klinker began his football career playing for lions'71 in the svb eerste klasse, the second tier of football in suriname. in 1978, he was recruited and joined the youth ranks of s.v. robinhood, joining the first team a year later. he made his first appearance for the first team in 1979 in a match against s.v. leo victor which ended in a 7–0 win at the national stadion. he won the national championship a total of 12 times during the span of his career before retiring as a player in 1995. he also finished as the league top scorer in both 1982 and 1983. he would help robinhood to consecutive concacaf champions' cup finals, finishing as runners-up to unam from mexico, losing 3–2 on aggregate score in 1983 scoring once in the final; and again against c.f. atlante from mexico losing 6–1 on aggregate score a year later. in 1994 and 1995 he helped robinhood to win the suriname president's cup twice.