Servaas "Faas" Wilkes (, 13 October 1923 – 15 August 2006) was a Dutch

football forward Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...

, who earned a total of 38

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...

for the

Dutch national team Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

, in which he scored 35 goals (average 0.92 goals per game). However, for a prolonged period of his career, June 1949 through till March 1955, he was banned from the national team since the

KNVB The Royal Dutch Football Association (, ; KNVB ) is the governing body of football in the Netherlands. It organises the main Dutch football leagues (Eredivisie and Eerste Divisie), the amateur leagues, the KNVB Cup, and the Dutch men's and women ...

did not allow professional players to participate. He also played for the Netherlands at the 1948 Summer Olympics.

Career

Wilkes played for Xerxes Rotterdam, before moving to

Internazionale Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Inter i ...

in the summer of 1949. There he played 95 matches, scoring 47 goals. After his stay in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard language, Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the List of cities in Italy, second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 ...

ended in 1952, he had a one-season spell at

Torino Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The ...

. At age 30 he moved to

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...

in Spain, scoring a total of 38 goals in 62 appearances between 1953–54 and 1955–56, making him the first foreign idol of the club. He also played for VVV, Levante, and

Fortuna '54 Fortuna Sittard (; li, Fortuna Zitterd ) is a football club in Sittard, Netherlands. The club currently plays its football in the 12,500 capacity Fortuna Sittard Stadion and features in the Eredivisie. The club was established through a merger o ...

. He died of a cardiac arrest in 2006, aged 82. He is considered one of the best footballers the Netherlands ever produced, being especially known for his creative style of play and brilliant dribbling. Wilkes was the 4th Dutch player (after

Gerrit Keizer Gerard Pieter (Gerrit) Keizer (8 August 1910 – 5 December 1980), also known as Gerard Keyser, was a Dutch footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Keizer was highly successful in Holland whilst playing with AFC Ajax. He was also the original "F ...

Bep Bakhuys Elisa Hendrik "Beb" Bakhuys (16 April 1909 – 7 July 1982) was a Dutch football player and manager. Club career Bakhuys made his senior debut for HBS on 27 September 1925 against Haarlem and scored 36 goals in 44 matches for them. He joined ...

and Gerrit Vreken) who moved to play abroad. The Dutch cartoon character

Kick Wilstra A kick is a physical strike using the leg, in unison usually with an area of the knee or lower using the foot, heel, tibia (shin), ball of the foot, blade of the foot, toes or knee (the latter is also known as a knee strike). This type of a ...

was named in part after Faas Wilkes (Wilstra was also named after two other Dutch footballers, Kick Smit and Abe Lenstra).

Career statistics

Player

Honours

; Internazionale *

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Copp ...

runner-up: 1950–51 *

third place: 1949–50, 1951–52 ; Valencia *

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men' ...

Third Place: 1953–54 *

Concepción Arenal Trophy Concepción (Spanish for ''conception'') refers to the Immaculate Conception of Mary, mother of Jesus, according to Roman Catholic Church doctrine. Concepción or Concepcion may also refer to: Geography Argentina *Concepción, Catamarca, a villa ...

: 1954 ; Levante * Segunda División Runner-up: 1958–59 Individual * Netherlands All-Time Top Scorer: 1959–1998 * Spanish Player of the Year: 1954 * Internazionale Top Scorer: 1950–51 * Valencia Top Scorer: 1953–54, 1955–56 * Levante Top Scorer: 1958–59

References

External links

Faas Wilkes
at

Voetbal International ''Voetbal International'' (VI) is a Dutch football magazine. It is the oldest Dutch football magazine that is still running. History and Profile ''Voetbal International'' was established in 1965. VI was one of the founding members of ESM but le ...

* *
In memorial for Faas Wilkes
(Dutch) {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilkes, Faas 1923 births 2006 deaths Dutch footballers Netherlands international footballers Association football forwards Dutch expatriate footballers Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Spain Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate footballers in Spain Expatriate footballers in Italy Eredivisie players Serie A players XerxesDZB players Inter Milan players Torino F.C. players La Liga players Valencia CF players VVV-Venlo players Levante UD footballers Fortuna Sittard players Footballers at the 1948 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers of the Netherlands Footballers from Rotterdam