Wednesday, December 8, 2021 at 3:54 PM• Jordi Tomasowa • Last update: 15:54

Donyell Malen is one of the best players in the Netherlands, says Frank de Boer. The former national team coach of the Dutch worked with the Borussia Dortmund attacker at the European Championship last summer. At the time, De Boer considered Malen unable to complete the ninety minutes, but the attacker did so on Tuesday evening during Borussia Dortmund’s Champions League match with Besiktas (5-0), in which he took the opening goal.

De Boer replaced Malen at the last European Championship in the lost eighth final match against the Czech Republic (0-2) after just under an hour, something that was much to do afterwards. “We know that Donyell is a fantastic player and that the cake will be gone after sixty to seventy minutes,” said De Boer afterwards. The former national coach did not speak to Malen about this later, he said RTL 7. “You just have to look at his numbers: this is one of the first times he has played 90 minutes. That’s great, because that’s what he needs. I hope he can continue, because in my eyes he is a player with an incredible amount of talent.”

“With his qualities, Malen can become very important for the Dutch national team,” said De Boer. “Let’s hope he gets even stronger. At a big tournament you really need everyone and preferably the best players for as long as possible. I think he is one of the best players in the Netherlands.” Malen opened the score for Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League match with Besiktas on Tuesday evening. It is only the second time this season that the attacker played the full 90 minutes under coach Marco Rose.

After a difficult start, Malen has now picked up steam at Dortmund. In four of the last five games of BVB he was accurate, only in last Saturday’s Bundesliga game against Bayern Munich (2-3) the attacker did not find the net. Malen came over from PSV last summer for around EUR 30 million, but failed to score for Borussia Dortmund in his first nine games. At the end of September, he was finally off zero in the Champions League match with Sporting Portugal.