Barcelona swoop to tie down club legend's 16-year-old son to first pro contract
Shane Kluivert, the son of former Barcelona striker Patrick Kluivert, has signed a first professional deal with the club.
The youngster penned a three-year contract with Barca on Monday – the day after he turned 16. He has been with the club’s famed La Masia academy since the age of nine, having joined from Paris Saint-Germain.
The forward is following in the footsteps of his family, with Patrick himself the son of a former professional – Kenneth Kluivert, who played for Suriname. Two of Shane’s older brothers, Justin and Ruben, are also professional footballers, while 26-year-old Quincy played for Ajax as a youngster but is now a DJ.
Justin, 24, plays as a winger for Bournemouth in the Premier League, while Ruben, 22, turns out for Dordrecht in the Dutch second division as a defender. They all have some way to go in trying to emulate their father, who played for Barca between 1998 and 2004, scoring 122 goals and providing 60 assists in 257 appearances.
Patrick Kluivert helped Barcelona win La Liga in 1998/99 and later returned to the club to work as the director of La Masia between 2019 and 2021. It is his successor in the position, Jose Ramon Alexanco, who was pictured with Shane Kluivert when he signed his contract.
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Kluivert Sr reacted to the news by posting a video on Instagram which showed Shane’s journey from tiny child to Barcelona. Justin replied with a heart emoji, along with former Netherlands international Boudewijn Zenden and ex-Spain player Gaizka Mendieta.
Shane Kluivert with his dad Patrick after signing the contract (@shanekluivert/Instagram)Shane, who already has 346,000 followers on Instagram, posted: “Very proud and honored to have signed my first professional contract with @fcbarcelona Thank you for the trust! Visca el Barça”. He made headlines back in 2017 by becoming the youngest European athlete to sign a contract with Nike.
Shane Kluivert is far from the first son of a club legend to come through Barcelona’s academy. Lionel Messi ’s son Thiago Messi, Neymar’s son Davi Lucca, Gerard Pique’s son Milan Pique and Luis Suarez’s son Benjamin Suarez have all been enrolled at the club.
The teenager might be wise to follow the advice his father gave his brother Justin when he signed for Bournemouth this summer: be more selfish. “That’s what made him score a lot of goals and what makes a striker,” Justin told The Times. “Being more selfish is not bad, it can help the team. If you want to pass every ball you’re not going to score.”
“I am a team player but for sure if there is a 50-50 chance, I need to shoot. My father also told me to enjoy the game and then the best things happen. If you don’t enjoy it and get stressed, then you don’t do the best on the pitch.”
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