The 36-year-old was far from blockbuster, but he was the player managers and his team-mates most appreciated so deservedly bows out as a champion
“You’re blessed when you’ve got someone like him,” the late, legendary Johan Cruyff wrote of Dirk Kuyt in 2014.
Four years earlier, the notoriously hard-to-please maven had declared his fellow Dutchman “worth his weight in gold.”
Those that have had the pleasure of working with the 36-year-old, who announced his retirement on Wednesday, would enthusiastically nod at that assessment.
Kuyt was not the player you’d pay money to watch, but he made those ones better.