‘I’ve heard and seen the comparison many times’

Thursday, December 16, 2021 at 00:00• Chris Meijer • Last update: 23:14

The Kitchen Champion Division has been used as 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 Naci Ünüvar, who is having an excellent season with Jong Ajax.

By Chris Meijer

The match between De Graafschap and Jong Ajax was 41 minutes old when a measured cross pass from Kian Fitz-Jim came straight at Naci Ünüvar. The eighteen-year-old attacker took a few steps forward from the sidelines and placed his right foot behind his standing leg. The ball dropped perfectly at his feet after a subtle touch. It is a tour de force that fits seamlessly with a player who has already been involved in 16 goals in 17 league games this season. “I’m a player who has what it takes to do things like that anyway,” nüvar responds when confronted with the moment at De Vijverberg. “When I do something like that when the score is 1-0 or 1-1, I play with confidence. That’s fine at the moment. I’ve never really had that I didn’t have faith, you know?”

His reputation has accelerated Ünüvar at lightning speed. His name has been buzzing in Amsterdam and far beyond for years. It is not for nothing that an almost full Johan Cruijff ArenA chanted his name during the cup match between Ajax and Spakenburg (7-0), every time he showed a glimpse of himself on or around the field. Ünüvar was only 16 years and 223 days when he made his debut and scored in the main squad for the first time in January 2020. Humble as he is, he asked Klaas-Jan Huntelaar if he could take the penalty when he was knocked out in the box after 86 minutes. The striker more than twice his senior nodded, passed the ball and saw Ünüvar send the goalkeeper the wrong way. “I made my debut in the pocket, Yes. That was great, I’ll never forget something like that in my life,” nüvar says with a smile. “When you look back on all that, it makes you want more.”

The youngest debutants in Ajax club history.

Since then, however, Ünüvar has had to be patient. Shortly after his debut in the first team, football came to a standstill due to the outbreak of the corona pandemic, just in a period when he had conquered a base place at Young Ajax as a sixteen-year-old and was important in his own words in the Kitchen Champion Division. “Last season I had a bad period until the winter break,” nüvar admits. “Yes, I think that was the most difficult year of my career. You like to play football, but I learned from it. As a result, you see what you have to do and that you have to put extra energy into it, because it does not happen automatically. Until then, it might just come naturally to me. So it’s not nice to experience that.”

It became a period of ‘learning and investing’. In consultation with then trainer Mitchell van der Gaag, a plan was made to make physical steps. It meant that in the first half of last season he did not always have a basic place at Jong Ajax and that he could be found in the weight room a lot more often. “Looking back on it now, it was also educational. I think I came out of that strong.” As for Ünüvar, there is now a thick, bold line under what he went through last year. He prefers to talk about this season, in which he reaps the fruits of the sacrifices he has made. “Yes, it certainly is. The realization and the mindset are now also very different, that has improved. Last season, after the winter break, I already played some good games and I was important for the team with goals. I have extended that to this season and I am happy with that.”

Ünüvar initially had a ‘not a good start’ to the season, after he had to leave the training camp with the first team in De Lutte due to illness, struggled with coronavirus and his grandfather died. “I am very happy with the support I have had from the trainers, my family and friends. As a result, I recovered well.” Ünüvar was almost unstoppable after that and, with nine goals and seven assists, is by far his best season so far in the Kitchen Champion Division. The highlight of his first half of the season was an assist during the away game against FC Eindhoven, in which he found the detached Victor Jensen with a heel between three opponents. “Thank you for the inspiration, Ajax,” nüvar tweeted after that assist, referring to a video of Ajax featuring a compilation of heels from the Champions League match against Borussia Dortmund.

“I’m comfortable in my own skin, the team is running very well and my statistics are good. This season is going really well. I am certainly satisfied. But,” he adds immediately. “There is always room for improvement. With the chances I’ve had, I could have scored even more goals. I can keep a little more rest in front of goal and want to become even more decisive in the game. Also so that I can find some more peace in the final phase to finish. My return should be higher if I look at myself critically.” Ünüvar himself is perhaps the most critical of his achievements. “Yes, but I learned that from home. My father, brother and management also urge me to always remain critical and not to be satisfied too quickly. I’m glad I have that in me.”

