The Kitchen Champion Division has been a nursery for national and international talents for decades and this season too, many football players with potential are walking around on the second level. Voetbalzone, the official media partner of the Kitchen Champion Division, highlights one of these talents every week, this time focusing on Thijs Dallinga, without doubt the man of the first half of the season in the Kitchen Champion Division.
By Chris Meijer
There is a good chance that Thijs Dallinga would not have looked at you with understanding a year ago when you had asked him about Joop Schuman. Not entirely surprising, because Schuman made furore on behalf of PEC Zwolle, Preussen Münster and Heracles Almelo in the distant past. No one has ever scored more goals in a First Division season than Schuman in 1961/62 on behalf of Heracles: 44. Now exactly fifty years later someone is flirting with his otherworldly record and so Dallinga now knows very well who Schuman is. “It might be more from the media,” Dallinga responds when Schuman’s name is mentioned. “I’ve seen it often now and it’s a beautiful thing if you can achieve that. That’s just not the priority. I want to score as much as possible. But if it’s just a little less and we get what we want with the team, that’s all right.”
His transfer from FC Groningen to Excelsior was certainly not picked up en masse last summer, but 25 goals further, his name has now come up in just about every talk show or national medium. Even Johan Derksen spoke highly of Dallinga in Veronica Inside. “If Johan Derksen is positive, I am satisfied. No, they are nice things to hear and that motivates me to continue,” says the 21-year-old striker with a smile. “I used to watch football and maybe I didn’t pay much attention to it. It’s nice to be talked about. Now it is much positive, but there will also come a period when it is a bit more negative. I am aware of that and I will not be so easily confused. I know more is being written about me. That is on the one hand very beautiful. But if I don’t score right now, there are always a few who say: ‘He can’t do it anyway’. I can put that into perspective very easily and that is perhaps also important.”
Perhaps that is why the disappointing start of 2022 does not lead to panic at Dallinga. In the first five games of this calendar year, Excelsior only took one point and Dallinga did not score yet. “No, that’s an understatement”, Dallinga replies when it is stated that Excelsior is not in its best period. That started with a corona outbreak, which ensured that the game against ADO Den Haag was postponed. “We had a separate preparation for the second half of the season, in which there was a lot of uncertainty. Also for myself, if I could play in connection with values and such. But hey, more clubs will have to deal with that. We knew this could happen in a few games as well, that’s part of the season. You prefer to try to avoid that, of course.”
Dalling duels with Reda Kharchouch of FC Emmen in one of the five matches that Excelsior did not win in 2022.
Down to earth and stoic: it is how Dallinga is often portrayed. “I sometimes get the comment: why are you so calm and not a bit more exuberant? I enjoy it, but at the same time I put it into perspective. That may make it seem sober. That’s just how I am, I guess.” Dallinga admits that things went a bit faster in the first half of the season than he expected. “I’m realistic enough: if you score that much in one half of the season, you won’t last the whole season. Anyway, I did have confidence in myself and I therefore consciously took that step back, to eventually take two steps forward. Fortunately, that trust is paid off. And you hope it goes that fast, but you can never know that in advance.”
Dallinga chose to take a big step outside his comfort zone last summer. He grew up close to Groningen and initially ended up in the youth academy of FC Emmen. There, Dallinga made his debut in professional football when he was seventeen, with which he put himself in the spotlight at FC Groningen. A dream that came true, since as a little boy he regularly sat in the stands of the Euroborg with his father and grandfather. “I did play matches, in an empty Euroborg. That was a shame, despite it being a goal. In that respect it succeeded, but it did not turn out as I had envisioned. You want to show yourself over a longer period of time.”
One of the causes of this is an abdominal muscle injury, which Dallinga struggled with for a year. “Then you don’t get into a certain rhythm and it makes sense that you don’t really come into the picture to make minutes at the first. It took me a long time to get fit over a longer period of time. But eventually you learn to accept that and then you have to move on. It has made me realize that the most important thing is that you are fit, because it determines a large part of your happiness. If you can’t stand on the field every day and have to train in the gym, that will get in your head.” Nevertheless, Dallinga played last season as a substitute for seven more matches in the main force of FC Groningen, which also wanted to extend his expiring contract. “FC Groningen is really my club, but at some point you also have to think about yourself and your career. That perspective was simply better at Excelsior than at FC Groningen.”
