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Faas Wilkes

Faas Wilkes
Faas Wilkes (1961).jpg
Faas Wilkes (1961)
Personal information
Full name Servaas "Faas" 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 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Playing position Forward
Youth career
1940–1945 Xerxes Rotterdam
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1945–1949 Xerxes 71 (49)
1949–1952 Internazionale 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 28 (10)
Total 454 (221)
National team
1946–1961 Netherlands 38 (35)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

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 Dutch 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.

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.

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


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