Luciano Narsingh

Luciano Narsingh (born 13 September 1990) is a Dutch footballer who currently plays for Eredivisie club PSV Eindhoven. He is right-footed and usually plays as a right winger but can also play as a left winger, and both side of attacking midfield. Since 2012 he has also played for the Netherlands national team, whom he represented at that year's European Championship.

Youth

Narsingh was born in Amsterdam. His grandparents were contract workers from India who were taken to work on plantations in Suriname.^[1] His older brother, Furdjel Narsingh, also plays professional football. Together they played in the AFC Ajax youth academy for several years. But when Luciano was found to be too light for Ajax to go further he was picked up by sc Heerenveen and grown as one of the great talents. Furdjel moved to AZ Alkmaar but after being loaned out a couple times he transferred to FC Zwolle in the Eerste Divisie, the country's second level of professional club football.

Club career

Heerenveen

In 2008 Narsingh signed a contract with SC Heerenveen till 2013. He made his official debut on 29 October 2008 in the Eredivisie under trainer Trond Sollied. He replaced the injured Danijel Pranjić in a 2–0 loss against Vitesse. A month later he was allowed to play in the away match against FC Twente (6–0 loss). In the 2009–2010 season Narsingh also came in action twice. The following year, however, he made his breakthrough under coach Ron Jans and Narsingh grew into a sensation in the Eredivisie because of his dribbling skills, speed and passing movements and drove Roy Beerens from the first eleven. In the 2011–12 Eredivisie, Narsingh set up 20 goals, meaning he gave most assists in the Eredivisie that year.On 15 July 2012, SC Heerenveen and Dutch giants PSV Eindhoven reached an agreement to transfer the young talent to Eindhoven for an amount of €4.1 million.^[2]

PSV

The first half of Narsingh's first season started very well, with the forward six goals and five assist and PSV comfortably led the table with eleven wins out of thirteen games played. Later in the season however Narsingh suffered a serious ligament injury against NAC Breda that would keep him out for the rest of the season. When Narsingh came back to playing form in October 2013 Dick Advocaat had been replaced by Phillip Cocu as head coach who refused to gamble on Narsingh and didn't give him much playing time. In the 2014 against the defending champions Ajax Narsingh completed his recovery by first set up Memphis Depay for the equalizer and then scoring himself in a surprise 3–1 win.^[3]

On 18 April 2015, Narsingh set up the opening goal within three minutes for Luuk de Jong and then scored the final goal as PSV defeated Heerenveen 4–1 to win their 22nd Eredivisie title, and first since 2008.^[4]

International career

In February 2012, Luciano Narsingh was called up for the first time by Bert van Marwijk to represent the senior Netherlands football team for the game against England at Wembley.^[5] On 7 May, he was named in the provisional list of 36 players for the UEFA Euro 2012 tournament, one of nine uncapped players to be chosen by manager Bert van Marwijk as part of the preliminary squad.^[6] He was handed his unofficial international debut in a friendly match against Bayern Munich, during which he scored once. He made the final cut of 23 players to represent the Netherlands at the tournament.^[7] He made his official debut in a friendly match against Slovakia on 30 May.

Narsingh scored his first international goal in a 4–2 defeat to Belgium on 15 August 2012. He was involved in the Netherlands' qualification for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, scoring once and giving three assists in 4 games, until his injury. Narsingh was not able to participate in the World Cup due to his injury and his spot was taken by Leroy Fer.

Career statistics

Club

Statistics accurate as of last match played on 8 May 2016.

International goals

Goal	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	15 August 2012	King Baudouin Stadium, Brussels, Belgium	Belgium	1–1	4–2	Friendly
2.	7 September 2012	Amsterdam ArenA, Amsterdam, Netherlands	Turkey	2–0	2–0	2014 World Cup qualification
3.	12 June 2015	Skonto Stadium, Riga, Latvia	Latvia	2–0	2–0	UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying
4.	29 March 2016	Wembley Stadium, London, England	England	1–2	1–2	Friendly

Honours

Club

PSV Eindhoven

• Eredivisie (2): 2014–15, 2015–16
• Johan Cruijff Schaal (2): 2012, 2015

Individual

• Most assists in the Eredivisie in the 2011/12 campiagn (22)

References

External links

• Voetbal International profile (Dutch)

Netherlands squad – UEFA Euro 2012
1 Stekelenburg 2 Van der Wiel 3 Heitinga 4 Mathijsen 5 Bouma 6 Van Bommel (c) 7 Kuyt 8 N. de Jong 9 Huntelaar 10 Sneijder 11 Robben 12 Vorm 13 Vlaar 14 Schaars 15 Willems 16 Van Persie 17 Strootman 18 L. de Jong 19 Narsingh 20 Afellay 21 Boulahrouz 22 Krul 23 Van der Vaart Coach: Van Marwijk