Wesley Sneijder brings in Friday evening Veronica Offside some nuances. The record international (134 caps) added last week Radio 538 that he would like to work for the Dutch national team under Ronald Koeman. Sneijder spoke to the new national coach of the Dutch about the draw for the semi-finals of the Nations League at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.
Sneijder would like to work as a trainer in professional football. When he retired as an international, Koeman indicated that he would like to help his pupil with his ambitions as a trainer, but in the end it did not happen. “Whether I will do something this time? We have not discussed that, but it is clear that I want to go to the training circuit,” Sneijder said in the radio interview on Thursday. How we’re going to do that, whether or not I’m going to do that with Koeman… I’m going to focus on that in the near future. Do I aspire to it? Sure. It’s the best thing there is to be part of the national team. Especially with a teacher like Ronald Koeman.”
Presenter Wilfred Genee wonders on Friday evening why Sneijder made an ‘open application’ to Koeman via the radio. “No, that’s not true. Then you haven’t listened”, the analyst immediately counters. “Those are things again. Look, everyone who heard that interview has heard what I also said here at the table. That is that I aspire to be a trainer. So that was not an open application to Koeman. Only that is back in all documents and you see the headline: ‘Sneijder is applying for a place at Koeman’. That has not been discussed at all.”
“And those are things, as Steven Berghuis also mentioned. That things are called and translated differently. That is life-threatening. Not in my case, because I care about that open application,” Sneijder shrugs. “But in such a case of Berghuis. Clickbaits are fun, but put the right thing above it,” the former the Dutch player tells the various media in the Netherlands. Sneijder says he had ‘a good conversation’ with Koeman, but does not want to say much about it.