Hassan Chamas
After much fanfare and hearsay of rift at the Bernabeu, coach Bernd Schuster finally got what he had been calling for all summer. As Real Madrid sparkled a media circus chasing powerlessly newly crowned European Player of the Year Cristiano Ronaldo, and Robinho’s exodus towards bigger economic takings, the White Castle found themselves in the uncomfortable – and odd – position of being screwed out of their market transfer tactics, ending up before this season’s kick-off with a player less, and a tarnished reputation after their embarrassing last-day attempts to sign Euro 2008 winners Santi Cazorla and David Villa.
Nonetheless, Real started the campaign on a positive note by winning the Spanish Super Cup against Valencia in thrilling fashion, and albeit they lost the opening league fixture to bogey team Deportivo la Coruna, the team still managed to grind out results where it really mattered. However, soon after that injuries became an irritating concern for the men in white, and whether it was down to just darn hard luck or poor training physios, we’ll never know, but Madrid had a budding injury tumor, and one that they needed to quickly operate on in the risk of eventually blowing out their whole campaign off course.
Despite proclamations from directors Batman & Robin, also known as Ramon Calderon and Pedrag Mijatovic, that Madrid did not need any new players at the start of September, the pair quickly woke to the idea that they dreaded and fought for much of the past five months: The team simply needed to open their checkbook and sign up some players. Their worrying and enigmatic growing list of injuries meant that Schuster had to deal with a limited number of players, many of whom he did not wish to have in the first place, or simply lost faith in, such as Javi Garcia, Christoph Metzelder and Javier Saviola.
Twenty-four injuries since the start of the season. While some were minor knocks, a lot of them fall under the category of long-term lay-offs: recent news eliminated Pepe’s chances of competition till the New Year – missing “Black December” clashes against Barcelona, Valencia and Villarreal. Wesley Sneijder is out for two to three weeks, racing to be fit for the Clasico against Barcelona, while Mahmadou Diarra is our for three to six months, and main goalscorer Ruud van Nistelrooy for the rest of the season, something the Dutchman won’t be receiving well after missing out on a major chunk of the previous campaign. Embarrassing defeats to Juventus in the Champions League, fairytale exit in the Copa del Rey, and awful performances in the league. That was official: Real Madrid were a team in crisis.
Ramon Calderon decided to take action, and in an interview with Spanish newspaper “Marca”, announced that “two young, attacking forwards, capable of playing in the Champions League” were about to be unveiled in ten day’s time. True to his word, the president handed in, although a bit late, half of what his coach was crying for all summer long: a striker. Real swiftly managed an agreement with Ajax to bring Klaas-Jan Huntelaar to Spain starting for the New Year, in a deal that could rise to €27M depending on how well the Dutchman does with his new club.
So in the absence of Ruud “van Gol”, Huntelaar will be assuming main goal-scoring duty next to the team’s revelation this season, Gonzalo Higuain, and in the obvious fact that Bernd Schuster simply considers his “number 9”, Javier Saviola, as something less than a fringe player.
Huntelaar is currently the most prolific striker in all of Holland. An in-and-out fox in the box, like his countryman van Nistelrooy – a person he considers to have a very different playing style – Klaas-Jan Huntelaar is at 25 his country’s first choice striker, after earning applause all over the Netherlands for mercurial displays with his soon-to-be former team Ajax. Indeed, it wasn’t until he joined Ajax from SC Heerenveen that his stock went through the roof, even though his name was touted much earlier. In his first league season at Ajax, he managed 16 goals from 16 appearances. The next one, he scored 21 goals in 32 games, before finishing last season with his most impressive number, 33 goals in 34 league matches.
But do these impressive digits subsequently mean that the “Hunter” will necessarily find his scoring boots in La Liga? After all, isn’t the competition in Spain, as well as in England and Italy, among the best – i.e. “Big Three” – in Europe? To what extent will he be able to reproduce the goal tally that made him one of The Old Continent’s most dreaded strikers?
One thing’s obvious to start with: Playing for Ajax is one thing, and playing for Real Madrid is a totally different idea. One can only imagine the amount of pressure that will be established upon Huntelaar once the action has started. Coupled with the severity of van Nistelrooy’s injury, the landing Dutchman will have an entire burden bestowed upon him, something that won’t be lifting anytime before he starts hitting the back of the net on a frequent basis. If he fails to do so, expect him to be booed by the Bernabeu faithful.
If you were to analyze the situation in a critical way, there’s no reason to see Klaas-Jan Huntelaar turn into a big flop in Spain. First of all, most Dutch players who have chosen to venture into the intriguing hollows of La Liga have found success. Indeed, the most famous example is Barcelona legend Johan Cruyff, whose name needs no introduction. Other players who have been touted as potential failures have shut their critics up by managing to reproduce vintage performances that earned them the stature of fan favourites. Ruud van Nistelrooy is the most obvious example: Originally chosen to be a back-up to Brazilian Ronaldo, the Dutchman elbowed El Phenomeno out of the starting eleven, and out of Madrid for that matter.
Second, The “Hunter” is exactly what Real need at the moment: A poacher. Yes, Los Merengues have had Higuain fill in superbly that department, but they cannot continue to have him as the only substitute for striking duo Raul and van Nistelrooy, especially since both are on the wrong side of their thirties. Despite him claiming otherwise, he is exactly identical to van Nistelrooy: he just has a habit of finishing things off by being in the right place at the right time.
Thirdly, if you manage to score 33 goals in an approximate number of games: You must be good. You cannot be that prolific and fail miserably when put into different conditions that the ones you’ve been accustomed to. As of the moment of writing, Huntelaar has 105 goals in 128 games for Ajax, at a ratio of 0.82 strikes per match. It is hard to see this data modified drastically when put to a different kind of test.
It is usually said that a good striker is able to reproduce the same display, whichever league he plays. Just check out Diego Milito, Luca Toni and Ruud van Nistelrooy’s stats while they were playing for their previous clubs. The goal celebrations never stop coming, they might occur a little less often at times, but they still occur. However, that does not mean that each and every gifted forward can find their touch in other surroundings: Andriy Shevchenko was a shadow of his former self once he landed at Chelsea back in 2006 – whether or not his form was already dropping is a debate for another day.
It’s never easy when you make your big professional jump in football. Despite already having five Dutch players who will try to help him settle and tell him a thing or two on how the show is run in Spain, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar arrives to the pull Madrid out of the gutter. He has promised to give his all for his new team, and most of all, he has promised goals. With nothing more than an impressive résumé to show for now, let’s wait and see if he will deliver, for Madrid’s sake, and his own.
With one in the bag, and a supposed winger still waiting to be unveiled – names are David Silva or Angel di Maria – Madrid have some catching up to do if they want to be back in contention for La Liga and the Champions League. One thing’s for sure: Trophies or not, Bernd Schuster’s position will be questioned come May. As for the team’s latest signing, we’ll just have to wait and see just how well Huntelaar will do: If he stutters, no madridista would want to be in his shoes. If the goals start raining, expect sunny days in Spain’s capital.
