Kuyt can't wait to face Utrecht

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.

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.

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.

Utrecht's coach at the time, Mark Wotte, thought the 17-year-old had potential.

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."

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.

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.

He also earned a one-million Euro move to Feyenoord, one of Dutch football's big three.

Bert van Marwijk, later to become the Dutch national coach, brought him to Feyenoord and became an influential figure in Kuyt's development.

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.

"He was the one who thought I was capable of anything.

"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.

"Scoring the most goals doesn't worry me, because only if you work together, as a team, can you achieve anything."

Three years, 101 appearances and 71 goals later, Kuyt made his £10 million move to Liverpool.

Utrecht's current manager is Ton du Chatinier and under his stewardship the club from south east of Amsterdam finished seventh in the Dutch top flight last season.

It was enough to earn a play-off against Roda and secure a Europa League qualifying place.

Utrecht then reached the group stages of the competition by eliminating Tirana, Luzern and Celtic. The Glasgow side were beaten 4-2 on aggregate with Utrecht recovering from a two-goal deficit after the first leg.

Utrecht opened the Group K campaign with a goalless draw at Napoli with Du Chatinier commenting: "If we had said in advance that we would take a point at Napoli, I would have been delighted."

Utrecht's domestic and European records are modest in comparison to Liverpool's. Formed in 1970 from the merger of three clubs - DOS, Elinkwijk and Velox - Utrecht have won the Dutch Cup three times, in 1985, 2003 and 2004.

They are the only Dutch club from outside the big three of Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord never to have been relegated from the top flight.

Utrecht regularly pull in crowds of around 20,000 and are unbeaten in six league and cup games at home so far this season.

Striker Ricky Wolfswinkel has been prolific in European competition, scoring six goals in seven appearances.

Liverpool enjoy another connection to Utrecht via Academy goalkeeping coach John Achterberg.

The former Tranmere Rovers goalkeeper began his playing career with home-town club Utrecht in 1985.

Achterberg had to move to NAC Breda and then Eindhoven to find first-team football before joining Tranmere in 1998.

By the time Achterberg left Rovers to join Liverpool's backroom staff in 2009, he had played more than 300 games, become a firm crowd favourite and earned a testimonial game.

This story has been reproduced from today's media. It does not necessarily represent the position of Liverpool Football Club.