Ruben Kluivert is a right-footed central defender who joined Lyon in the summer of 2025. The twenty-four-year-old moved from Portuguese Primeira Liga side Casa Pia for a fee of €3.78 million and signed a five-year contract with the French club.
He is one of four sons of former Netherlands striker Patrick Kluivert who are making a name for themselves in European football. His older brother Justin plays as a forward for Bournemouth in the English Premier League whilst his younger half-brother Shane is in the youth ranks at Barcelona. The oldest of the four, Quincy, has been on the books at several Dutch clubs.
Youth football in the Netherlands
Ruben Kluivert was born in Amsterdam in May 2001, mid-way through his father’s six-year spell with Barcelona. His parents divorced in 2004 and whilst Patrick roamed Europe playing for Newcastle, Valencia, PSV and Lille, Ruben started his own football journey in his hometown with Amsterdamsche FC. Founded in 1895, Amsterdam’s oldest football club have produced a whole host of top players over the years, including the likes of Daley Blind and Bryan Brobbey, so it provided a great platform from which to launch his career.
However, Kluivert left them in 2018 to join the youth ranks at FC Utrecht, some 40 kilometres to the south of Amsterdam. There the seventeen-year-old was placed in the U-19 squad and made his debut in a 2-0 Dutch U-19 Cup defeat at AZ Alkmaar. Playing at centre-back, he got an assist the following weekend in a 3-1 victory against Volendam in the U-19 league. He didn’t feature again until the spring, when he returned to the team for a 12-game unbeaten run, which saw them finish second in the U-19 Division 2 table. That run also included the first goal of his career, against De Graafschap U-19.
There was more of the same the following season as Kluivert continued to gain experience at U-19 level. In January 2020, he stepped up to make his debut for the U-21 side in a 3-1 defeat at SC Cambuur. The Utrecht U-21 team, known as Jong Utrecht (Young Utrecht), are one of a handful of reserve teams who compete in the second tier of the Dutch football pyramid, so this match constituted Kluivert’s senior debut. He made one further appearance for Jong Utrecht in February 2020 before football was suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Early experience at Utrecht
When football resumed in August, Ruben Kluivert was a regular in the Jong Utrecht squad and he went on to make 21 appearances in the Eerste Divisie that season, scoring once, as his club struggled to an 18th place finish. Another season at the same level followed in 2021-22 although injuries hampered his playing time during the first half of the campaign. He came on strongly after the turn of the year and even captained the side on several occasions as they toiled towards another 18th place finish.
By the end of that season, Kluivert found himself on the bench for the FC Utrecht first team as they chased a European spot in the top-flight Eredivisie. He got on for his debut in the last home game of the season, a 2-2 draw against AZ Alkmaar. Manager Rick Kruys brought him off the bench in the final minute to replace retiring club captain Willem Janssen.
However, that fleeting appearance didn’t quite herald a breakthrough and the young centre-back remained on the fringe of the first team throughout the following 2022-23 campaign. His playing time was divided equally between the FC Utrecht and Jong Utrecht teams, making thirteen league appearances for each. In the close-season, the club hierarchy decided that his future lay elsewhere and Kluivert was allowed to move to FC Dordrecht on a free transfer.
Developing at Dordrecht
Kluivert’s Dordrecht debut, under manager Michele Santoni, came against his former club when he was brought on for the final minutes of a 3-3 draw against Jong Utrecht at the Stadion Krommedijk. His first start for his new club came in a 1-0 win at TOP Oss three days later, but his progress was stopped in its tracks in the closing stages of the very next game, when he suffered a syndesmosis ligament tear.
That injury kept him on the side-lines until the new year, but he soon re-established himself as a starter and helped Dordrecht finish the season with a 13 game unbeaten run to reach the promotion play-offs, where they lost to Emmen over two legs. Kluivert celebrated his 23rd birthday three days after that play-off disappointment and, having been a consistent performer in the Dutch second tier for the best part of four seasons, decided it was time to seek a move and progress his career elsewhere.
Onwards and upwards
An opportunity for top-flight football came from Casa Pia of the Portuguese Primeira Liga and he jumped at the chance to try his luck with the Lisbon-based club, who shelled out €900,000 for his services. Ruben Kluivert made his debut as a late substitute on matchday 5 of the season in a 3-1 home win against Moreirense. Manager João Pereira handed him a first start two games later in a 1-1 draw against Vitória Guimarães SC, which was the first of seven successive starts for the young Dutchman. During that run he scored the only goal of a 1-0 win against Nacional.
However, Kluivert was relegated to the bench for the next twelve games before regaining a starting spot towards the end of the season. An adductor injury caused him to miss the final four matches as Casa Pia finished a creditable ninth in the table and he finished with a tally of 13 starts plus 8 substitute appearances in the Primeira Liga and a further 3 starts in the Taça de Portugal.
Given his relatively low-profile career thus far, it was something of a surprise when Lyon came in with a €3.78 million offer to buy him in summer 2025. Their Portuguese manager Paulo Fonseca must have heard good reports on him emanating from his homeland and opted to recruit him as a back-up for centre-backs Clinton Mata and Moussa Niakhaté.
Finding his feet in Lyon
As expected, Ruben Kluivert began his Lyon career on the bench, but he came off it to make his debut in the second Ligue 1 fixture of the season at home to Metz. He replaced Mata for the final few minutes of the comfortable 3-0 win. Similarly brief cameo appearances followed in the subsequent two games before he was handed his first start in Lyon’s opening UEFA Europa League fixture.
Fittingly, the draw for that competition had thrown up a trip back to FC Utrecht, where he had taken his first steps in senior football just a few years earlier. He lined up at right-back for Lyon at the Stadion Galgenwaard and made some positive attacking contributions in a 1-0 win. Kluivert’s first goal for Lyon came in the next Europa League encounter, where his header from a Karabec corner wrapped up a 2-0 win against RB Salzburg.
He made a couple of starts in Ligue 1 before an ankle sprain in November kept him out of action for a month. Handily, his comeback in December coincided with the departure of both Mata and Niakhaté to the Africa Cup of Nations. Kluivert stepped up to fill the massive void in the Lyon defence that was created by their absence and played the full 90 minutes in the next three games.
That run of three wins included the major scalps of AS Monaco in the league and Lille in the Coupe de France and his assured performances proved that he’s ready to be counted on whenever required. His versatility allows him to fill in at either right-back or centre-back and should mean that he gains more playing time in the second half of the season. It has been a promising start to his Lyon career, which bodes well for his future at the club.