Dirk Kuyt once revealed the key part he played in bringing Luis Suarez to Liverpool
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Luis Suarez turned out to be one of Liverpool’s best strikers in recent history.
The Reds have been restored to the top of their perch in English football as of late, but it has been a very long journey to get there.
Back in the early 2010s, the club was going through a big change as current owners FSG bought Liverpool after years of turmoil under the old ones, meaning it was a very unsettling time.
Despite the rich history they had, attracting players was a tricky task for this reason, with there also not being much on-field success.
So, the Reds accepted all the help they could get, even if this, bizarrely, meant taking advice from their own players at the time.
But, accepting Dirk Kuyt’s help proved to be one of the best decisions Liverpool had made in a long time, with the Dutchman helping them sign Luis Suarez.
Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images
Kuyt is somewhat of a cult hero at Anfield, with the Dutchman making over 200 appearances for the club during his six-year spell on Merseyside.
Although he was slowing up towards the end of his Liverpool career, he still managed to score a hat-trick against Man United in 2011, although this was still not his most impressive piece of work during that period.
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Just a few months earlier, the Reds signed Suarez from Ajax in a transfer that really did alter the trajectory of the club.
However, Kuyt admitted that if it were not for him, the Uruguayan may not have ended up joining that season, with the Dutchman’s intervention proving vital.
“[ I played] a little part,” Kuyt said on the We Are Liverpool podcast back in 2023.
“From the moment I heard Liverpool were interested in Luis, of course I was very curious and I know they were struggling with the fee.
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“The negotiations weren’t going very well and I said ‘do you need any help?
I know a lot of people in Holland, I know the club [Ajax] very well.’ They said back to me ‘They’re asking for too much money and we can’t get around the table.’
“I said ‘OK, and my agent, who is a good friend, let’s get him involved because he knows the board of Ajax, knows the people very well there’ and he managed to bring the two clubs together and Luis’ agents, and it was sorted out very quickly.
“It could be another assist, but I owe him anyway after the first goal I scored for my hat-trick against Manchester United as it was actually his goal.”
The Dutchman departed the Reds in 2012 to move to Turkish side Fenerbahce, where he spent three seasons.
In 2015, he then returned home to the Netherlands to rejoin Feyenoord, with the forward captaining the side to their first Eredivisie title since 1999.
He has since ventured into management and taken charge of ADO Den Haag, Beerschot and now FC Dordrecht.
Kuyt was considered for the assistant manager role at Liverpool this summer, but the club opted to go for Giovanni van Bronckhorst instead.