The Kitchen Champion Division has been a breeding ground for national and international talents for decades and this season there are again many footballers with potential on the second level. Voetbalzone, the official media partner of the Kitchen Champion Division, highlights one of these talents every week, this time with the focus on Milan Hilderink, who is an extra weapon for De Graafschap in the final phase of the season.
By Thijs Verhaar
“An awful lot”, the eighteen-year-old center-back stammers softly when he is asked what promotion to the Eredivisie with ‘his’ De Graafschap would mean for him. “It is very special to be part of this team as a boy from the Achterhoek, especially now that I really have a serious role in the team.” Hilderink made his debut at the beginning of last season as a sixteen-year-old in the main squad, making it one of the youngest debutants in club history. After that he had to be patient for a long time before he could really catch up, but in the final phase of the current year, Mike Snoei calls on him almost every game when a victory has to be won in the last minutes.
Most trainers would rather bring in someone with more experience as an extra lock on the door, but Snoei is convinced to choose the Benjamin of the group even with a minimal lead. “Of course I am grateful to him for that”, Hilderink nods. “I would also understand it very well if he chooses an older player, but fortunately he has a lot of faith in me. Why? Because I have a very strong head ”, says the youngster, who played his first game of the season shortly before the winter break and has now played ten times in the main force. “I can head like the best and hold back a lot when we have to defend as a team. That is really my strength and I am happy that I can help the team with that now that it is really all about it. ”
Milan Hilderink shows his specialty: ‘I can head like the best’.
His solid raids ensure that he is rapidly gaining prestige within the selection of De Graafschap. Unlike most teams in the Kitchen Champion Division, the Super farmers hardly any youth players in the first selection. “I am really by far the youngest indeed. Although there are more young talents training with the first ”, Hilderink nuances. Despite this, he is often surrounded by men of a different generation. “I notice that, yes. In childhood, conversations were often about music or gaming and now the conversations are about women and children, ”smiles the defender, who himself still lives with his parents in nearby Steenderen and has only recently been allowed to drive a car. “As the youngest it is always up to me to tidy up and I have to be first in the middle at the rondo, but as a balafacker I never stand there for long, haha.”
Hilderink says it with a proud undertone, because he notices that, partly due to this simple exercise, he is becoming more and more calm in his game. “I think the central defenders should be the most reliable players on the team. I am not yet, but I notice that I am taking steps in that direction. I feel more confident about the ball and I am working hard on it. ” Other facets such as positioning, overview, speed and duel power are already perfectly fine with him. In his own words because he always played as a midfielder in the youth. “In the C’s the trainer said to me that I would be one hundred percent sure as a central defender, but he thought it would be better for my development if I remained in midfield.”
As a result, Hilderink only made the step to the defense at the age of fifteen, although you would not think that looking at his many goals in his last year with the youth. “I was the last man to score ten goals. Purely because of the corners. Almost every ball that fell on my head flew in and there were also some penalties ”, he recalls. Hilderink is simply not so easily overcome by nerves and with his stable kick he was a certainty from eleven meters. “I can indeed handle pressure quite well and used to watch Klaas-Jan Huntelaar take them. That bounce before you put a ball in front really helps to calm down, ”chuckles the defender, who would ‘certainly’ raise his hand if De Graafschap ends up in the play-offs for promotion to the Eredivisie and needs a penalty shootout. .
Hilderink is cheering after his first professional goal, in the cup against PSV.
“I don’t know if the trainer would point me out, but I would certainly dare. Isn’t it nice if you can grab your moment like that? However, I hope that it will not come to that, because of course we cannot give away our lead in the ranking now. ” Three games before the end, De Graafschap has a six-point lead over Almere City and Go Ahead Eagles, so the flag can almost be lifted in the Hilderink home. “He will certainly do that when we get a PhD! My father, grandfather and uncles have been fans of this club all their lives. I also remember how proud they were when I made my first minutes in the first team last year. During the game I tried not to look at the stands, but of course I immediately contacted afterwards. That was a really great moment for the whole family. ”
Yet it could have been very different for the 1.89 meter long center-back. At the age of eight he received an invitation to exchange the local amateur club for FC Twente. “I went through all the training rounds successfully and had already decided in my head to accept the offer until De Graafschap came along. I got a call with the message that they really really wanted me and was quickly changed. It is close to home, a great club … It was perfect for me, even though Twente did not play in the top of the Netherlands and De Graafschap at the time. ” He remembers that the representative of the Tukkers was ‘quite angry’ when he turned them down so late. Hilderink, however, did what felt best for him and made his family even more happy with it, although his father, as a De Graafschap supporter, had also found it ‘fine’ if his son chose Twente. “After all, that is also a great club that could have helped me well and Dad only looks at what is best for me.”
However, the chance to make his debut in Stadium De Vijverberg won from a view of the Grolsch Veste. “I already came there with my father, so the club has been in my heart from an early age,” said the young defender, who at the time looked up with admiration at Ted van de Pavert, who is now his partner in the heart of the defence. “He broke through as a young boy from his own youth academy and experienced what I am now experiencing”, Hilderink explains. “I think it is quite an honor that I can now stand next to him and I learn a lot from him. He helps me with all his experience to become more and more a stable factor in the team. Of course I would like to progress to Eredivisie level, so I will seize every opportunity to improve. ”
The examples of Milan Hilderink: ‘I am young and can learn something from everyone’.
Although Hilderink struggled with it at the time, he now calls it an advantage that after his debut at the age of sixteen he had to wait more than a year for a new chance in the main force. “That was a difficult phase for me. I had to remain patient, focus on my development and I had a hard time with that. Not that I got mentally confused or anything, but I just always want more. Fortunately everyone said that my chance would come naturally, so that gave me peace of mind, ”said the defender, who signed his first professional goal in December by scoring against PSV in the TOTO KNVB Cup. “That was a great highlight for me and then I knew that I had done myself a very good service. Last month I also held up well on my basic debut against NAC Breda, so I know I’m on the right track. ”
If everything continues to go according to plan, Hilderink will be promoted to De Graafschap as soon as possible, he will work his way up to basic player in the Eredivisie next season, then he will take the next step within the Netherlands, to place himself on the radar of his dream club Juventus. “I would very much like to play football in Italy, where real pure defense is an art. When I see what Matthijs de Ligt has learned there, I would really like that too. He is an example to me anyway, because he fought back when everyone thought something of him after his blunder in his first international match. That must have been a difficult period for him, but it has made him incredibly strong ”, Hilderink praises. “It could hardly be worse than what he went through as a football player, but look at him now. I get a lot of inspiration from that. ”
Hilderink is of course referring to the fact that the Dutch national team grabbed the World Cup qualification in 2017 due to a blunder by the then only seventeen-year-old De Ligt, who was allowed to make his international debut against Bulgaria by then national coach Danny Blind. “I am also in a position where every mistake can be crucial, but fortunately I am not afraid of that. I always step onto the field with a positive mindset and have learned a lot from the players around me. Because those are also examples for me ”, assures the defender. “Besides De Ligt, I also like to watch Sergio Ramos and Virgil van Dijk, but Ted van de Pavert is just as much a source of inspiration. I am still young and still have a lot to learn, so I am happy with all the help I get. ”
Name: Milan Hildeirnk
Date of birth: September 29, 2002
Club: De Graafschap
Position: Center-back
Strengths: Heads, duel power, mentality
Voetbalzone is the official media partner of the Kitchen Champion Division
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