Denzel Dumfries has undergone a stormy development in recent years. The right back made the switch from the amateurs of VV Barendrecht to Sparta Rotterdam seven years ago, made his professional football debut and ended up at PSV via sc Heerenveen. On Sunday, he gave the Dutch national team a 3-2 victory over Ukraine in the first group match at the European Championship with a late header.
Lesley Esajas was the youth trainer of Dumfries in the A1 of amateur association Barendrecht six years ago. He finds it remarkable that the wing defender did not move to a professional football club until he was eighteen. “I really don’t understand that a club like Feyenoord has never gone through before,” Esajas says in conversation with The Telegraph. “If you see this, you also wonder how many guys with talent are actually completely missed, because they never get a chance anywhere. There must be a lot. Denzel is an example for such guys.”
Maup Martens, Feyenoord scout in the past, told in 2018 de Volkskrant that Dumfries was not judged as good enough. “Viewed often enough, we didn’t think he was good enough. Too many doubts about his football qualities,” said Martens. According to Esajas, Dumfries broke through not only because of his qualities, but also because of his mentality. “Denzel has had to overcome a lot of doubts, but he is very strong mentally and was determined to make it as a pro when that seemed very far away.”
“You noticed that in his way of training, but he was already very consciously involved with his nutrition with us,” the trainer looks back, “On Wednesdays we always eat fries and Denzel ate with us once, but he only wanted the lettuce and cucumber. It sounds crazy, but actually such a football field was too small for him. He had so much drive and so much power.” According to Esajas, the role that Dumfries plays in the Dutch is ‘written on the list’. “Not everything goes well with him, but with his enormous commitment he also arouses a lot of sympathy. And that is right. He really does everything for it.”
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