Pierre van Hooijdonk

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Pierre van Hooijdonk
Personal information
Full name	Petrus Ferdinandus Johannes van Hooijdonk
Date of birth	November 29, 1969
Place of birth	Steenbergen, Netherlands
Height	1.97 m (6FT 6in)
Nickname	Pierre, Pi-Air
Playing position	Striker
Club information
Current club	Feyenoord Rotterdam
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1989-1991 1991-1995 1995-1997 1997-1999 1999-2000 2000-2001 2001-2003 2003-2005 2005-2006 2006-2007	RBC Roosendaal NAC Breda Celtic F.C. Nottingham Forest Vitesse Arnhem SL Benfica Feyenoord Rotterdam Fenerbahçe NAC Breda Feyenoord Rotterdam	69 (33) 115 (81) 69 (44) 71 (36) 29 (25) 30 (19) 61 (52) 53 (31) 17 (5) 12 (3)
National team2
1994-2004	Netherlands	46 (14)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of August 22, 2006. 2 National team caps and goals correct as of August 22, 2006. * Appearances (Goals)

Petrus ("Pierre") Ferdinandus Johannes van Hooijdonk (born on November 29, 1969 in Steenbergen, Noord-Brabant) is a Dutch football player. He currently plays for Feyenoord Rotterdam. His position is striker. Van Hooijdonk has been capped 46 times for the Dutch national team and has played in the 1998 FIFA World Cup, Euro 2000, and Euro 2004. He has scored 14 goals for his country.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Nottingham Forest 1.2 Football nomad 2 References

[edit] Biography

Van Hooijdonk's career took shape at RBC Roosendaal in 1988, where he spent two seasons and scored 33 goals. He then joined NAC Breda at the start of the 1991/1992 season and continued his goal-scoring achievements with 81 goals in 115 appearances, in the meantime assisting the club to promotion to the Eredivisie in 1993. He moved on to Celtic in 1994 and scored 57 goals for the club in 68 appearances. He left Celtic over a wage dispute towards the end of the 1996/1997 season, stating that the reputed £7,000 a week he was being offered might be "good enough for the homeless" to live on "but not for an international striker." ^[1] He went on to join Nottingham Forest.

[edit] Nottingham Forest

Van Hooijdonk arrived as Forest were in deep relegation trouble, struggling to maintain their position in the Premier League. He made his debut for Forest in a 1-1 draw agaist Blackburn on 11 March 1997. It was hoped the arrival of Van Hooijdonk would kick-start their survival, but he scored just one goal in his eight games for them that season. Although only one of those games was lost, the other seven were drawn and Forest were relegated. He immediately pledged his future to helping the club regain their status.

The following season was an unqualified success, both for him and Forest. Forest won the title and promotion in a competitive league (facing stiff opposition from Sunderland A.F.C, Charlton Athletic F.C. and Middlesbrough F.C.) Van Hooijdonk scored 34 goals and built up a good partnership with strike partner Kevin Campbell, who scored 23 times. He was a regular in the Dutch national squad, and was named in the Dutch squad for 1998 FIFA World Cup in France where he scored as a substitute in the match against South Korea.

After the World Cup had finished he discovered that the promised strengthening to the Forest squad to enable them to cope back in the Premier League had not transpired, indeed that his strike partner Campbell had been sold to Trabzonspor for £2.5m. The club had also announced that Scot Gemmill was dropped from the first team for refusing to sign a new contract, and that club captain and terrace hero Colin Cooper was being allowed to leave to the team promoted alongside them as runners up, Middlesbrough F.C.. Van Hooijdonk asked for a transfer. The club's new owners refused. Van Hooijdonk announced that he had been told previously that he could leave the club at the end of the 1997/1998 season if he so wished, that he felt betrayed by the club's owners who had failed to deliver on their promises to him regarding the strengthening of the team, and that he felt he could no longer play for the club. The owners refused to allow him to be transfer-listed again, and Van Hooijdonk announced he would be going on strike. He kept fit by training with his former club NAC Breda.

Van Hooijdonk received criticism both from fans, and from his team-mates, not least from new club captain Steve Stone and manager Dave Bassett. The club refused to listen to offers for him, and the stand-off lasted until early November when he, realising that he had no choice, agreed to return. By this time the club was again in relegation trouble being bottom of the league without a win in nine games. He played sporadically between then and the end of the season, outlasting Dave Bassett and Steve Stone. He scored 6 goals in his 18 starts in the Premiership, including his first goal in his third game back against Forest's fierce rivals Derby County F.C., helping them to a draw. Infamously after this goal most of his teammates refused to celebrate alongside him, instead going to Scot Gemmill, the man who crossed the ball to him. He also scored a last minute home equaliser against rivals Liverpool F.C. with a trademark free-kick that protected Forest's proud unbeaten run against them that goes back to the 1980s^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] Football nomad

At the end of the 1998/1999 season he returned to Holland with Vitesse Arnhem to continue his career after and did much to convince his critics of his goal-scoring abilities when he helped the Arnhem team to a UEFA Cup spot with 25 goals in one season. Van Hooijdonk then signed for SL Benfica in 2000 and played for one season with 19 goals. At the end of the 2000/2001 season, he signed for his fourth Dutch club, Feyenoord Rotterdam.

While at Feyenoord, he will always be remembered for his free kick abilities and his integral part in the 2002 UEFA Cup win. He scored two goals in the final and his performances helped Feyenoord beat Freiburg, Rangers, Inter, Dortmund and PSV. Just before the final, a group of Feyernoord fans recorded a song about Van Hooijdonk called "Put your hands up for Pi - Air" which charted in the Dutch music charts and referred to Van Hooijdonk's free-kicks and goals.

Never one to settle down, van Hooijdonk joined Fenerbahçe SK at the beginning of the 2003/2004 season where he featured in 52 games for the Turkish club and scored 32 goals. In mid-2005, he signed again for his former club, NAC, playing 17 games but scoring only 5 goals. During the winter transfer window of the 2005/2006 season, he signed for another former club, Feyenoord.

Van Hooijdonk announced 18 October 2006 that he will retire at the end of the season, after 18 years in football.

Van Hooijdonk repeadly knocked back offer upon offer to join the ancient rivals of Celtic,Rangers due to a healthy respect of his former club

[edit] References

Preceded by Mateja Kežman

Dutch Eredivisie Topscorer 2001-2002

Succeeded by Mateja Kežman

	Netherlands squad - 1998 FIFA World Cup Fourth Place
1 van der Sar | 2 Reiziger | 3 Stam | 4 F. de Boer | 5 Numan | 6 Jonk | 7 R. de Boer | 8 Bergkamp | 9 Kluivert | 10 Seedorf | 11 Cocu | 12 Zenden | 13 Ooijer | 14 Overmars | 15 Bogarde | 16 Davids | 17 van Hooijdonk | 18 de Goeij | 19 van Bronckhorst | 20 Winter | 21 Hasselbaink | 22 Hesp | Coach: Hiddink

Feyenoord Rotterdam - Current Squad
2 Saidi | 3 Derijck | 4 Bahia | 6 Lucius | 7 Buijs | 8 Lensky | 9 van Hooijdonk | 10 Hofs | 11 Huysegems | 14 Pardo | 15 Charisteas | 16 Schreuder | 17 Léonard | 18 Greene | 19 Boussaboun | 20 Vlaar | 21 Tiendalli | 22 Kolkka | 23 Abubakari | 24 Drenthe | 26 Davids | 28 Castelen | 29 Vincken | 30 Lodewijks | 31 Timmer | 32 Ekramy | 33 de Guzmán | 39 Collen | Manager: E. Koeman