“I did play games, in an empty Euroborg. That was a shame, even though it was a goal.”
Dallinga wanted a completely new environment, with new people around him and therefore chose Excelsior over his old club FC Emmen. Excelsior was in transition after a disappointing season and Dallinga promised that there would be a young, eager selection. “It has now been confirmed that the feeling on which I based that choice has been good. Of course it is always a matter of waiting, it depends on many things whether it will work. I just needed to be able to show myself weekly, that’s what I get at Excelsior. Ultimately, you have to make sure you show it yourself. This is the perfect environment right now, with people who want to make me better and have faith in me. In any case, it is good to be in a new environment for a while and with the right people around me it works out well.”
How quickly did he realize that there was such a good match as it turned out? “Pff, yes, that’s hard to say,” Dallinga replies. “You go there for a purpose. But I immediately got a feeling, it also started to run fast with the team. Then everything accelerates. The more matches you play together, the more fixed you get, there is now a kind of click on the field. It just got better and I think that helped me too. The connection with Reuven (Niemeijer, ed.), for example. That has to be just right to end up in the right place. We know from each other what his task is, what can be expected and what he can do. I think everyone has a good role there.”
Dallinga cheers after one of his no fewer than four goals in the 0-5 won away match against FC Den Bosch.
Within that team, Dallinga says he has developed as a striker. Because of a certain match rhythm, but also because Excelsior asks for something different from him than at FC Groningen. “I have to get into the ball a little more, for example. That way you run into things that you need to improve. And it’s nice to see when things get better.” Dallinga, however, has a clear vision of what he thinks really needs to be improved. “I think it’s important to maintain a certain level over a longer period of time. Be consistent, yes,” he says firmly when asked if he sees an area for improvement. “It’s the hardest thing to keep performing, because expectations are going up. It is a nice challenge to hold the level as long as possible. That is why it was my intention to stay with Excelsior. It’s my first full season where I’m playing everything, so it’s important to stick with that and not switch after six months.”
Given his extraordinary first half of the season, rumors of a winter departure were inevitable. AZ and sc Heerenveen were mentioned as interested, while Rob Jacobs Feyenoord in the General Newspaper encouraged to pick up Dallinga. “That would be ideal, indeed”, laughs Dallinga, who lives in the Rotterdam suburb of Nesselande with girlfriend Liz – who plays in the Eredivisie of volleyball with Laudame Financials VCN. “I can’t judge that right now because it’s not an issue. I try to put things off like that. It’s not really going to help me play better football if I’m doing that.” Excelsior indicated early on that no one was allowed to leave in January, while Dallinga also saw little in a winter transfer.
Dallinga poses with the Bronze Championship shield as the best player of the second period.
Trainer Marinus Dijkhuizen (‘I have a lot of contact with the trainer and he has also been a striker, so you automatically sit down more often to discuss things’) said recently in an interview with Football International count on Excelsior losing Dallinga next summer. “Um, yes. It’s not really a thing at the moment,” Dallinga responds to his trainer’s words. “But I have ambitions and I can only judge something at the end of the season when it is there. I can’t say much about that now. I have a certain plan, I have it clear in front of me. That hasn’t changed since the start of the season. I think it’s a nice compliment. After a lesser period at FC Groningen, it is nice to hear that you are in the spotlight. But I tried to close that as much as possible, even though you get quite a bit from it.”
First, Dallinga wants to find and continue the line of the first half of the season, both personally and with Excelsior. “You just know that teams will approach you differently if you participate at the top, they look differently and play against us differently. That is a great challenge, also for myself. To deal with expectations well and to maintain the highest possible level.” Excelsior is already certain of participating in the play-offs by winning the second period title, but is starting to lose sight of the direct promotion places due to the mediocre start of 2022. “The most important thing is to keep the same level. We’ll see what other teams do. We have faith in each other. We’ll see at the end of the season where that will lead to.”
Name: Thijs Dallinga
Date of birth: August 3, 2000
Club: Excelsior
Position: rush hour
Strengths: targeting, technique, speed
Voetbalzone is the official media partner of the Kitchen Champion Division
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