Our heroes: Willy van der Kuijlen

Willy van der Kuijlen would have turned 75 today. Unfortunately, he passed away last year on April 19. To commemorate him, we look back on his life as a striker in which he grew into the greatest Dutch football player in history.

Career
His football career Willy started at HVV Helmond. The striker proved to have talent and at the age of seventeen he left for PSV. There he soon scored his first goal and grew into one of the best Dutch football players in history. He played a total of 528 league games for PSV between 1964 and 1981.

Top all-time scorer
In those 528 games Willy scored 308 goals. In the 1981-1982 period he scored another three goals for his then club MVV. This brought his total to 311 goals in the Eredivisie and made him top scorer of all time! Until now, no one has ever broken that record.

Successes
With PSV Willy became three times national champion and won the KNVB cup twice. He had a big part in that. On May 1, 1974, he scored a hat trick in the cup final against NAC. Partly thanks to him it became 6-0. Two years later, he scored five goals in the semifinals of the cup against FC Eindhoven. It didn't stop with those awards. In season 1977-1978, he and PSV won the UEFA Cup. This was the first European prize in the club's history. In the final against SC Bastia, Willy was involved in all three goals scored, one of which he scored himself. As a result, the match ended 3-0.

Mister PSV
In total, Willy played 17 years for PSV and, as you can read above, he was partly responsible for the greatest successes in the club's history. For that reason, the striker was nicknamed "Mister PSV." But that is not his only nickname. During his football career, he was also called "Skiete Willy" because he could shoot very hard with both left and right. So hard, in fact, that he once shot the ball through the nets!

Statue
On the east side of Philips Stadium is a statue of Willy. Once you are at the stadium, you should take a look!