Parimatch Meets Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink: Chelsea, Toughest Opponent & Premier League

Jimmy reflects on his career at Chelsea and how a transfer to Stamford Bridge came to fruition

Parimatch: Jimmy, you returned to the Premier League after prolific season in the league with Atletico Madrid, but what made you choose Chelsea?

Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink: The year before when I was at Leeds, Chelsea showed some interest in me and I wanted to go, but Leeds didn’t want to sell me to an English club so I decided to go to Atletico instead. I was planning to stay in Madrid for four years because I had signed a four-year contract, but when we went down Atletico couldn’t keep me in the second tier.

So when Chelsea came in for me again and made an offer, I had my heart set on it. I wanted to come back to England and it was a great opportunity to do so with Chelsea, it proved me right, I made the right choice.

Parimatch: Gianluca Vialli was in charge when you arrived at the club, although it was only a short period of time you had together. But what was it like to work with the great man?

Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink: He was magnificent. A great guy, a great football guy and a striker like me. So that was also one of the points why I wanted to sign for Chelsea. It was really unfortunate to see him leave after just a little bit of time. But he was very, very good.

Parimatch: Another manager you worked under was Claudio Ranieri, both in Madrid and Chelsea. How big an impact did he have on your career?

Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink: A big impact I think. He’s a very experienced manager who has worked at lots of clubs, he’s been everywhere! He has his good & bad things like everybody, but I worked with him for five years so he’s seen me the most out of all the managers I’ve worked with during my career, so we had a really good bond.

Although it did break down a little in the last year because Abramovich came in and gave him a lot of money to spend. He brought in two other strikers and all of a sudden I wasn’t the favourite anymore, but then at the end of the season I became the favourite again because I ended up being the most consistent one.

Parimatch: When you think about that era when you were at the club, the talent that was there alongside you with the likes of Gianfranco Zola, Eidur Gudjohnsen – how was it competing with them? Did they help take you to the next level and was there a good amount of competition?

Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink: Always! But that is part of being at a big club. You want to go to a bigger club with better players, with bigger competition. You have to produce every game and the supporters are expecting you to win every game, it’s a normal thing and you have to be able to handle it.

Parimatch: Looking back, there’s plenty of highs, but one of the lowest must have been that FA Cup final when you came up with the calf injury. How much did that hurt you?

Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink: Yeah, I should have never started the game, but obviously I just wanted to try, I didn’t want to miss it. It was a silly thing I did, I was injured and I should not have gone on and then we ended up losing 2-0 against Arsenal. I would have loved to have won the FA Cup.

Parimatch: It’s a competition that a lot of players who come to the English game from abroad mention they that watched as a kid. Was it something you were aware of then?

Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink: Of course, in Holland we watch all of the finals. It’s a big competition, the biggest cup competition. It’s an honour to have played in two FA Cup finals, but to lose in both hurts me big time.

Parimatch: Were there a couple of favourites that you really enjoyed playing with?

Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink: I enjoyed playing with Eidur Gudjohnson, we had a really good bond and a great connection. I also enjoyed playing with Gianfranco Zola as well, he was so creative, an exceptional player. But there were so many great players at Chelsea during my time there, you can’t forget John Terry, Marcel Desailly and Emmanuel Petit too, we had so many really good players.

Parimatch: In your time at Chelsea lots of top players came into the club, one being a young Frank Lampard. What were your first impressions of Frank? Did he have all the makings of the player that he became for Chelsea and the club legend he turned into?

Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink: He was a very shrewd buy for Chelsea, just £11m. With Frank you could just see that he had the talent, he had an eye for goal, he knew when to make runs and his timings were absolutely magnificent. Then he just worked so hard on himself and he just got better and better and better and that’s why he became the player that he is. He was a massive, massive buy for the club.

Jimmy provides insight into his toughest opponents, favourite away stadiums and who’s impressing him in the Premier League today

Parimatch: In your time in the Premier League, who was the toughest defender that you had to face?

Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink: I didn’t like playing against Rio Ferdinand, he had everything. He was smart, quick, strong – I didn’t like facing him.

Parimatch: Was there a stadium in the Premier League which you loved scoring at when playing away from home, one that gave you a lot of stick?

Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink: I always did well at White Hart Lane, always, it was special. I also liked the stadium, really nice and compact. Not a lot of people in it, it was only like 35,000 but it had something.

Parimatch: What advice would you give to young players from abroad coming to the Premier League because it’s quite unique, isn’t it? And do you think the competitions got stronger since you played in it?

Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink: Yeah it really has and you have to be ready to work. It’s the best competition in the whole world, best place, best fans, best stadiums and it’s definitely got stronger. If you look at the last two years it’s been Man City, Liverpool and Arsenal this year. But there are so many more clubs that can win it, in my time it was Manchester United and Arsenal, but we fell short. Back then Liverpool and Spurs were never in it, it’s a totally different world now.

Parimatch: When you’re doing punditry Jimmy, which player out there across the Premier League do you most enjoy watching?

Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink: There’s a few. I really like James Maddison because he’s just so creative and I think he could be in line for a big transfer soon. I also really like Bukayo Saka and Marcus Rashford who has really surprised me, he’s come back so strong. I’ve also enjoyed watching Levi Colwill on loan at Brighton, he’s really impressed me. I think he’s going to develop into a really big player.

Thiago Silva is another I love to watch, every problem he’s trying to resolve it football wise, he barely kicks a ball in the stand, he barely just heads the ball away. He always gets it to his teammates, he’s so composed. Erling Haaland is obviously an exceptional finisher, but I also love watching Gündoğan, I think he’s really underrated and he doesn’t get enough credit.

You can check out all the latest Premier League odds & football betting markets at Parimatch.

18+ | begambleaware.org | Please Gamble Responsibly