Had Justin Kluivert been wearing a Liverpool shirt on Wednesday night, it would have suited him.
Instead, he was speeding around the pitch in the black and red stripes of Bournemouth, the club he joined from Roma in the summer to reboot a journeyed career, and impressed.
The 2-1 Carabao Cup defeat was his ninth game for Bournemouth and the closest he has come to a full 90 minutes for his new club. He had spent the previous three Premier League games on the bench.
Advertisement
His team-mate Alex Scott, another of Bournemouth’s marquee summer signings and the player who assisted Kluivert’s first goal for Bournemouth, knows it has not been an easy start to life in Dorset for the Dutchman.
“The past few weeks have probably been tough for him, not really being in the team, but he got his chance and he was brilliant,” said Scott, who missed the opening months of the season through injury following his move from Bristol City. “On the ball, off the ball — he works so hard and you can see how much his goal meant to him with the celebration. I’m proud of him and hopefully we can kick on together and get more results in the Premier League.”
⚽️ Justin Kluivert
🅰️ Alex Scott
Two summer signings combining yesterday 👏 pic.twitter.com/KhwEdN6tVU
— AFC Bournemouth 🍒 (@afcbournemouth) November 2, 2023
That is what Kluivert’s new manager Andoni Iraola is hoping for from a player who, at the age of 24, has played for some of football’s most iconic clubs.
Following in the footsteps of his famous father, Patrick, his career began at Ajax. After a bright start in the Netherlands, where he made his first-team debut at 17 in January 2017, a phone call from Francesco Totti changed the course of Kluivert’s career. In 2018, after one and a half seasons in Ajax’s senior squad, he joined Roma.
The move to Italy was not quite what Kluivert had hoped it would be. After two seasons in Serie A, he was loaned out for three consecutive years. First to RB Leipzig, then to Nice and finally Valencia. With every new club, Kluivert tried again to find his feet. By the time he got to La Liga, it looked like he was not just making his way in a new team but across a continent.
His move to the south coast of England and subsequent Premier League debut against West Ham United in August saw the Dutchman claim a unique record. All those air miles meant he became the youngest player to feature in each of Europe’s ‘big five’ leagues. From that fact alone, it becomes evident he needs a permanent home. On Wednesday, he felt “super happy” with his headed goal and seems eager to make his sixth league in as many years click.
Advertisement
If he can consistently repeat his performance against what was a strong Liverpool line-up, then he will have no trouble in doing so.
He got the home crowd up with a perfectly executed volley in the 13th minute that was saved by Caoimhin Kelleher, and the visiting goalkeeper was soon keeping another of his shots out.
Moments before Cody Gakpo’s opening goal for Liverpool in the 31st minute, Kluivert had made a compelling run through midfield. It was a feature of the match, highlighted in the graphic below, which outlines each player’s attacking sequence involvements from the game. The Dutchman, with 8, had the highest figure on the pitch.
Later in the game, Iraola moved him centrally to tap into that quality and his pass through the legs of Kostas Tsimikas found Antoine Semenyo, who shot wide.
Kluivert had been confident his goal, not least this performance, would come. Bournemouth goalkeeper Andrei Radu revealed before every game that Kluivert has been telling him, “Today is going to be the day.” In many ways it was.
It was also the day Gakpo got his tally for the season back up and running. Kluivert is two days older than his compatriot and their careers have largely contrasted.
By the time Gakpo made his Eredivisie debut in February 2018 for PSV Eindhoven, Kluivert was on 35 league appearances.
But while Gakpo stayed the course with PSV and racked up 105 goal involvements (55 goals plus 50 assists) in 159 games before joining Liverpool in December 2022, Kluivert left Amsterdam after just 23 goal involvements in 56 games.
Kluivert made it into the national team before Gakpo. The first of his two Netherlands appearances arrived in March 2018 under Ronald Koeman, and alongside Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk, who was on the bench on Wednesday.
Five days before Kluivert’s international debut against a Portugal team containing Cristiano Ronaldo, Gakpo came off the bench against a Norway Under-19s side that contained a 17-year-old Erling Haaland.
Advertisement
It is hard to imagine Haaland played for Norway’s youth sides when watching him now. The fact he did helps highlight the differences in career progression and development of young footballers.
“You have to focus on yourself,” Iraola told The Athletic when asked about Kluivert. “You cannot focus on other situations and other players. You have to try to do your best and improve every day. That’s how each player develops.
“He (Kluivert) is doing really well. It helps that he speaks the language. He even speaks in Spanish, which means he can also communicate perfectly with me. He is used to playing in different leagues as well so it has been pretty easy for him to settle in. He knows he has to take every chance.”
(Top photo: Steve Bardens/Getty Images)
ncG1vNJzZmismJqutbTLnquim16YvK57lGlpbG1mbnxzfJFsZmppX2V%2FcLbUrKuipl2guba11Z6prWWSpMKzusSmpq6smGQ%3D