The Kitchen Champion Division has been a breeding ground for national and foreign talents for decades and this season there are again many footballers with potential at the second level. Football zone, the official media partner of the Kitchen Champion Division, highlights one of these talents every week, this time focusing on Kevin Felida, the ‘N’Golo Kanté of FC Den Bosch’ acclaimed by Hans Kraay junior.

By Chris Meijer

Mesmerized, Hans Kraay jr. Watches the images of the match between FC Den Bosch and FC Dordrecht. “Look here”, the analyst points out FOX Sports when you can see how Felida performs a perfect sliding and gives a measured long ball. “You don’t experience this much. Someone who is very good on and without the ball. He does not make any violations, does everything on technique, has an overview, can pass. ” When the beautiful goal of Felida that turned the match and initiated FC Den Bosch’s 2-1 victory comes into the picture, Kraay jr. Sighs with admiration. “He takes this one great. It’s a bit of a drop kick, deliberately hit on the side. This is such a good football player. Anything under the top five or top six of the Eredivisie can use it. He makes sc Heerenveen, Heracles Almelo, FC Emmen, PEC Zwolle and ADO Den Haag better. Not that we see the new Messi at work, but a good football player. ”

?? According to Hans Kraay jr. Kevin Felida (20) of FC Den Bosch is an asset to all clubs under the top 6 in the Eredivisie. pic.twitter.com/d3rlDCQaJR

– FOX Sports (@FOXSportsnl) September 6, 2020

A smile appears in Felida when he is confronted a few days later with the words that Kraay jr. In the studio of FOX Sports about him. “I’ve read it here and there on the internet. That’s always nice to hear, yes. I think I am a player as he describes it, that I can play football and do my defensive duties. I am doing well and have to keep it up, then the next step will come automatically. If it is not this period, it is during the winter break or at the end of the season ”, Felida observes soberly. As it looks now, there seems to be a role for the midfielder as a mainstay in the FC Den Bosch team. Felida may only be 20 years old, but with a total of 74 official games in the main force behind his name, he is one of the most experienced players.

Felida made her debut in 2017 at the age of just eighteen in the main squad of FC Den Bosch. That was why he ended up in Brabant almost four years earlier. Felida grew up in Spijkenisse, close to Rotterdam. His talent at the local SCO’63 was soon noticed, initially at Feyenoord. After an internship in South Rotterdam, he was advised to play higher, after which he switched to vv Spijkenisse and eventually earned a switch to Excelsior. “I was expelled from Excelsior after one year, until today I don’t know why. No reason is given. I really cried that day, I remember that very well. It was a mental blow, ”says Felida. The smooth talker pauses for a moment when the biggest disappointment of his early career is discussed. Felida returned to Spijkenisse and managed to return to a professional club within a season. FC Den Bosch was preferred to NAC Breda, because his current club had ‘arranged everything a little better’.

“You would think it was quite a difference with Excelsior, but that is not too bad. I lived in Spijkenisse and went to school in Rotterdam-East, which was an hour’s journey by metro. From there I went to training and then came home around seven o’clock. It was exactly the same at Den Bosch, but I left school a little earlier. More guys from the region played near Den Bosch, so we were taken to the club by van every day. The days were long, but we made it fun, ”says Felida. In Den Bosch he developed rapidly, because the midfielder quickly moved on to the promises team and then the main force. “I wanted to get the first as soon as possible and from there see what my future would look like. That has worked so far, I had not been able to break through anywhere before. Everything happened at the right time. ”

Felida during his first season with the main squad of FC Den Bosch, in February 2018.

Still, the road from early debut to basic player status was not without its obstacles. In the end of the 2017/18 season, Felida was regularly at the kick-off and he thought he could continue that basic place in the following year. Partly because the necessary players were attracted in the wake of candidate owner Kakhi Jordania, Felida shuttled between the base and the reserve bench two seasons ago. “I felt like I was already experiencing my breakthrough then. I was regularly in the base and when I was not in it, I often got a vague reason. Sometimes I became a man of the game and then a week later I was on the bench, because I was ‘a young player’ and could not handle a whole game. I thought that was a bit too flat and a pity, I was often sacrificed. ”

“Wil Boessen expressed confidence, but he did not show it further. I don’t know what went on behind it. He did say nice things about me in the media, for example that I had to be called up for the youth teams of Orange. He just didn’t quite live up to those words. On the other hand, he gave me my debut and was very good to me, he is a good man ”, Felida continues. Boessen said in September 2018 that the midfielder deserved an invitation for the Orange Under-19. “At the time I was eighteen and I regularly played in the base, we were also at the top. I could agree that I could have had a chance in the pre-selection or internship days, that they could at least watch me. Unfortunately, it never happened. To my knowledge, there has never been any further contact. ”

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Felida could have already been an international, as he was already called up for the Curaçao national team. “But I told them that I first want to take a step higher and only then make a choice. I want to keep it open for a while, I have every confidence in it. There has been contact with Remko Bicentini (who was recently replaced as national coach by Guus Hiddink, ed.), I have spoken to him several times and there is a lot of confidence. We have a good relationship, he has come to watch a number of matches and it is certainly not the staff. ” That step higher could just follow soon, as he has started his second season as an undisputed basic player. After the takeover by Jordania bounced, a year ago a few players left, Erik van der Ven Boessen replaced as trainer and Felida finally forced a starting place. “My contract was broken thanks to Jordania, so I don’t know how it would end if he had taken over the club. The story may have two sides, I have spoken to him once and I understood that he had a lot of confidence in me. ”

In recent weeks, Van der Ven has changed his formation from 4-3-3 to 4-4-2, which means that Felida’s role has changed somewhat compared to the previous year in which he played 29 official games. “Normally we play 4-3-3 with the point to the back, in which I play as six and do my best. Now we play with a flat midfield and that makes it something different. But if I keep doing it well, I will still gain my strength and can be of value to the team. I now move more from left to right and pick up opponents in the zone. It’s hard to say about myself, but I kind of compare myself to N’Golo Kanté. I clean up balls and play them to the right color. A calf-biter, indeed. I think I have to get the depth out a bit more and recognize certain situations better, which should be even more compelling sometimes. ”

Felida keeps Mohamed Hamdaoui off the ball during the duel with De Graafschap (4-2 defeat).

“The trainer expects me to stand up for those guys when the going gets tough or to keep pumping them up when necessary. That role is somewhat different from last year, I am expected to set a good example. In that respect I do have more responsibilities ”, Felida continues about his current role at FC Den Bosch. The question is how long Van der Ven can still use the midfielder. Kraay jr. Will undoubtedly not be the only one who has him in his sights. At the same time, Felida does not hide his own ambitions. “I think I should take a step at the latest in a year, that would be the best. It’s okay to play here for an entire season, I’m still on schedule. I drew up a plan with my management when I extended my contract here (until 2022, ed.). ”

“The next step must be a club in the left row of the Eredivisie. Then we have to look further at how my development is going. I now see my ceiling at a sub-topper in Europe, who occasionally plays in the Europa League”, it sounds. ambitious. There is one specific club that puts a smile on the face of Felida, who grew up under the smoke of Rotterdam. “Yes, Feyenoord is of course my dream. That would be very special for me and my family. I have bigger dreams by the way. than that, but it is a club where I would like to play. ”

Name: Kevin Felida
Date of birth: November 11, 1999
Club: FC Den Bosch
Position: midfielder
Strengths: tackles, passing, overview

Voetbalzone is the official media partner of the Kitchen Champion Division

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