Henk de Jong does not rule out a future step within the Netherlands. The 58-year-old trainer says in an interview on the YouTube channel KRISTAN that he is happy in Leeuwarden and has the ambition to develop SC Cambuur into a stable Eredivisie club. At the same time, De Jong would also like to take a step to a club ‘just below the top of the Netherlands’ or abroad.
“I would also like to take a step in the Netherlands”, confesses De Jong when asked about his ambitions. “It has to be a club with possibilities. In the Kitchen Champion Division, to become champion or to be promoted. Or just below the top in the Netherlands. Otherwise I’ll just stay here. When I go abroad, I think of a club where the weather is nice. I’m almost 58 and you have to watch your time. I have children, my parents are still alive. So I won’t just leave, I’m not like that as a person.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqWG-Cfihbw
De Jong says he feels ‘appreciation’ and ‘respect’ at Cambuur. “Appreciation and respect in football are so important, although that can disappear in a moment,” says the trainer, who returned to Cambuur in 2019. With the club where he previously worked as an assistant, interim and head coach between 2010 and 2016, he was promoted to the Eredivisie last season. “You don’t know, I think I fit in everywhere as a person and a trainer. At the moment my ambition lies with Cambuur, to become a stable Eredivisie club and to play in the new stadium. That will be ready in a year.”
“The possibility is there,” De Jong answers when asked whether he plans to stay with Cambuur for a long time. “I still have a two-year contract and there are opportunities to join other parts of the club. I can do that sometimes, because we are getting a new stadium and that will give us even more opportunities. That’s what I want to experience as a trainer. I think it would be great to grow into a stable Eredivisie club with this club. You never know how things will go in football, something nice can also come from abroad and that I do that.”
“It is going well, beyond expectations,” says De Jong about the current state of Cambuur. His team currently occupies eighth place in the Eredivisie. “With the outbreak of the corona pandemic, we were at the top with an 11-point lead. That sucked at the time, but afterwards we were able to continue to grow, we became champions and we now have a very good basis. That’s a happy accident. With our capabilities, we should actually be in fourth place in the Kitchen Champion Division, but we are now number eight in the Eredivisie. By finding good football, a good game idea and the right players.”