Son of Ruud, relative of Johan

There are footballers who seem predestined to be. Round genetic mixtures, lives and environments that from the cradle push a baby towards a ball, that arouse their curiosity to kick anything with the foot; the weight of the family tree and the pressure of expectations will appear later, with age and awareness.

An illustrious parent does not guarantee any success, but in some cases it can generate a football culture, a way of understanding the game based on after-dinner conversations, hours and hours in front of the television, on fields traveled and on anecdotes heard from the protagonists themselves. And if instead of one, there are two illustrious parents …

Last Thursday, on the second day of the Europa League, AZ Alkmaar overwhelmed Rijeka to confirm themselves at the helm of Group F, Real. With 4-1 on the scoreboard, at 89 ', Arne
Slot, coach of the Dutch team, finished the job with two changes. In attack, Barasi replaced the bigoleador Gunmundsson. In the other substitution, an illustrious surname glowed, scented with past glories. With the ‘40’ on his back, a certain Maxim
Gullit.

European Champion

Despite the fact that his position in the center of the rear, his left-handed condition and his physical appearance can be misleading (there is no trace of that characteristic mustache, now in disuse, or of that avant-garde hairstyle, with those unmistakable dreadlocks), Maxim is the son of Ruud
Gullit. A mythical footballer who, together with Frank
Rijkaard Y Framework
Go
Enough, led the Dutch national team towards the conquest of the 1988 German Eurocup (Gullit opened the scoring in the final against the USSR, which would finish 2-0) and formed the tulip axis of one of the most perfect soccer machines ever invented: the intractable Milan of Arrigo
Sacchi, European champion in the years 89 and 90.

An elegant and overwhelming footballer, capable of occupying almost any position from midfield forward. With an imposing physique, Gullit He was a round player, with arrival, driving and finishing. 236 goals between the national team and the Dutch (Haarlem, Feyenoord and PSV), Italian (Milan and Sampdoria) and English (finished his career at Chelsea) leagues endorse him. A great player.

But in case the last name Gullit was not enough, in the genes of Maxim cohabit with those of the best Dutch footballer of all time. A guy who made football evolve, both from the field and from the bench. Because besides being the son of Ruud, the young AZ defender is the son of Estelle: the niece of Johan
Cruyff.

An exceptional lineage for a footballer who begins to take his steps in the elite. Born in Zaanstadm, in the metropolitan area of ​​Amsterdam, Maxim, 19 years old and 1.91 meters, occupies the position of left-handed central and can also act as a winger. Milita in the subsidiary of AZ, of the Second Dutch.

“I am Maxim”

The numerous casualties by Covid in the first team have pushed, for weeks, to Arne
Slot to have some footballers from his quarry. It is the case of Maxim
Gullit, U-19 international, who after watching from the bench the triumph of AZ in Naples and the draw in the Eredivisie against ADO Den Haag, was able to debut in the final moments against Rijeka. He was also called up this Sunday, in the first league win against Waalwijk, although he did not participate.

“I don't mind being the son of Ruud
Gullit. I am Maxim and I'm going to work hard to keep going ”, he declared after his first game with the AZ affiliate, in April 2019. A path that has just started and that could take him, this Thursday, to the Anoeta grass.

Johan Cruyff and Ruud Gullit are listed in Maxim Gullit's family tree
Johan Cruyff and Ruud Gullit are listed in Maxim Gullit's family tree