The Kitchen Champion Division has been used as a nursery for national and international talents for decades and this season too, many football players with potential are walking around on the second level. Voetbalzone, the official media partner of the Kitchen Champion Division, highlights one of these talents every week, this time focusing on Roy Kuijpers, the club’s top scorer and revelation of FC Den Bosch, who is still playing without a professional contract for the time being.
By Chris Meijer
Roy Kuijpers peers across from the main stand. The bright blue chairs shine in a faint autumn sun. Normally there on the long side is the fanatical supporters of FC Den Bosch. Kuijpers became acquainted with it at a young age, when he was a ball boy for the so-called M-Side. “Then I was there in front of those supporters. To play for them now gives a very special feeling. I’ve been looking forward to celebrating a goal with the fans for years,” he says with a smile. “The feeling that we are now playing with supporters really gives me the feeling that I am really playing for something. It just gives me a kick, I think it’s great to be able to play football in such a stadium. The feeling of scoring is unprecedented, I think that’s so beautiful. ”
Kuijpers can rightly be called a child of the club at FC Den Bosch. He entered the youth academy at the age of seven and initially hoped to make the step to the first team at the age of nineteen. “I was allowed to train a few times, only then were they not so convinced. In the end I played a good game with the Under-19, where Vitesse happened to be in the stands,” says the 21-year-old attacker. When Kuijpers was given the opportunity to make the switch to Vitesse, he didn’t have to think about it too long. “Because I needed that step to grow up, in my opinion. Afterwards I learned a lot, also from fellow players. Even from younger guests. There is a different culture than here, many boys come from the city. Other trainers, for example I have worked with Theo Janssen, Nicky Hofs, Tim Cornelisse and Joseph Oosting. Higher caliber players. After eleven years in the same environment, I needed that step. I thought that opportunity would never come again, so I had to take it.”
“It was just not in the right period, with what has happened in the world,” Kuijpers continues with a sigh. In his first season with Vitesse, he trained with the first team under Leonid Slutsky for six months. “At the first Vitesse I did see guests who made me think: well, there is still a big step to take. You can see that in small things, such as a rondo. The level is so high, everything is hit once or at most twice. There are no training sessions where you can touch the ball three or four times. It’s a shame that corona got me a bit out of that rhythm, but I learned a lot from just watching those players. Guests who are already training an hour or two in advance. I could see from Bazoer or Tannane, for example, that they deliver really high quality in training, you really have to go there if you want to take that step.” Kuijpers made his unofficial debut for Vitesse in a closed practice match against sc Heerenveen. “After that I would also go to a practice match against a Belgian club, but I got injured in the last training before that. That was a moment where I thought: shit, I should have been there. After the arrival of Letsch, I was there for a while in the beginning, but he made different choices.”
Kuijpers in the shirt of Vitesse, where he was under contract for two years.
After Kuijpers fell by the wayside with the first team last season, a difficult period started. Due to the corona pandemic, Vitesse Under-21 did not play any matches. Even normal training was impossible due to the corona rules. “The six of us trained at a distance of one and a half meters and had to go home immediately afterwards. I stood still for a long time and didn’t play any matches, that will do something to you mentally. You are at home and you can do something, but not as you want. You can no longer do what you love most. I think that took quite a while.” A return to FC Den Bosch offered a way out during the winter break. “Vitesse had indicated that they wanted to keep me, but that it was better to play somewhere. I agreed, I didn’t want to sit still any longer like I had done for six months. Then I got the feeling that they weren’t going to renew my expiring contract. I kind of knew it in the back of my mind.”
“I had had good conversations, Den Bosch wanted to see me and from there I made the choice to come back. I knew a lot of people here, including boys with whom I had played eleven or twelve years in youth. That’s different coming in than when you don’t know anyone. From the moment I came here, I said: I want to play football here to get a contract.” However, the first weeks after his return to Den Bosch were not always easy. Kuijpers came in in the middle of the season in a group that was already largely standing. After months of not training normally, he had to quickly find his place in a different type of football (‘more physical, now and then a ball forward’) in which as a winger in defensive terms (‘I had to walk in the back and show myself offensively again’). , that took some getting used to on a conditional basis’) more was asked of him. In addition, after less than two weeks he saw trainer Erik van der Ven replaced by Jack de Gier. “That was a small advantage, because he didn’t know anyone yet.”
Kuijpers hits the mark in the 2-1 won home game against Jong AZ.
Kuijpers played thirteen games last season, five of which as a basic player and in which he was good for two goals and an assist. “I have proven myself in some areas, but not in others. Scoring goals, for example. I showed myself, but not in such a way that I got a contract. I understood that too. If I hadn’t had that feeling, it would have been more difficult,” Kuijpers states soberly. His contract with Vitesse, for example, ended last summer and he was not (yet) offered a contract at FC Den Bosch. Kuijpers shrugs. “No, I wasn’t worried. I know it’s in there. I have the good people around me who encourage me. It is an uncertain situation. But if you start thinking about it, you also notice that you are going to play football worse. That’s why I try to turn those thoughts off.”
“When I didn’t hear anything from Den Bosch, I stepped in here: listen, what’s the point? They thought I was a good football player, but they couldn’t offer me a contract. The club was in the midst of the takeover. I asked if I could continue to train and participate in my competitions on an amateur basis. They thought that was fine and I had to show it. They gave me the confidence that I could continue to play football here. But on the other hand, I didn’t get a contract. That’s been a point for me where I thought, okay, I’ll have to show it to prove otherwise. From there, a button has flipped. Or well, a different mindset. That’s how it went on and I’m comfortable with it now,” Kuijpers continues. After nine league games, he has already scored five goals. He signed two of these in the home game against Jong AZ (2-1) as a kind of second striker, a position where he had never played until then and was posted due to the absence of Jizz Hornkamp.
“That’s where my goals came too, my strength lies in finding the space behind the defence. It’s an advantage that I get to know a new position and my preference is starting to move a bit towards a position around the striker. I am also fine on the sides, but you notice that you can score more goals if you are in the ashes. If you really want to stand out and score goals, it’s best in that position,” he explains. Kuijpers has noticed in recent weeks that you stand out more if you score more often. “You hear and read more things, but I try to keep my distance from that. Of course I think it’s great when I meet acquaintances who talk about it, I notice that more and more people are looking at it. You normally don’t get that, only now because you’ve come to the fore. It gives a little appreciation for what you do.”
That appreciation could also follow in the form of a professional contract. Kuijpers acknowledges that the talks are ongoing. “I can’t say much about that. We’ll see what comes out. They told me to assert myself and then I would get what I deserved. Now that I’ve done that, they’re also so honest that they can’t ignore it. I see no reason to worry,” Kuijpers grins. His story shows striking similarities with that of Sam Beukema, who two years ago could only stay at Go Ahead Eagles on an amateur basis and made a top transfer to AZ last summer. “He has done very well in recent years and made a big step. I just have to keep going. Such stories do indicate that it is possible. That’s why I never felt like it might not work.”
Name: Roy Kuijpers
Date of birth: January 17, 2000
Club: FC Den Bosch
Position: attacker
Strengths: purposefulness, speed, insight
Voetbalzone is the official media partner of the Kitchen Champion Division
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