Who Is Dennis Te Kloese?
Dennis te Kloese’s appointment as Feyenoord’s technical director came at the same time as Arne Slot was preparing the first-team squad for a season that would ultimately result in their first Eredivisie title win since the 2016/17 season when Giovanni van Bronckhorst led De club aan de Maas to league title glory.
It was a very memorable debut season at the club for the 49-year-old Dutchman, who’d spent the entirety of his career in North America, mostly in Mexico.
From 2003 until 2018, he held various roles for Chivas, Tigres UANL, and the Mexican national team.
He then became a director at MLS franchise LA Galaxy for three years.
On departing the USA, Te Kloese embarked on a new challenge — this time in his native Netherlands as the technical director of a Feyenoord side on the up, having moved from fifth place in 2020/21 under Dick Advocaat to third in 2021/22 under Arne Slot in the promising young coach’s first campaign at De Kuip.
One of Te Kloese’s well-known successes thus far in his time as Feyenoord boss is undoubtedly his achievement of tying Slot down to a new contract until 2026 just under a year ago, in May 2023, at a time when the coach was said to be attracting interest from plenty of clubs, including EPL regulars Tottenham Hotspur.
That continuity and stability should serve Feyenoord well over the coming seasons.
Quality and experience are present in key areas, which will fill fans and players alike with confidence in the project.
This analysis will examine some other key areas of Te Kloese’s work with the Dutch giants thus far, focusing mostly on recruitment and squad composition.
It will also examine the Dutchman’s expert knowledge of the North American/Mexican market and how Feyenoord has used that knowledge to turbo-charge its success.
It will be, in part, a data analysis piece, using data and statistics relevant to the areas we’re discussing to explain Te Kloese’s work further.
Feyenoord Transfer Activity
Feyenoord’s transfer activity is something Te Kloese can expect his work at the club to be judged on considerably.
In an interview last summer with the Dutch publication ‘De Volkskrant’, Te Kloese, fresh off Feyenoord’s title win and entering another transfer window, explained his habit of conducting extensive scouting work even during his time off, declaring: “It’s wonderful work and I can’t resist.”
Of course, as Te Kloese also granted, Feyenoord will have dedicated scouts whose job it truly is to identify and evaluate players of interest for the club; still, this bit of insight sheds an exciting light on the hands-on nature of Te Kloese’s relationship with the scouting and recruitment processes in place at De Kuip.
As Te Kloese arrived in the summer of 2022, Feyenoord became something of a talent shop with a heap of demand.
This was the transfer window that saw Luis Sinisterra depart for Leeds United, Tyrell Malacia go to join Erik ten Hag’s Manchester United project, Marcos Senesi head to Bournemouth, and Fredrik Aursnes leave swap the Netherlands for Portugal as he took on a new challenge at Benfica.
Along with Bryan Linssen’s move to Urawa Reds in the J1 League, these were the five departures that brought in transfer fees for Feyenoord last term — and those fees totalled €69.3m, the highest total De club aan de Maas has ever generated from player sales.
A lot of things go through one’s mind when such an occurrence happens, none the least of which is that the money must be reinvested.
However, that reinvestment needed to be done intelligently, as we know it’s very easy to burn money in football.
