Reinier Lambertus van de Kerkhof (; born 16 September 1951) is a Dutch former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a

right winger A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for

FC Twente Football Club Twente () is a Dutch professional football club from the city of Enschede, sometimes known internationally as Twente Enschede. The club was formed in 1965 by the merger of 1926 Dutch champions Sportclub Enschede with Enschedese Bo ...

PSV Eindhoven Philips Sport Vereniging (; en, Philips Sports Association ), abbreviated as PSV and internationally known as PSV Eindhoven (), is a Dutch sports club from Eindhoven, Netherlands. It is best known for its professional football department, whi ...

and the Netherlands national team.

Career

Van de Kerkhof and his twin brother

Willy Willy or Willie is a masculine, male given name, often a diminutive form of William or Wilhelm, and occasionally a nickname. It may refer to: People Given name or nickname * Willie Aames (born 1960), American actor, television director, and scree ...

were squad members of the Dutch national team that made the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

final in

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; f ...

and became key players in the team that made the

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd go ...

final, losing to hosts West Germany and Argentina, respectively. Overall, van de Kerkhof appeared 47 times for his country, scoring five goals. He is well remembered due to the incident before the 1978 World Cup final, when the opponent Argentia national team objected to the cast he wore on his injured forearm since it could have injured an Argentinian player. Despite the bandage having been passed by

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

and worn in previous matches, the referee, Italian

Sergio Gonella Sergio Gonella (; 23 May 1933 – 19 June 2018) was an Italian bank manager and association football referee. He was the first ever Italian appointed to referee the final of the FIFA World Cup which occurred when he took charge of the 1978 fina ...

vacillated. The Dutch players threatened to walk off the field in protest, delaying the kickoff of the game. Finally an extra layer of padding was applied to the bandage as a solution, and the match could start. 1978 was his most successful year, besides becoming runners-up at the World Cup, he also won the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

, the Dutch championship and the

KNVB Beker The KNVB Beker (; en, KNVB Cup), branded as the TOTO KNVB Beker for sponsorship reasons, is a competition in the Netherlands organized by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) since 1898. It was based on the format of the English FA Cup. Ou ...

with PSV that year: "we had won everything possible – the title, the Dutch Cup and the UEFA Cup, and we had five or six players who had been runners-up at the FIFA World Cup in Argentina with the Netherlands. It was a beautiful period under coach

Kees Rijvers Cornelus Bernardus Rijvers (born 27 May 1926) is a Dutch former footballer who was active as a midfielder and later as coach for PSV Eindhoven and the Netherlands national team. He was born in Breda. Playing career Rijvers made his debut at N ...

", van de Kerkhof later would tell to Berend Scholten.PSV smell danger as Rangers visit stirs memories by Berend Scholten
/ref> Van de Kerkhof was named by

Pelé Edson Arantes do Nascimento (; born 23 October 1940), known as Pelé (), is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a forward. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time and labelled "the greatest" by FIFA, ...

as one of the top 125 greatest living footballers in March 2004.

Career statistics

Club

Honours

PSV Eindhoven *

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is c ...

: 1974–75, 1975–76, 1977–78 *

KNVB Cup The KNVB Beker (; en, KNVB Cup), branded as the TOTO KNVB Beker for sponsorship reasons, is a competition in the Netherlands organized by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) since 1898. It was based on the format of the English FA Cup. Ou ...

: 1973–74, 1975–76 Seiko *

Hong Kong First Division The Hong Kong First Division League () is the second-highest division in the Hong Kong football league system. Established in 1908, it is the third oldest in Asia. The league was formerly the highest division in Hong Kong until the formation o ...

: 1984–85 *

Hong Kong Senior Shield The Hong Kong Senior Challenge Shield (), known commonly as the Senior Shield, is the football knockout inter-club competition held in Hong Kong and the fourth oldest football tournament in Asia. Traditionally, only the teams in the Hong Kong Pr ...

: 1984–85 Netherlands *

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

runner-up:

UEFA European Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The competition is contes ...

third place:

1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Phila ...

Individual *

FIFA 100 The FIFA 100 is a list of Brazilian footballer Pelé's choice of the "greatest living footballers". Unveiled on 4 March 2004 at a gala ceremony in London, England, the FIFA 100 marked part of the celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the fo ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kerkhof, Rene 1951 births Living people Dutch footballers FIFA 100 UEFA Cup winning players Association football forwards Netherlands international footballers Eredivisie players Eerste Divisie players Super League Greece players Hong Kong First Division League players FC Twente players PSV Eindhoven players FC Eindhoven players Helmond Sport players Apollon Smyrnis F.C. players Seiko SA players 1974 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 1976 players 1978 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 1980 players Dutch beach soccer players Dutch twins Sportspeople from Helmond Twin sportspeople Identical twins Dutch expatriate footballers Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Greece Expatriate footballers in Greece Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Hong Kong Expatriate footballers in Hong Kong Footballers from North Brabant