Steven Berghuis has had a great football week. The Ajax attacker made his first goal in Amsterdam service against Sporting Portugal (1-5 win) on Wednesday and added his first league goal against SC Cambuur (9-0). Berghuis tells opposite ESPN to feel happy in his new position as number ten of Ajax.
“That started against PEC Zwolle when I came back from the Dutch national team,” says Berghuis. “If I dissect myself as a footballer, and look at the qualities I have, I think I am really an attacking midfielder, who can put other people to work. With those qualities you can also play very well on the right, because you now have backs who can actually be your right winger At ten I have a little more freedom of movement, I can go left and right For example with the third goal by Noussair Mazraoui I came out on the left of the sixteen, I would not have that as a right winger . I think it’s a nice position.”
Berghuis is asked whether football has become fun again. “It has always been fun on the field, but now I am also starting to become important for the team. Those are good things,” said the former Feyenoord player, who did not feel that he had to cross a threshold at Ajax. ‘Not really. But you still join a new club, in a team with players who have been together for a long time. You have to find your way: I have to get used to them and they to me. In any case, the period with the Dutch national team has done me good. I played three good matches there and I also got stronger physically. And it was also good for confidence. “
In recent weeks, Berghuis received criticism from Marciano Vink, among others, that he presented himself as ‘the best boy in the class’. That was said when Berghuis awarded a free kick to teammate Zakaria Labyad. “I was also told that there was some surprise about that, but Zakaria also just has a good free kick,” he now responds. “At Feyenoord, Jens Toornstra or Orkun Kökçü also regularly took a free kick. It is a bit of an image that arises, but I also played good matches for Ajax in the beginning: against NEC at home and against PSV in the Johan Cruijff Scale. Everyone who comes somewhere new just has to get used to it. And I completely, because as a Feyenoord player to Ajax: that’s not nothing.” Berghuis is no longer bothered by personal threats. “They are now gone, it is now very quiet. Everyone continues again and that’s how it should be.”