With Giovanni van Bronckhorst at the helm and club icon Dirk Kuyt as captain on the pitch, Feyenoord are going for the very top this season. The Rotterdammers will hunt for their first title since 1999. They will do so after a turbulent transfer summer, in which purchases are the main reason for success.
Transfer summer
Time and again in recent seasons, great talents flowed from Varkenoord to De Kuip. Because of their good development, they soon came on the radar of clubs from the bigger European leagues. Former Feyenoord captain Jordy Clasie is one of the latest to swap the red, white and black of the Rotterdam club for a new league. He left this summer for Southampton, and as a result, technical director Martin van Geel had to look for reinforcements. In the hunt for prizes this summer, Van Geel did not initially look at the youth department, but instead entered the transfer market and Eljero Elia, Marko Vejinovic, Eric Botteghin and Michiel Kramer, among others, came to Rotterdam.
Figurehead Dirk Kuyt
But the most important incoming transfer was the long-awaited return of icon Dirk Kuyt. The striker played over a hundred games for Feyenoord between 2003 and 2006 and returned to his old love after foreign adventures with Liverpool and Fenerbahçe. There he was immediately named captain and also scored three penalties in the first three games of this season. Partly as a result, Feyenoord are still without a points loss. Together with Ajax they are top of the Eredivisie standings after three games and with nine points.