VAN HOOIJDONK could be on his way back to English football and might even end up at Nottingham Forest.
Not the towering Dutch striker Pierre who fired Forest to promotion in 1997-98 before infamously going on strike, but his son Sydney.
The highly rated 20-year-old has a clause in his contract allowing him to leave his club Breda on a free transfer in the New Year transfer window.
He has refused to extend his deal and is now looking for a career in England, which has alerted a number of Championship clubs.
His father’s former club Forest are reported to be interested, along with Swansea City and Sheffield Wednesday.
Sydney has scored eight times this season and provided two assists in the Dutch second tier.
The 6ft 3in front man has scored 15 goals from 22 starts and has made an additional 21 substitute appearances for Breda, providing four assists in all.
He had a remarkable rise through the youth ranks at at the club where his father also enjoyed two spells.
Sydney scored 35 times in 41 appearances for the under-18s before breaking into the first team squad.
It was in English football’s second tier where Van Hooijdonk senior scored 29 goals in 42 league games to fire Forest back into the top flight at the first attempt in 1997-98.
He was also voted the club’s player of the year but then infamously went on strike at the start of the following season when Forest refused to sell him.
Van Hooijdonk claimed he had a verbal agreement with the manager Dave Basset to let him go if Forest got promoted
He finally returned to finish the 1998-99 season – scoring six times – but could not stop the club from being relegated.
Having won the Scottish Cup with Celtic before he moved to Forest, he went on to win more honours – lifting the UEFA Cup with Feyenoord and two titles in Turkey with Fenerbache.
Now, his son is aiming to follow his father into English football as clubs start to queue up to land his signature.
