Three years ago it did not look like that Sven Mijnans would make it to professional football at all. Sparta Rotterdam picked him up at the age of eighteen from the amateurs of vv Spijkenisse. Last week the provisional highlight in the special story of Mijnans followed, with his Eredivisie debut during the 2-0 lost away game against Vitesse, while he also made minutes in the 4-0 lost game with PEC Zwolle and his contract already broken open and was extended until mid-2022. “I would never have dreamed that it would come this far. But now I have the feeling that I can do much better. ”

By Chris Meijer

While the game between Vitesse and Sparta was drawing to a close, trainer Henk Fraser turned to Mijnans. “Sven, make a quick warm-up,” he was told by his trainer. He looked around for a moment, saw that the other switches had to stay put and realized: it is really going to happen. In the five minutes that he made in the GelreDome as a replacement for Adil Auassar, there was no change in the 2-0 deficit for the ten of Sparta. “It may not be a dream debut, but it remains cool. Certainly to make your debut in such a stadium ”, Mijnans beams a week later. His phone exploded after the first minutes in the Eredivisie. “A lot of positivity from friends, family and other outside people. Then you will receive messages with: ‘I have seen you, congratulations’. ” It would not have made much difference if he had already come within the lines a week earlier in the home game against Ajax (0-1 defeat). “I had extended my contract for a year the week before and it was then discussed that I would most likely make my debut against Ajax. Unfortunately that did not happen. We were 0-1 behind ten men, so it was actually a good scenario. Well, a week later was also fine. ”

Mijnans in action during the first Eredivisie game of his career, against Vitesse.

The fact that Mijnans would now play minutes in the Eredivisie seemed like a utopia about three years ago. He was indeed a talented football player in the youth of amateur club vv Spijkenisse and did an internship at both Sparta and Feyenoord at a young age. The fact that as an F-pupil it did not yet come from an employment contract at Het Kasteel, had to do with the fact that at that time he preferred to play at his trusted amateur club. He dropped out in the last round with fellow townsman Feyenoord during a training period. There was great relief when Mijnans was hired at ADO Den Haag at the age of sixteen. “That was kind of recognition,” he agrees. After one year, however, his time in The Hague came to an end.

“I worried for a while that I had to leave after a year. Especially because I knew I could do better. What I showed in the games was not enough. I knew that myself. But it was a shame they didn’t give me another chance ”, the eloquent Mijnans sounds a bit softer. He had no difficulty in returning to Spijkenisse, which felt like ‘coming home’ due to the presence of his friends and the same trainers. “But of course you went from training five times to three times a week, that was crazy. I found myself three or four steps ahead of those guys. Some things will irritate you a bit, it is a bit difficult to make that switch ”, Mijnans immediately confesses. “I must say that I thought for a moment: now something very special has to happen if professional football is to succeed. Perhaps not working anymore is a big word, but I was no longer thinking about it as much as I did at ADO. ”

The fact that Mijnans ended up in professional football after all, is partly thanks to Peter Wubben. The trainer of the first team of Spijkenisse threw him in February 2018 as a seventeen-year-old for the lions in the Third Division of Saturday football. “There were always scouts who came to me and said they were watching me and working on me. I had no agents yet. It helped a bit that I got to the first one so early. I was talked about having a 17-year-old boy playing in the base in the Third Division. Then people go and have a look. ” One of the people who came to watch was Sparta scout Ger Bruijs. He became enthusiastic and convinced Henk van Stee of the talent from Spijkenisse. The technical director of Sparta was already on the phone at Mijnans a few weeks after his debut in the Third Division.

In total, Mijnans played 43 games for Jong Sparta, including this one in February 2019 against GVVV.

“Before school I was doing an internship at a company. Suddenly I got a strange call, so I went out into the hall. It turned out that Henk van Stee was hanging on the line. At the time, I did not know at all that he was technical director at Sparta. But he was very positive and wanted to have a conversation with me, together with my parents. We are going to do that and eventually we agreed that I would initially come to Sparta on an amateur basis, ”laughs Mijnans as he explains his switch to Sparta. Incidentally, he has now put his training as a junior account manager on the back burner, as he managed to earn his first professional contract at Sparta after a year. Yet his first season at Spangen did not go quite as he had expected it directly.

Mijnans initially joined Jong Sparta, but got little time to play. “But at the time, guys like Stijn Spierings played in the base on Saturday. The guys from the first who didn’t play on Friday just got the right of way. Those guys were better too, so they deserved to play. That’s the way it works with promise teams. I had conversations with Van Stee and it came out that it was important that I make minutes. We decided that I would play my games in the Under-19s. That was a good experience, we played against Feyenoord, Ajax and PSV, among others. In the meantime I continued to train with Jong Sparta. ” Just before the winter break, Mijnans made his debut for Jong Sparta and in the second half of the season he even played the most minutes of all players in the reserves team, while he also sat on the bench seven times with the first team in the Kitchen Champion Division and the play -offs for promotion to the Eredivisie.

“That was really cool to experience as a youngster. Last year I trained a little less level on my own ability, then I picked it up again and I feel very good now. I have the feeling that I am growing to the top of my level ”, Mijnans analyzes the past year, in which he was only once in the competition selection of the main force after promotion to the Eredivisie. In all fairness he adds that he had trouble finding the ‘connection’. “The Eredivisie is the level that I should be able to reach. I trained every week, but it was not enough to get to the match selection. I knew that myself. The preparation has now been so good that I was there in the first three games and I am part of the selection. The trainer also said that, he feels that I am doing well and I feel that myself, while I feel that I can do much better. ”

Mijnans fights a duel with Marouan Azarkan in the exhibition match against Feyenoord.

Mijnans ‘strong preparation for this season, including a good performance in the 2-1 exhibition match against Borussia Dortmund (‘ Marco Reus had just changed, he still wished me good luck. That was funny. experience, that complex is not normal. You don’t see that anywhere in the Netherlands’), was not only rewarded with his Eredivisie debut, but also with a new contract that runs until mid-2022. “There is a lot of interest for Appie (Abdou Harroui, enjoys concrete interest from FC Groningen, ed.) And they think with me about the long term for that position. I am preparing myself for the Eredivisie and hope to make a lot of minutes, so that I can be ready whenever the trainer needs me. I think I am ready and if Appie is sold, I hope that I am the person who can fill his position. In my opinion, I can really help Sparta with that. ”

Within three years from the amateurs to a basic place in the Eredivisie: it seems an unlikely story, but Mijnans has a small side note. “I always wonder how I would have been if I had had a professional youth academy at the first of Sparta, just like all those guys. Where had I been now? How good would I have been when I was eighteen or nineteen? ” These are questions that no one can really answer. Mijnans shrugs. “Well, we can’t turn it around. Of course I am also very satisfied and grateful with how things are going now. ”