#9 Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink
Born in Suriname, Dutch forward Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink first came to notice when he signed for Leeds United in late 1997. It wasn’t long before he made a name for himself in England when he was awarded the Golden Boot in 1998-99. He ended up scoring 34 goals in 69 appearances during that time with the Yorkshire side. His successful spell was followed by a move to Atletico Madrid in Spain for a fee of £10 million in 1999.
It was in the Spanish capital where Hasselbaink faced the toughest test of his career. Even though he would go back to England and join Chelsea in 2000 and win his second Golden Boot after scoring 23 goals in 2000-01, it wasn’t before he faced much embarrassment in Atletico. The forward’s time in Spain started off on the right track under manager Claudio Ranieri. He scored a brace in the Madrid derby beating the Los Blancos at the Bernabeu for the first time in almost a decade and scored against Barcelona at the Camp Nou too.
However, despite Ranieri’s best efforts, the club’s performance was poor and the Italian resigned. Even though the club would qualify for the Cop del Rey final under replacement manager Radomir Antic, they were also relegated to the Segunda Division in Spain the same year. A clause in his contract allowed Hasselbaink to leave after the club’s failure to remain in the top flight as he signed for Chelsea and the rest, as they say, is history.
He was the club’s top scorer for three out of the four years he was there. He also reached the final of an FA Cup and reached his highest league finish of second place in 2003-04. He almost ended up at Barcelona thereafter but the dismissal of Louis van Gaal meant he had to do with moving to Middlesbrough, Charlton Atheltic and finally Cardiff City.
