Kaj Sierhuis feels like a football player again. The 24-year-old striker of Stade Reims recently returned to the field after a long injury. The right leg, born in Athens, looks into conversation with Ajax Showtime back on a difficult period. He also talks about his time in youth at Ajax, in which he had the pleasure of playing together with Barcelona midfielder Frenkie de Jong.
Sierhuis tore off his cruciate ligament in February 2022 during a match with Heracles Almelo. He looks back on a tough year. “It was spicy. Your daily routine just expires for a whole year. You haven’t played football for almost a whole year. I tried as much as possible to replace my routine that I had in football, i.e. daily training sessions, with physiotherapy and in that way to be busy with my profession on a daily basis.”
At Reims, Sierhuis Folarin has to tolerate Balogun. The Arsenal mercenary is having an amazing season and has already scored sixteen times in 27 official games. “It would have been more difficult for me if I had been in this situation while I was fit. I missed the first half of the season due to my injury. He has already done very well in this. The second half of the season is more about connecting and making as many minutes as possible for me, but I didn’t expect to play everything in the second half of the season anyway. That was not the goal at all. The goal is to find my form again, to come back completely in terms of physique.”
The competitive battle with Balogun also has its advantages. “I think we will make each other better and keep each other sharp. He has very specific qualities and I think maybe those are exactly the qualities that I have a little less.” The 21-year-old Englishman, who was born in New York, will most likely return to Arsenal next summer. Balogun is still fixed in London until mid-2025, but has two strong competitors with Gabriel Jesus and Eddie Nketiah.
Frankie Young
Sierhuis is still in regular contact with his former Ajax teammates. He often speaks to Zian Flemming and Dani de Wit in particular. Yet one man has made the most impression on the striker. “I think I think Frenkie de Jong is the very best I have played with. When we played eleven against eleven, Frenkie came to collect the ball. I had to put pressure on it, but it just never worked. I thought he had really unique qualities.”