Cyriel Dessers is confident that Feyenoord is capable of winning the Conference League. The team from Rotterdam will face Olympique Marseille in the semi-final on Thursday evening. Dessers, with his goals an important part in Feyenoord’s European success, does not rule out that he can also be admired in the Eredivisie next season. The attack leader is rented by Feyenoord from KRC Genk until the end of the season.
“In the winter, I clicked,” Dessers says in conversation with The Telegraph† “I thought: I still have a few months, now I have to go full throttle. Twice I had the feeling that I would be in the team, but the first time I got corona and the second time I got injured. I immediately scored that injury against FC Groningen. Then I felt: now I’ve got it. Since then I haven’t let go.” Dessers is currently the number one in striker and comes in the pecking order for Bryan Linssen, who was drafted as number 10 by Arne Slot against FC Utrecht last Sunday.
“Feyenoord may have encountered a few smaller teams in the preliminary round, but in the group stage we played against Slavia Prague, Union Berlin and Maccabi Haifa, all good clubs. Then Partizan Belgrade followed and again Slavia Prague. And now Marseille is waiting in the semi-finals Then you cannot speak of a small tournament. No, the Conference League really lives here. Within the city, within the club, but also within the dressing room”, concludes Dessers, who scored four times against Slavia Prague and also against Partizan and Union Berlin was accurate, bringing his total in the Conference League to eight.
“Funny to see”, Dessers refers to Pierre van Hooijdonk and Lex Schoenmaker, the only players who, with nine goals, have ever scored more often on behalf of Feyenoord in a European campaign. “But those men are still regarded a bit higher than I am. They have also won more awards. But eight European goals in one season is something special anyway. I hope something more will be added soon. Marseille is a big club. I think they’ve won ten of their last eleven games. So that speaks for itself. But we can always do a little more in Europe. I have to admit that winning the Conference League is on my mind. And I give us a good chance against Marseille.”
In the meantime, Dessers has slowly grown into a cult hero in Rotterdam, but he prefers not to use that word. “But cult hero… Actually, I don’t like to hear that,” said the striker. “For me, cult footballers are players who weren’t really that good, but who have played themselves in the hearts of the fans. It was funny in the beginning: I often came in and scored a few times in the 92nd minute. So I understand. But I think I’ve shown more than that by now. If you can shoot a team like Feyenoord to the semi-finals of a European cup, the cult is a bit off.”