Kaka may have stolen the headlines but the Brazilian was the first to highlight Seedorf’s contribution last season. “For Milan, it’s essential that Clarence plays. He can turn it on at the highest level. He was super against Bayern Munich and against Manchester United he was absolutely fantastic. If you can do that, then you’re a big player.”
In the tradition of top Dutch players, Seedorf likes to have his say. That is fine with Ancelotti, whose coaching philosophy is rooted in dialogue. But Seedorf’s strong opinions have not always endeared him to coaches elsewhere. Before EURO 2004, he told Netherlands coach Dick Advocaat that he would only play if he could do so in his favourite role behind the strikers, a position in which Advocaat preferred Ajax’s Rafael van der
Vaart, now of German club Hamburg. “Rafael has more scoring ability,” the coach said. “I explained that to Seedorf but Clarence didn’t agree. He disputes everything.”
It would be misleading, however, to characterise Seedorf as some kind of maverick or loose cannon. On the pitch, he is competitive but controlled, modelling himself on former Milan and Netherlands midfielder Frank Rijkaard, now Barcelona coach, precisely for the “tranquillity Rijkaard used to transmit to his team-mates on the pitch.”
Off the pitch, Seedorf is quiet and thoughtful, even serious. When asked earlier this year about some of the problems facing Italian football, he replied: “We players can mean a lot more if we are more conscious of our responsibility to society. We would like families back in the stadiums but we should reach out our hands and start leading by example.” Having set up his own charitable foundation, Champions for Children, and having invested in building a stadium in his native Suriname, Seedorf is doing just that, leading by example.
Despite having league championship medals in the Netherlands, Spain and Italy to add to his Champions League haul, Seedorf is still burning with ambition to win something on the international stage. “It is about achieving things that I have not yet achieved. I still have the will to play in EUROs and World Cups. The desire is even greater now because I’m coming towards the end of my career. The clock is ticking. But you acquire the awareness about what you need to do to get results; to keep finding ways of getting the best out of yourself and the team.”
That would make Milan and the Netherlands the teams to look out for in 2008.

Surprisingly, Seedorf has not always been a favourite of the Milan faithful and had been jeered by fans earlier in the season. After the victory over Bayern he defended his contribution: “I have nothing to prove to anyone. I know that the hard work I do for the team every single day is done with the right attitude. I have struggled to fulfil my potential over the last few weeks and feel the responsibility I hold in this side, but I was happy to be back in shape. I hadn’t felt this good physically in a long time and the coach gave me the opportunity to just train hard for three or four days last week. It really made the difference, as I had been doing a lot of travelling and hardly any training.”
The secret of Seedorf’s transformation was a move forward from a role on the left side of a defensive midfield three to a more creative position alongside Kaka, just behind the striker, which involved Milan changing formation from 4-3-1-2 to 4-3-2-1. The switch was seen in Italy as a brilliant tactical intuition by Milan’s coach, Carlo Ancelotti. In fact, it was Seedorf who suggested it.
The improvement in Seedorf’s play was not lost on experienced Milan-watchers, including Riccardo Silva, the owner of the club’s television channel, Milan Channel. “Seedorf had an explosion of form in his new role. He doesn’t appear to run as much as players like Kaka or Gennaro Gattuso but the intelligence of his movement makes the difference.”
Silva classes Seedorf as “one of the top 10 midfielders in the world” and believes that he is underrated by the football media generally, something which is definitely not the case within the Milan family. Silva: “Clarence is charismatic and is tactically astute. He is one of a small group of senior players, alongside the likes of Paolo Maldini, whom Ancelotti listens to most on tactical matters.”

Seedorf accepts that to some extent his unique track record can be put down to being at the right club at the right time: “I have been lucky, I admit it, but luck is only part of it. You need a slice of luck to win the Champions League but you also need to be technically adept, to make the right decisions and most importantly, you need the right mentality. It wasn’t easy to leave Ajax aged 19, just as it wasn’t easy for me to leave Madrid and then Inter for Milan.”
Seedorf moved across the Italian city in 2002 and recently signed a contract extension with Milan until 2011. Last season’s campaign gave the player his fourth UEFA Champions League winner’s medal after victory in the final over Liverpool. His performances in the quarter-finals against Bayern Munich and in the semi-finals against Manchester United provided a masterclass in attacking midfield play, combining elusive movement “between the lines” of the opponents’ midfield and defence with an eye for goal. At the Allianz Arena and the San Siro he scored with powerful shots, but it was the goals he made for others that displayed the depth of Seedorf’s craft.
Against Bayern, Mr Champions League released striker Filippo Inzaghi with a delicate flick off the outside of his right boot that split the Munich defence. For Milan’s first against United, a shot by Kaka, Seedorf drifted off the shoulder of his marker towards the corner of the penalty area, pulling two defenders towards him, before cushioning a perfect header back into the space he had created for the Brazilian.