The Kitchen Champion Division has been 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 Richonell Margaret, who is being rented out by AZ to TOP Oss this season.
By Chris Meijer
Richonell Margaret pauses during the conversation. Whether the rental period at TOP Oss has turned out as he had expected for the time being? He tastes the question and weighs his words for a moment. “I came here to score minutes and get matches going. Unfortunately, I play a little less, but I’m working hard to get back into the starting lineup and be important to the team,” the 21-year-old striker, who can also play as a wing attacker, answers realistically. “I definitely like it at TOP Oss, we have a nice and good group. Performance was somewhat less in the last phase before the winter break. We started off well, but then got into a dip and we’re in that a bit too long. After the winter we have to regain our focus, then things will be fine again.”
TOP Oss is the fifth club in Margaret’s early career, which started with the amateurs of De Foresters in Heiloo. Ajax picked him up there at the age of eight, after which he spent nine years at De Toekomst. “Ajax is of course the top of the top, I’m glad I was there. But it was best to leave Ajax, to give a boost to my career. I still occasionally call my old teammates. Sergiño Dest, Sven Botman: those kind of guys”, says Margaret. He chose to leave Ajax at the age of seventeen. “They said I wouldn’t be playing much more in the Under 19s. I was allowed to stay, but I made the decision myself to leave to play elsewhere regularly.”
After his departure from Ajax, Margaret opted for Vitesse, a move for which he had to give a lot. Every day he traveled two and a half hours there and two and a half hours back by train from his hometown of Heerhugowaard to Arnhem. There he developed stormily. He made his debut in the Eredivisie after six months at the age of eighteen, but his stay in Arnhem was limited to one season after no agreement could be reached on a contract. “I was certainly sorry that I couldn’t stay with Vitesse. They have given me a lot of confidence. I don’t know exactly what was going on.” Margaret, however, had no complaints about interest, because in addition to AZ, Manchester City, Fortuna Sittard and Anderlecht were also concretely interested.
Margaret played five official matches in the Vitesse first team.
“It was difficult for a while, but my father and agent clearly explained the advantages of AZ and the disadvantages of abroad. Then I saw that AZ was the best for me. I certainly don’t regret going to AZ, they deal well with young players and you can really develop there. It is really a top club”, Margaret looks back on the choice he made in the summer of 2019. It is no coincidence that Margaret underlines the role of his father. Lenny Macnack himself played for Telstar and FC Volendam, among others, but eventually gained fame as the hairdresser of several great football players. Ryan Babel, Justin Kluivert, Eljero Elia, Romelu Lukaku, Nicolás Tagliafico, Noa Lang and Mario Balotelli, among others, once sat in his barber chair.
“My father is very important to my career, he helps me with everything. We train a lot together, he pushes me and I am certainly grateful to him. He has played football at a high level himself, due to injuries he did not make it. Now he can save me from the mistakes he made. He gives me a lot of advice.” He adds with a smile: “He cuts a lot of football players, of course he talks to them too. He really knows a lot about football.” Thanks in part to his father and his agent, Margaret has been able to be patient in recent years. Because for someone who describes himself as ‘a type who wants things quickly’ it was sometimes difficult to remain patient at AZ, all the more because he had already played five games in the main force at Vitesse and that tasted like more.
Margaret during a practice match between Ajax and AZ. Where he already made his unofficial debut, he is still waiting for his first official appearance in the main squad of the Alkmaarders.
“I started in Jong AZ and had to prove myself there, and then move on to the first team. But things turned out differently. Oh, I’ll get there.” Margaret has played his matches in Jong AZ for the past two seasons and he knows what he needs to improve in order to make the step to the first. “Yes, my return”, responds Margaret. “If that had been better, I might have taken the first step more quickly. My return has to increase, both in terms of goals and assists. I can help the team more. Creating actions is going well, but the return is lacking. You will be judged on that, no one judges you on great promotions. It’s all about goals and assists.”
“This is my third year in the Kitchen Champion Division, so I know a little bit about how things are played. I personally think that with my qualities I should deliver more goals and assists”, he continues. Margaret now has 62 matches in the Kitchen Champion Division to his name, in which he was good for 8 goals and 3 assists. He had secretly hoped for a chance with the AZ first team last summer, after Myron Boadu had left for AS Monaco. “Yes, I expected those opportunities. Unfortunately it didn’t happen. Who knows next season, all that is still possible.”
TOP Oss – currently number eighteen in the Kitchen Champion Division – celebrates a goal by Margaret in the match against FC Dordrecht (3-0 win).
In the search for structurally more playing minutes, he ended up at TOP Oss last summer. “I am at AZ in my last contract year. I just wanted to play, at AZ I was a bit between the first and the promises. You get fitter and better with more playing minutes. More is also expected of you at TOP Oss. At Jong AZ, players regularly returned from the first, so I had to make room.” The temporary transfer to TOP Oss has also been a good step in his personal development, in Margaret’s words. “I live in Veghel with six teammates. Otherwise I have to travel too far every day and that is tiring, that will cost energy. This also makes you a bit more mature.”
It should contribute to Margaret being able to make the step to the first team of AZ after this season. “Or maybe I’ll take the next step after that. I’m not working on that yet. I’ll see when we get there. I want to show myself first at TOP Oss.” Margaret can formulate that goal, for the time being good for 2 goals and 2 assists in 21 official games on behalf of TOP Oss. “I think I can handle my chances even better. Before the winter break I wanted to be on a certain number of goals. I keep that number to myself, but I didn’t make it. Personally, I want to score a total of twelve goals and provide many assists. Then I consider myself that my rental period has been successful. And with TOP Oss we can finish in the left row and secretly make the play-offs.”
Name: Richonell Margaret
Date of birth: September 7, 2000
Club: TOP Oss (rented from AZ)
Position: rush hour
Strengths: speed, technique, agility
Voetbalzone is the official media partner of the Kitchen Champion Division
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