Calvin Stengs is having a strong season with Royal Antwerp. The 24-year-old midfielder had a failed adventure at OGC Nice, but then grew the GreatOld under trainer Mark van Bommel to an undisputed basic player. Antwerp has reached the cup final and can crown itself champion of Belgium for the first time since 1957.
Stengs is grateful to Van Bommel for always keeping faith in him as a trainer this season. “Thanks to him, my step here was so arranged,” he says to it General Journal. “Mark is a nice man to work with. I haven’t always played well here either, but he lets me stand and gives me confidence. What makes Mark a pleasant trainer? A trainer is always above the group, but with Mark you notice that he is still a bit of a player and stands between the boys. I like that.”
At Antwerp, Stengs no longer plays as a right winger, but is used by Van Bommel as a midfielder. This season he has so far scored three goals and six assists in 26 official matches. “I do feel that actions are successful again as before and that I am important. Especially now that I can set the lines from midfield. It goes back on autopilot, I don’t have to think so much anymore.”
In the summer of 2021, Stengs was one of the candidates to be called up for the European Championship by his father-in-law Frank de Boer. However, the national coach of the Dutch national team then chose not to include the creative, who was playing at AZ at the time, in his final selection. “But that has never been a thing in the family. I wasn’t at the level I deserved to go. So I got it,” says Stengs.
A return to the Dutch national team may be getting closer due to his many minutes and development at Antwerp. Stengs himself is not currently working on that. “I made my debut in 2019 (against Estonia, 5-0 and two assists from Stengs, ed.) under Ronald Koeman, so he knows me. But I just have to perform and then it will come again.”