Frenkie de Jong sealed his transfer to Barcelona on Wednesday and he becomes the latest in a long line of Dutchmen to ply their trade at the Nou Camp.

The 21-year-old sealed his five-year deal with the Catalan giants and will move to Spain after this season. For Barcelona it is a continuation of a love affair with Dutch talents which stemmed way back to Johan Cruyff.

The late Dutch footballing legend joined Barcelona from Ajax back in 1973 and made himself a hero at the Nou camp in a five year spell as a player and then later as a coach.

He was the first Dutchman to pull on the famous jersey but certainly not the last with his partner in crime for Netherlands and Ajax, Johan Neeskens joining him in 1974. Cruyff’s son Jordi also made his way through the Barcelona academy and spent eight years at the club.

As a coach, Cruyff brought Ronald Koeman and Richard Witschge to the club with the former scoring the winning goal in the 1992 European Cup final against Sampdoria.

In 1997, Louis van Gaal became coach and several Dutchmen followed him over the next two years to varying degrees of success. Ruud Hesp was the first but he was quickly followed by Michael Reiziger, Winston Bogarde, Boudewijn Zenden, Phillip Cocu and Patrick Kluivert, Ronald and Frank de Boer and finally Marc Overmars.

In 2003, Giovanni Van Bronckhorst moved to Barcelona and a year later so did Edgar Davids for a short spell. He was then succeeded in the midfield by Mark van Bommel.

After Van Bronckhorst left in 2007, there was four years without a Dutchman playing at the Nou Camp but in 2011 Ibrahim Afellay came in for a disappointing spell that ended in 2014.

The last Dutchman to join the club was goalkeeper Jasper Cillessen in 2016 and he remains to this day. He will be joined in the summer by Frenkie de Jong, who will then become the 20th Dutchman to make an appearance for the Spanish giants.




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