Friday, May 28, 2021 at 9:51 PM• Jeroen van Poppel

Owen Wijndal faces his first major tournament with the Dutch national team. The 21-year-old left wing defender seems assured of a base place in the Dutch after seven international matches and is confidently heading towards the European Championship. “I’ve always been pretty confident, yes,” Wijndal said in conversation with it Noordhollands Dagblad.

Johan Derksen called Wijndal shortly after his debut for AZ, less than two years ago, ‘the new Marcelo’. When the left back is confronted with that statement, he laughs. “He has quite a view of it, hey, that man”, winks Wijndal. “No, ‘the new Marcelo’ has asked a lot of me. It is going really well now, but to be the new Marcelo I have to win some Champions Leagues and play at one of the best clubs in the world for ten years. . ” Still, Wijndal believes he can reach that level. “I think that is in it, yes. Of course I still have a lot of steps to make, but I am also still young.”

Wijndal is also somewhat surprised by its stormy development. “Two years ago I would not have thought that it would go so quickly”, he says. “I mean, two years ago I came into the base of AZ. Then you do not expect that you now have seven international matches in the Dutch behind your name. Also because I play at AZ. Normally you don’t have that many AZ players in Dutch. That has not happened for a long time. With that we have put AZ even more on the map “, he also refers to Teun Koopmeiners in addition to himself. In addition, Marco Bizot and Calvin Stengs also smoke the Dutch.

After the European Championship, Wijndal may make a top transfer. “Of course that depends on how I played”, the fullback realizes. “But at the moment I have the feeling that I can take every step. Whether the European Championship is decisive in that, I don’t know. Of course it would be nice if I really showed that I am ready at the European Championship.” Wijndal thinks he would also fit in a team that plays defensively. “People sometimes think that I cannot defend because I stand out with attacking actions. But I can also just defend well. If you look at how often I am passed by an opponent: almost never.”

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