Denzel Dumfries looks back with a very positive feeling on the initiative by the Dutch national team to let the players train once in the match shirts of their former amateur clubs. Dumfries enjoyed being able to put on the shirt of VV Smitshoek again. “Fantastic. “It looked very nice and colorful, I thought all those shirts,” said the right back of Internazionale.
Dumfries joined Louis van Gaal for a press conference on Friday afternoon and looked back on the special initiative. “In the morning when we got to breakfast it was funny that everyone went to look at each other’s shirts, that it looked good and that some of the shirts have really nice color combinations.” Dumfries also told about the best memories from his time with the amateurs. “The best memory is simply getting up early on Saturday morning with excitement and then packing your bag and cycling to the club. That always makes for good memories.”
As a so-called late bloomer in professional football, Dumfries knows the value of amateur associations. “At the amateur clubs, the foundation is really laid,” said the defender. “Everyone has had other great moments at their amateur club, because that’s where you take your first steps in football. That is why it is extra nice that these clubs are being put in the spotlight today, because everyone has warm memories of their amateur club.” Dumfries did not make the switch from the amateurs of VV Barendrecht to Sparta Rotterdam until he was eighteen. Not everyone believed in him at that time. “That was extra motivation for me. A kind of extra fuel, petrol and that just gave me more motivation to make it.”
Dumfries received compliments from Van Gaal during the press moment. “He really delivered a fantastic performance,” said the national coach. “Staying with amateur clubs for so long may not be the ideal way, but then you have to have a lot of willpower in your head. Because staying with the amateurs until you’re eighteen and then coming to the Dutch, that’s really great. I think that is a fantastic performance from him.”
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