FLICK TO KICK
Van der Struijk is more than happy to ditch Oranje style of football to star in Scottish game Gordon Waddell
There was a lot of shouting and so I made the gesture to the crowd with both my middle fingers in the air
Back home he was known as Franky Two Fingers after an infamous derby salute earned him cult status with Vitesse Arnhem fans.
Now Frank van der Struijk is offering the same gesture to a way of football he believes has left Holland lagging behind Europe’s big guns.
The full-back is immersing himself in a new brand of the game following a move to Dundee United in August.
And once fully fit the 31-year- old – who played over 300 games in the Dutch top f light with Vitesse and Willem II – says he’ll have it cracked.
Van der Struijk was persuaded to end his 13-year Eredivisie career by former Willem II team-mate Nick van der Velden, who made the switch to Tannadice a month earlier.
However, his countryman was in the opposite team that night in October 2011 when the then Vitesse defender earned his nickname.
He said: “I got that name because I played a derby away against NEC Nijmegen. Nick van der Velden was actually in their team.
“Anyway, there was a lot of shouting and so I made the gesture to the crowd with both my middle fingers in the air. “We won 1- 0, though, so it was good – and the name stuck with me. It’s only a nickname though.” Now 31 and with a young family, van der Struijk is perhaps more conservative. Although age hasn’t doused his passion for a big game. And few will be bigger for him this season than today’s visit to Easter Road to take on Hibs in the Championship. He said: “I’m looking forward to it. The stadiums we’ve played in so far have been a little bit smaller but Hibs are a big club and they’ll have a big crowd. “When stadiums are full, every place is nice to play. That gives me more energy – the more people the better. “The game is a little bit different than in Holland – more long balls and more fighting – but I play a little bit the same and like it. I had many clubs who wanted me. I wanted to stay at Willem II and sign for two years but I was waiting and waiting and eventually I couldn’t wait any longer.
“I said to the club it was taking too long. I decided to stop playing for them and move to another club.
“Nick called me and said he was here now. We played together last season so we knew each other. He told me it was a good club based in the sunniest part of Scotland so I should come.
“I had a think about it, spoke with my wife because the children and school were a concern. She said it was my career and I shouldn’t worry about the kids as they would learn quickly.
“Now I have to get fitter. After three matches my legs got a little bit tired.
“I hadn’t played in three-and-a-half months before coming here and only trained two or three times a week with amateurs, so it was not ideal. It will come with some time though.”
Indeed, van der Struijk’s pedigree is such that he was given his Willem II debut back in 2003 by former SFA performance director Mark Wotte.
And he was in the last Holland squad to win the European Under-21 Championships in 2007.
Although he only earned one cap, van der Struijk was embedded in a squad who memorably took part in two of the longest penalty shootouts in international history, losing the first to Nigeria in the Under-20 World Cup only to then triumph in a 32-penalty marathon over England.
However, since then he has become disillusioned with the country’s stubbornness in sticking to their Plan A of total football at the exclusion of every other style.
He said: “They only want to play football, football, football.
“You have to be able to do more. There’s no Plan B.
“You could see when Louis van Gaal was in charge the last time, when we finished second in the World Cup and he played with five at the back, everyone in Holland said, ‘ What the f*** is he doing?’
“He knows his team and thinks about what is best for them.
“But if you do anything different from what we’ve always done, everyone’s first question is, ‘ What the f*** are you doing?’
“You have to change, football is changing. But in Holland they only play the one way – keep the ball, don’t lose the ball. It hasn’t changed in years.
“Sometimes you have to play the long ball and get pressure on the opponent’s defence.
“You can see it in Germany and England – they’re at a much higher level because they can do both. In Holland they only do one thing.”