The statistics of Naci Ünüvar on behalf of Young Ajax in the Kitchen Champion Division.

With John Heitinga, Ünüvar has received a trainer at Jong Ajax this season who he already knew from the Under 19s. “I have a good relationship with the trainer. We have worked together in the Under 19s, and he brought me in at a very young age.” However, he also has good memories of the collaboration with Van der Gaag, who has been assistant coach at Ajax’s first team since last summer. “Van der Gaag has also helped me enormously in my difficult period. I spent a lot of time with him, we made a plan to invest together. They have both contributed enormously to the process. The moment you don’t play or can’t show what you want, is difficult for a player anyway. Mitchell helped a lot with that.”

Ünüvar has already won more than fifty competitions in the Kitchen Champion Division. “I only really showed it this season, I think. Actually I didn’t really have any trouble with the intensity, but I did notice that after about 75 minutes the tank was empty. You notice a difference in that respect, I can last for ninety minutes and be decisive in the final phase. That’s an important moment in a game. I am super fit and doing what I have to do. That is helping the team, being important and developing myself,” explains the the Dutch Under-19 international. “I work super hard every day to get into the picture with the first team. I just have to show it in the training sessions and in the games, then the opportunities will come naturally.” The first chance followed on Wednesday evening, when he was again part of the main squad for the first time since his debut and played his second match in Ajax 1 as a substitute against Barendrecht (4-0 win).

The competition at Ajax’s first team seems to have increased considerably compared to two years ago. Ünüvar shrugs. “Two years ago you had players like Hakim who were still there, he was in great shape then.” It seems no coincidence that he mentions Ziyech’s name, because the two had a special click. Welcome Young King, Ziyech wrote under Ünüvar’s Instagram post about his first training with Ajax’s main squad. And when Ünüvar was allowed to build from eleven meters during his debut, Ziyech posted the goal and his reaction on Instagram. Ünüvar, in turn, already indicated that he even saw Ziyech as an example when he still played at sc Heerenveen and later FC Twente. The two may have a similar role on the field: on paper a winger, who also regularly ends up in the ashes with a free role.

“I think he is a fantastic player. It is not for nothing that he is so decisive at Chelsea, at Ajax he has also done a great job. If you can look up to him, that’s great. I had a good relationship with him, so you automatically hang out a bit more. We’re not really the same type of player, but I’ve heard and seen the comparison many times.” With Dusan Tadic, Mohammed Daramy, David Neres, Davy Klaassen, Steven Berghuis and Mohammed Kudus, Ajax’s selection now includes many players who can play in Ünüvar’s favorite positions. “There has always been a high level and they show that this season. They have a great selection, do it well and there is a lot of competition. That is why I have to show every day that I want to take my chance.”

The competition may be a bit bigger, but Ünüvar says it is also further than two years ago. “I am now much more complete as a player: much fitter, smarter. I am a few steps further in everything”, that is how he summarizes his development after two years in the Kitchen Champion Division. Slowly but surely the moment seems to be approaching when Ünüvar can make the crossing from De Toekomst to the Johan Cruijff ArenA. The moment he has dreamed about since childhood and for which he has always resisted the temptations of top European clubs such as Barcelona, ​​Manchester United, Arsenal and Juventus. “My dream to become a base player at Ajax does not change. As a little boy I have always been an Ajax fan.” At the thought of a full Johan Cruijff ArenA chanting his name again, Ünüvar cannot suppress a smile: “That would be nice, wouldn’t it?”

Name: Naci Ünuvar
Date of birth: June 13, 2003
Club: (Young) Ajax
Position: attacker
Strengths: insight, technique, passing

Voetbalzone is the official media partner of the Kitchen Champion Division

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