearago.”
Kuyt’s performances attest to that. Only Xabi Alonso hasan equal claim to be regarded as Liverpool’s player of 2008-09 and,despite his spending most games stationed on the right flank, the goalshave returned.
“I’m feeling good, really confident and strong,and I can only say I want to keep this form up until the end of theseason,” says Kuyt.
The subject of his father’s death is notraised during his afternoon at Woodlands. Most of the patients andstaff are unaware of his loss and down-to-earth Dutchness means Kuyt isnot going to make an issue of it. He is happy, anyway, leading thefootball chat.
The older many people become, the less reluctantthey appear to be to say what they mean. The questions to Kuyt are moredirect than a journalist would dare ask. “Do you like a drink?”(answer: yes, a glass of beer, but Kuyt doesn’t touch alcohol often) isone. “Do you only socialise with the Dutch guys?” (answer: no, he playsgolf and goes for meals with Steven Gerrard and others, although RyanBabel is his roommate on away trips) is another. Brian Hall, thestalwart of Shankly’s early 1970s Liverpool team, who accompanies Kuyton his visit, gets a cracker. “So, what was the real problem betweenEmlyn Hughes and Tommy Smith?” An elderly gentleman suggests to Kuytthat footballers’ salaries are so high that ordinary people struggle toaccept they are fair.
“I think you’re right,” he says. “We’re onmassive wages and sometimes you’re a bit shy when you have that money.But when I step on the pitch I do not think of one penny, I want to winthe game. I used to play for nothing. I was still an amateur [at theDutch side Quick Boys] when I was 17.”
Such an outlook mayexplain one of the most prodigious workrates in football. Kuyt, achaser and harrier from first whistle to last, admits: “I never feeltired.” He adds, with reference to his adaptation from striker toright-winger: “I know I’m not Ronaldo or Ronaldinho, not the bestdribbler in the world. But I’ve got other things. I know I can scoregoals and give assists and that my workrate can be important for anyteam. Workrate is one of the things you always need to show.”
Nowonder he is one of Rafael Benitez’s favourite players. The Dutchman’sflexibility is such that Benitez has convinced himself Kuyt even spenttime at right-back when he was younger and has mentioned this at pressconferences. “No!” says Kuyt, laughing. “I never played right-back, butyou never know what might happen.”
Under Benitez he is preparedfor anything. The manager still asks him to play as a frontlineforward, on occasion, and sometimes as a second striker, and he haseven been stationed on the left. “I did play in different roles inHolland,” he says “and what’s important is that, in English football,which is different, I’m now showing I can play every position up front.I’m not really a right-winger but I play the way I like to play it andsometimes, because Steven [Gerrard] and [Fernando] Torres get a lot ofattention from opponents, that gives me more space to score goals andmake assists.”
He says Liverpool are “a family club, it’s one ofthe first things you recognise when you arrive. For example, Steven isan absolute star on every pitch in the world he steps on to, butoutside the pitch he’s really down to earth. This is the best Liverpoolteam I’ve been involved in. Winning games like the Manchester Unitedone is a massive step. We’re showing we have the power and strength towin difficult games. We want to show we can win this league”.
KUYT’S FINISHING SCHOOL
1980 Born in Katwijk, Holland. Plays for youth side Quick Boys before joining FC Utrecht in 1998
2003 Moves to Feyenoord, scoring 20 league goals in his first season. Wins Golden Shoe
2004 Makes Holland debut against Liechtenstein and scored first international goal later that year against Macedonia
2004-05Top scorer in first division with 29 goals. Named Feyenoord captain in2005 and ends season with 25 goals. Wins Golden Shoe again in 2006,before joining Liverpool in August |
發表於 2008-12-8 11:07 AM
| 