Justin Bijlow can call himself Feyenoord’s first goalkeeper and will be complimented by Dick Advocaat in the run-up to Sunday’s match against FC Twente. The head coach is impressed by the qualities of the talented goalkeeper, who had Kenneth Vermeer in front of him for a long time. In January, the experienced goalkeeper left for the American Los Angeles FC, so Bijlow is the undisputed number one in De Kuip.

Lawyer had no problem with 34-year-old Vermeer leaving for the Major League Soccer. After all, the coach thought Bijlow was at least equal and moreover, the 22-year-old youth international is a lot younger. “As he’s under that bar, great,” Lawyer is quoted by the Algemeen Dagblad. “I’m not quick to say, actually, as a trainer I’ve always been critical of my goalkeepers, but Bijlow is top-top. So young, yet so mature. Unprecedented.”

Lawyer: ‘Ajax always shouts that, but so does Feyenoord’.

In the newspaper, Bijlow explains that he likes to figure himself away from the team. “Take the question how many times I kept the zero last season. I don’t know,” says the closing post. “I really mean that. It may sound boring, but only a victory counts. An example? In the preparation against Borussia Dortmund I stopped a penalty kick by Erling Haaland. That was very much in demand, Haaland is of course a top player. But believe me, it’s really not that I ran the polonaise in Duisburg because a big footballer didn’t score against me from the dot”.

Bijlow stressed that he was happy that Feyenoord won the match 1-3. “And that we had predicted the angle where he would shoot well. Yes, I say we did. I’ll get help with that, of course. It may have been just a practice match but even then we are preparing well. When Haaland grabbed the ball, I knew there was a good chance he would shoot to my left”, the goalkeeper concluded.