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Faas Wilkes

Dutch footballer (1923-2006)

Faas Wilkes

Wilkes in 1960
Personal information
Full name	Servaas Wilkes
Date of birth	(1923-10-13)13 October 1923
Place of birth	Rotterdam, Netherlands
Date of death	15 August 2006(2006-08-15) (aged 82)
Place of death	Rotterdam, Netherlands
Height	1.84 m (6 ft 0 in)
Position(s)	Forward
Youth career
1933–1934	RSV HION
1934–1941	Xerxes Rotterdam
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1941–1949	Xerxes Rotterdam	71	(49)
1949–1952	Inter Milan	95	(47)
1952–1953	Torino	12	(1)
1953–1956	Valencia	62	(38)
1956–1958	VVV	64	(23)
1958–1959	Levante	34	(20)
1959–1962	Fortuna '54	88	(33)
1962–1964	Xerxes Rotterdam	28	(10)
Total		454	(221)
International career
1946–1961	Netherlands[1]	38	(35)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Servaas "Faas" Wilkes (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈfaːs ˈʋɪlkəs], 13 October 1923 – 15 August 2006) was a Dutch football forward, who earned a total of 38 caps for the Netherlands national team, in which he scored 35 goals (average 0.92 goals per game). However, for a prolonged period of his career, June 1949 through till March 1955, he was banned from the national team since the KNVB did not allow professional players to participate. He also played for the Netherlands at the 1948 Summer Olympics.^[2]

Career[edit]

Wilkes played for Xerxes Rotterdam, before moving to Internazionale in the summer of 1949. There he played 95 matches, scoring 47 goals. After his stay in Milan ended in 1952, he had a one-season spell at Torino. At age 30 he moved to Valencia in Spain, scoring a total of 38 goals in 62 appearances between 1953–54 and 1955–56, making him the first foreign idol of the club. He also played for VVV, Levante, and Fortuna '54. He died of a cardiac arrest in 2006, aged 82.

He is considered one of the best footballers the Netherlands ever produced, being especially known for his creative style of play and brilliant dribbling. Wilkes was the 4th Dutch player (after Gerrit Keizer, Bep Bakhuys and Gerrit Vreken) who moved to play abroad. He held the record of most goals scored for the Netherlands national team from 1959 until 1998.

The Dutch cartoon character Kick Wilstra was named in part after Faas Wilkes (Wilstra was also named after two other Dutch men's footballers, Kick Smit and Abe Lenstra).

Career statistics[edit]

Player[edit]

^[3]

International[edit]

Scores and results list Netherlands's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Wilkes goal.

List of international goals scored by Faas Wilkes

No.	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition	Ref.
1	10 March 1946	Stade Municipal, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg	Luxembourg	1-0	6-2	Friendly	[4]
2				2-1
3				3-1
4				6-1
5	12 May 1946	Olympic Stadium, Amsterdam, Netherlands	Belgium	1-1	6-3	Friendly	[5]
6				5-3
7				6-3
8	30 May 1946	Bosuilstadion, Antwerp, Belgium	Belgium	1-0	2-2	Friendly	[6]
9				2-0
10	21 September 1947	Olympic Stadium, Amsterdam, Netherlands	Switzerland	2-1	6-2	Friendly	[7]
11				6-2
12	9 June 1948	Olympic Stadium, Amsterdam, Netherlands	Sweden	1-0	1-0	Friendly	[8]
13	26 July 1948	Fratton Park, Portsmouth, United Kingdom	Republic of Ireland	1-0	3-1	1948 Summer Olympics	[9]
14				3-1
15	31 July 1948	Arsenal Stadium, London, United Kingdom	Great Britain	3-3	3-4	1948 Summer Olympics	[10]
16	23 April 1949	De Kuip, Rotterdam, Netherlands	France	4-1	4-1	Friendly	[11]
17	12 June 1949	Københavns Idrætspark, Copenhagen, Denmark	Denmark	2-1	2-1	Friendly	[12]
18	19 May 1955	De Kuip, Rotterdam, Netherlands	Switzerland	1-0	4-1	Friendly	[13]
19				4-0
20	6 June 1956	Olympic Stadium, Amsterdam, Netherlands	Saar	3-1	3-2	Friendly	[14]
21	3 April 1957	Olympic Stadium, Amsterdam, Netherlands	West Germany	1-1	1-2	Friendly	[15]
22	11 September 1957	De Kuip, Rotterdam, Netherlands	Luxembourg	2-1	5-2	1958 FIFA World Cup qualification	[16]
23	17 November 1957	De Kuip, Rotterdam, Netherlands	Belgium	3-0	5-2	Friendly	[17]
24				4-0
25	13 April 1958	Bosuilstadion, Antwerp, Belgium	Belgium	5-1	7-2	Friendly	[18]
26				6-1
27	23 April 1958	De Kuip, Rotterdam, Netherlands	Netherlands Antilles	1-0	8-1	Friendly	[19]
28				2-0
29	4 May 1958	Olympic Stadium, Amsterdam, Netherlands	Turkey	1-0	1-2	Friendly	[20]
30	4 October 1959	De Kuip, Rotterdam, Netherlands	Belgium	3-0	9-1	Friendly	[21]
31				4-0
32				6-0
33	4 November 1959	De Kuip, Rotterdam, Netherlands	Norway	3-1	7-1	Friendly	[22]
34				7-1
35	19 April 1961	Olympic Stadium, Amsterdam, Netherlands	Mexico	1-1	1-2	Friendly	[23]

Honours[edit]

Internazionale

• Serie A runner-up: 1950–51
• Serie A third place: 1949–50, 1951–52

Valencia

• La Liga Third Place: 1953–54
• Concepción Arenal Trophy: 1954^[24]

Levante

• Segunda División Runner-up: 1958–59

Individual

• Netherlands All-Time Top Scorer: 1959–1998^[25]
• Spanish Player of the Year: 1954^[26]
• Internazionale Top Scorer: 1950–51^[27]
• Valencia Top Scorer: 1953–54, 1955–56^[28][29]
• Levante Top Scorer: 1958–59^[30]

References[edit]

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Faas Wilkes.

• Faas WilkesatVoetbal International (in Dutch)
• Faas Wilkes at BDFutbol
• Faas Wilkes at Wereld van Oranje (archived) (in Dutch)
• In memorial for Faas Wilkes Archived 16 April 2021 at the Wayback Machine (Dutch)