Quilindschy Hartman has only sixteen Eredivisie matches to his name, but was already in the pre-selection of the Dutch national team earlier this month. The 21-year-old left back impresses Feyenoord and that has not gone unnoticed by national coach Ronald Koeman. Hartman did not make the final selection, so he can report to the Dutch Juniors of Erwin van der Looi. “I have never played for a representative team,” he says The Telegraph.
Hartman considers it an honor to play for the Dutch Juniors, although it takes some getting used to not playing in the red and white. “For the first time I will wear a different shirt than the Feyenoord shirt. No, I will not wear that under the the Dutch shirt,” the left wing defender says jokingly. “I will bring a pair of Feyenoord underpants. Matter of superstition, I swear by those underpants.” On March 25 and 27, Van der Looi’s team will play two exhibition games against Norway and the Czech Republic.
Feyenoord won 2-3 in the Johan Cruijff ArenA last Sunday and has a lead of six points over number two Ajax. Hartman was substituted after 24 minutes by trainer Arne Slot, because he received a yellow card early in the game and then committed another foul. When the bus returned to Varkenoord, the youth exponent of the Rotterdammers did not know what he saw. “It was not normal, it seemed as if we had become champions. Those people went crazy. Many of those supporters were not even born when Feyenoord won for the last time in the ArenA.”
It would have been close if Hartman had played for another Rotterdam club this season. “I wanted to play in the Eredivisie and the chance that I would do that at Feyenoord did not seem great. We had even already decided: I wanted to go to Excelsior on a rental basis and they wanted me.” The fact that the rental deal failed was due to Slot, says the left back. “He said, ‘Q, you’re actually way too good to leave. I think you should go for your chance here.” Hartman is now a fixed value for Feyenoord, which is still fighting on three fronts this season.