Clarence Seedorf — Football’s philosopher king
Fame should correspond with achievement but some high achievers are less famous than their success deserves; Clarence Seedorf is a classic example of a person whose achievements out-rank his fame. Seedorf, like Zinedine Zidane, is a giant in a generation rich with talented footballers: they belong alongside Michel Platini and Johan Cruyf amongst the greatest footballers of all time. For reasons discussed here, Seedorf’s fame even in his home country the Netherlands, unlike Zidane’s, falls short of his brilliance and achievements as a player.
As the only man to win the champion’s league title with 3 different teams -Ajax, Real Madrid, AC Milan - Seedorf is a gold standard for football career excellence. He won four champions league titles as a linchpin of his teams, vital both in distributing the ball and winning it from the opposition. His midfield dominance grew with time, and was fueled by an extraordinary football intelligence: his vision on the field, spatial and tactical awareness, more than his athleticism, enabled him to anticipate and consistently intercept opposition passes, and make remarkably well timed passes to his team mates. It’s his intelligence that made it possible for him to excel well into his 30s. There are better attacking midfielders, and defensive midfielders than Seedorf: Zidane was certainly better as an attacking midfielder, and Frank Rijkaard is a better defensive midfielder. But Seedorf is peerless as a midfielder who was equally effective in attack and defensive duties.
His midfield dominance only grew with time, and was fueled by an extraordinary football intelligence: his vision on the field, spatial and tactical awareness, more than his athleticism, enabled him to anticipate and consistently intercept opposition passes, and make remarkably well timed passes to his team mates.
The idea that Seedorf is under-rated would strike many Football Connoisseurs as surprising; it would certainly surprise his many fans and admirers in Italy where he won 2 Champions league titles with AC Milan. But the data suggest that he is indeed under-rated. Assuming the number of video results from a google name search are a measure of fame, Seedorf is about 40 times less famous than Zidane. A google search returns 325,000 video results for Seedorf, and 12 million results for Zidane who won the champions league only once as a player with Real Madrid in 2002(most of the videos are each player’s career highlights, which discount managerial success as a factor in fame.) This raises the question of why the more accomplished Seedorf is less celebrated than Zidane. As an avid Seedorf fan, i’ve considered the question, and concluded that his lower level of fame is on 3 accounts: the international profile of leagues where he excelled, his versatility, and his misfortunate at failing to replicate his club success at national level.
Seedorf’s fame corresponds with the low international audiences of the domestic leagues that he played in for most of his career. Seedorf played at 6 different clubs during a career that spanned 21 years, 13 of which were in the Serie A — a distant 3rd in the international popularity stakes with 4.5 million international viewers per game. His first 3 years as a professional were at Ajax in the Eredivise that has less than international viewers per game. His long spell and success in the Serie A earned him fame in Italy but did not help his international standing. If the many articles about Seedorf in Italian on this platform are any indication, he is still famous in Italy just as Dennis Bergkamp, who was at Arsenal for 10 years, is in England.
But the versatility that made Seedorf a team linchpin and game changing player also muted his visibility as a brilliant attacking midfielder. Plaudits and recognition amongst football players are highest amongst strikers, and attacking midfielders. For instance about 95% of ballon d’or trophies for individual football excellence in the last 25 years have been awarded to strikers or attacking midfielders. This bias amongst pundits is amplified amongst viewers, and makes for attacking footballers far more famous than more centrist playmakers like Seedorf.
Fabio Cannavaro, the 2006 World Cup winning captain of Italy and Ballon d’Or winner, is a notable exception to the bias for forwards and attacking midfielders. His performance for Italy on football’s biggest stage (the world cup final alone was watched by an estimated 715 million people) was a factor in his win and subsequent fame that is nearly at par with Seedorf.
But success at the international level eluded Seedorf throughout his career. The best he achieved at international level were semi final exits in the 1998 FIFA World Cup, Euro 2000 and 2004. In Euro 2000, the Dutch team managed by Frank Rijkaard, lost gloriously in a semi-final to Italy. It was a case of an unstoppable attacking and very unlucky Dutch team meeting an immovable and very lucky defensive Italy.
Rijkaard had managed to build a cohesive team out of the wreckage of the Gus Hiddink led Euro 1996 Dutch team when a grievances over pay and respect took on a racial divide. Although Seedorf, Kluivert, Davids, and Reiziger’s grievances were warranted by the glaring pay gap between senior players and younger players (Ronald and Frank de Boer earned £200,000 each compared to £32,000 each for Seedorf and Kluivert) the row soured the national mood and turned public opinion against them.
So much so that a ‘Dutch public opinion poll during Euro 2000 showed 81% against his inclusion in the squad’. He was roundly jeered by Dutch crowds when he played for his national team. Regrettably that antipathy from his countrymen persists as ambivalence today.
But Hiddink is not the only manager Seedorf clashed with during his career: despite his stellar for for AC Milan in 2005 and 2006 he was dropped from the 2006 national team by manager Marco van Basten and increasingly marginalized in favour of younger players. It was a good piece of succession planning too prematurely executed. Seedorf also clashed with Fabio Capello at Real Madrid, and was soon swiftly traded to Inter Milan. Seedorf thrived with inclusive managers like Rijkaard, and Ancelloti, but clashed with authoritarian and directive managers like van Basten, and Capello.
Seedorf’s former club psychologist at Milan, Bruno de Michelis described him as closer to the personality type of a coach than a footballer. “He talked 10% like a player, 70% like a coach, and 20% like a general manager,” he says, “I’ve never seen such a strong personality.”
For some managers, a strong personality and football intelligence like Seedorf was a hard pill to swallow. A pity as the result was that in the prime of his career, a time when he reached two champions league finals and won his last one, Marco van Basten and Bert van Marwijk refused to call Seedorf to the Dutch National team and denied him the biggest stages to showcase his outsized talent — a decision that hurt the Oranje team as much as it hurt Seedorf. But Seedorf himself may take the more philosophical view that fame is temporary but achievement is permanent — afterall he is in an exclusive club of one. For his countrymen, the Oranje’s dismal fortunes in the last decade, likely gives some appreciation of Seedorf’s brilliance and the days when the team were always favourites in international competitions.