Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink

Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink (born 27 March 1972) is a professional football manager and former player who is currently an assistant coach for the Suriname national team.

Quotes

• I scored in that game and so did my good friend Mario Melchiot,’ he said. ‘We comfortably won the game 2-0 and everybody thought we were going to win the league. But we didn’t!
• ‘That is why when I came in and it all worked, and especially the first year, winning the Golden Boot, it made the fans even more appreciative of me.
• I have to say, he was my best-ever strike partner; it was the perfect combination for me, but also for him. I had something that he didn’t have and he definitely had something I didn’t have. So it was just good working together – and we loved working together. We were looking for each other all the time and it was a great partnership.
• The secret to our success wasn't very secret – we just enjoyed playing together. We understood each other's movements and spoke Dutch to each other on the pitch, but I think the main thing was just enjoyment.
  • Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink: Service with a snarl, March 27 2026
• You should have seen me at 16. One of those bad boys, running with a gang, trying to look cool and act hard. I thought I was a tough guy, stealing or scaring people with my friends. Crazy huh?
• It has a rich area and a poor area. We were in the poor area with a lot of people from Surinam, Turkey and Morocco. We lived in this 14-storey block. Sometimes I’d be playing football at the back with my mates and we’d see a body falling. We saw people kill themselves two or three times and we weren’t surprised. There were a lot of broken people, a lot of bad things. I carried a knife myself but I never used it because, really, it was just to look cool.
• Yes - in the sense I was easily influenced and wanted to fit in. I was actually quite a smart learner but it was more important to look cool. That was stupid. And it was tough for my mum. She had to provide for six children who came with her from Surinam. My dad, who was no good, stayed in Surinam and that’s why I took the wrong direction.
• One night we went to Amsterdam to see Public Enemy. We had no tickets so we just took them off people. But those guys whose tickets we stole went to the police. The police searched my home and found watches and car radios. I was dealing in stolen goods.
• I went to court and stood in front of the judge. She sent me to this detention centre, Het Poortje, for three months. I pretended it was a big joke but it was like jail. It hit me when I walked into this scary room I had to share with three other guys - and one was crazy. He didn’t get violent but you had to watch him carefully. He was Moroccan and you never knew what he was shouting because he couldn’t speak Dutch. Maybe it was the big shock I needed. When I got out it took me a long time to get disciplined but football was the one thing, with my mum, that promised me I could do something better in life.
• It is the second time I go back because we played Chelsea in January. I was given a medal before the game and made to feel very special. Chelsea is the club closest to my heart. They have always made me feel one of them.
  • Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink: ’I was lucky. Football gave me a way out’, November 29 2005