Source: Liverpool_Echo
Dirk Kuyt can’t wait to return to face first club Utrecht
Fernando Torres and Dirk Kuyt celebrate against Benfica 300[LNB]IT IS little wonder why Dirk Kuyt was so keen to regain his fitness in time to play a part in Liverpool's Europa League visit to FC Utrecht tomorrow.[LNB]The Dutch international striker will always have a powerful emotional connection to the club that launched him on a climb to the highest peaks in the game. Now Kuyt has shaken off the shoulder injury that kept him sidelined for much of September, he will revel in the chance to return to the Stadion Galgenwaard in a Reds shirt.[LNB]Kuyt might never have scored in a European Champions League Final with Liverpool or played a major part in Holland's epic World Cup Finals campaign in South Africa last summer if Utrecht had not offered him a first professional contract as a raw, promising teenager back in 1998.[LNB]Utrecht's coach at the time, Mark Wotte, thought the 17-year-old had potential.[LNB] Kuyt recalled: 'He said I was capable of scoring a lot of goals for Utrecht in the Dutch league if I have worked at it.'[LNB]The youngster played many of his early games as a winger. When Foeke Booy became Utrecht manager in 2002, he switched Kuyt to a central attacking role - and was repaid with 20 goals in a single campaign.[LNB]In the last of his five seasons with Utrecht, Kuyt collected his first major honour, the Dutch Cup, and won the Dutch 'Golden Shoe' for his goalscoring exploits.[LNB]He also earned a one-million Euro move to Feyenoord, one of Dutch football's big three.[LNB]Bert van Marwijk, later to become the Dutch national coach, brought him to Feyenoord and became an influential figure in Kuyt's development.[LNB]Kuyt said: 'The technical director at Feyenoord did not believe I was good enough but Van Marwijk had confidence in me. That gave me confidence.[LNB]'He was the one who thought I was capable of anything.[LNB]'It gives you a good feeling when you work hard for something and you achieve it, and that is the attitude I have always had when it comes to football.[LNB]'Scoring the most goals doesn't worry me, because only if you work together, as a team, can you achieve anything.'[LNB]Three years, 101 appearances and 71 goals later, Kuyt made his £10 million move to Liverpool.
