Mitchel Bakker thinks it is only right that Noa Lang is part of the selection of the Dutch national team for the upcoming international matches against Latvia and Gibraltar. The left defender, who has been playing for Bayer Leverkusen since last summer, was the buddy of the attacker in Ajax’s youth for years, who, thanks to his good game at Club Brugge, drew attention to national coach Louis van Gaal.
“How he plays football, how he manifests himself at Club Brugge. He shines every week. Bakker does not only grant Lang a place in the Dutch national team. “He just belongs there”, emphasizes the left back on Wednesday in The Telegraph. “Noa wins individual trophies and was voted Man of the Match against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League.”
“He’s a sensation.” Just like Lang, Bakker just didn’t break through in Amsterdam. “After that we both had to take a different path”, the defender himself refers to his transfer to Paris Saint-Germain. In the summer he made the switch to the Bundesliga. “His road is just a little faster now, but I’m also doing well in Leverkusen. With one it goes a bit faster than with the other.”
The dream of playing together in the Dutch has not disappeared. “We always had a good connection in the field on the left, together with Ryan (Gravenberch, ed.). We really got along well at the A’tjes and Jong Ajax. It would be great if the three of us could play on one side in the Dutch.”
Bakker, 21, played for various representative teams in the Netherlands, but a call for the big the Dutch has not yet been forthcoming. He made forty games for PSG last season and then made the switch to Leverkusen for a minimum transfer fee of seven million euros. He has played seven official matches for the Germans so far.