Sem Steijn, son of football coach Maurice Steijn, is making good progress this season. The young midfielder played in all ADO Den Haag matches in the first half of the season and scored a hat-trick against FC Dordrecht, among other things. He was also named best talent of the Kitchen Champion Division in the second period. Steijn speaks with Football zone about the first half of the season and looks ahead to opportunities in the remainder of the competition for his club.
Steijn went through the entire youth academy of ADO Den Haag, but (under his father) made his debut in professional football, on a rental basis at VVV-Venlo. At 17 years and 24 days, he became the youngest debutant ever for VVV in the Eredivisie. He also became the youngest goalscorer of the Limburgers, when he scored a few months later against sc Heerenveen (2-2). He followed his father to Al-Wahda in the United Arab Emirates, but returned to ADO Den Haag without having played a game. After having played with the reserves for a year, the midfielder was allowed to join the first team this year. Since then, Steijn has played almost everything and was even named the best player of the second period in the Kitchen Champion Division.
He received this prize from his father, whom he speaks with great admiration. “He means a lot to me. We kind of do it together. If I play a bad game, he will kick my ass, but he helps me with my career and I am very grateful to him for that.” Last season, Steijn was a senior trainer at NAC Breda, where the family had to deal with threats from supporters, among other things. “You get everything. He came home and just told me. The atmosphere in the house became less, it had a lot of impact. It made me very angry, he did his very best to make something beautiful out of it and he did it well. They missed out on promotion within a minute.”
This season Steijn experienced his breakthrough in professional football. He has already scored 12 times in 23 games as a midfielder and looks back on the first half of the season with a good feeling. “No one expected us to do so well, including myself. I am satisfied with the team and happy with my own performance. The fact that I was named the best talent of the second period was a reward for the hard work. I scored a hat-trick, scored the best goal once and scored six times. I was also important to the team.”
ADO Den Haag is doing very well in the Kitchen Champion Division and entered the winter break with a fourth place. Nevertheless, the club from the Hofstad could have been even higher: they were deducted six points for not being able to hand in a balanced budget at the start of the season. “That was tough. You play for the points and they kept getting taken away. Once that even happened on race day,” says Steijn. “The club couldn’t help it either, they were working hard behind the scenes to find a solution. We knew that too, we had no influence on it. We have done everything we can to get as many points as possible and we are still doing well.”
Finally, the midfielder looks ahead to the second part of the competition: “I expect a good half of the season. With the qualities we have, we are able to create something beautiful and I think we will participate nicely at the top. We are doing everything we can to get promoted and I am confident that if we continue like this we have a good chance.”
Mounir Boualin is a freelance football vlogger, video journalist and presenter. For Voetbalzone he makes interviews about matches.
Voetbalzone is the official media partner of the Kitchen Champion Division
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