Normally, Huseyin Dogan would have stood with NAC Breda in the Parkstad Limburg Stadium or De Goffert during this period to gather points in the hunt for an Eredivisie ticket. Now, a completely different stage awaits the 27-year-old attacker from Thursday: the group stage of the Asian Champions League in the King Fahd International Stadium in the Saudi capital Riyadh, which seats almost seventy thousand people. Dogan left NAC behind last month for an extremely surprising adventure with Istiklol Dushanbe, Tajikistan’s record champion.
By Chris Meijer
Dogan has only been in Tajikistan for barely a month, but can hardly go wrong with the supporters. He made his debut in the 2-0 Super Cup match against cup winner Ravshan Kulob, opened the score early in the second half and was voted Man of the Match. “Since that competition I have been constantly recognized, people come to me to say that they have seen it and I am spoken to everywhere”, beams Dogan, adding his first real prize to his honors list. “We were promoted with Sparta, which was also a prize. But this is very special to me on many fronts. Because I played such a role, this was my first official match, this is my very first foreign adventure … I can go on like this. But especially those three things. The best thing I think is that you have the feeling that you give people something, that gives a boost and satisfaction. In the Netherlands we are quite down to earth, which is often a good thing. But when you see how football lives among the people here, that is very special. ”
‘I’ve seen the bottom of football, so you always take that with you’
Voetbalzone previously spoke with Huseyin Dogan, who fought back at TOP Oss after a year without a club and deserved a transfer to NAC Breda.
His performance in the battle for the Super Cup is a reflection of how he currently feels in Tajikistan, a former part of the Soviet Union in Central Asia that borders China and Afghanistan, among other places, according to Dogan. “It is my first foreign adventure, but I could not have wished for a better place in terms of the hospitality of those boys. I feel so at home here, those guys take me on the road every day. After the training we have a drink with those guests or we go out for dinner or take a walk in the evening. As a result, a friendship grows quickly. Actually, I feel like I’ve been playing in this team for months. Until now, I have not had the feeling that I have had to adapt. That helped in the competition, because I am an emotional person. ”
For now, Dogan has not regretted his choice for Istiklol for a second. “If I had known in advance what I know now, I would have done it even easier. Suppose I was given the choice a hundred times, I would make the same choice a hundred times. Of course it is easy to talk afterwards, because I did not know how it would turn out yet. With homesickness, for example, because I am really a family man. But I have nothing to complain about ”, he nods. In his final months at NAC, he played less after getting injured and turning the team in the meantime. In addition, the two-year contract he signed with NAC after he was taken over from TOP Oss expired next summer, so Dogan had already carefully thought about his first foreign adventure. “When are you ready for that? I hadn’t prepared for it. The opportunity presented itself and it was arranged within two days. ”
So Dogan decided to take up Istiklol’s offer, which was established in 2007 in honor of Tajikistan’s Independence Day. Since then, Istiklol has filled his trophy cabinet with nine league titles (seven of which have been won in a row in recent years), eight cups, ten super cups and the AFC President’s Cup, Asia’s former third club tournament. “A lot of guys in the team are also international from Tajikistan. It is by far the largest club, also in terms of financial possibilities. It’s not just something that they participate in the Champions League. ” The Asian Champions League, whose main tournament starts next Thursday, was one of the most interesting aspects for Dogan in his choice for Istiklol.
In the past two years, Dogan scored 9 goals and 5 assists in 35 official games for NAC.
As the champion of Tajikistan, Istiklol has for the first time received a direct ticket for the main tournament of the largest club tournament in Asia, in which it will now also make its debut. In the group stage – which will be finished in one place due to the corona pandemic – Istiklol will face Al-Hilal from Saudi Arabia, Shabab Al-Ahli from Dubai and AGMK from Uzbekistan, who settled with Al-Gharafa in a play-off. “That’s great, because Al-Gharafa has a number of good players under contract with Héctor Moreno, Sofiane Hanni, Adlène Guédioura and Jonathan Kodjia,” says Dogan. Istiklol starts the group stage against Shabab Al-Ahli, the champion of the United Arab Emirates, at the King Fahd International Stadium, which can seat nearly seventy thousand spectators. “All stadiums in Saudi Arabia are gruesome, but this stadium is also in FIFA. If Al-Hilal normally plays in Saudi Arabia, I think there are sixty to seventy thousand people. They really have crazy following. I don’t know what that will be like now. ”
“Sebastian Giovinco, Luciano Vietto and Bafétimbi Gomis play at Al-Hilal, it is nice to be able to play against such players”, Dogan continues. “In Europe we don’t realize how big the Asian Champions League is. The Asian Champions League is huge here, that’s the event of the year. Everyone is constantly talking about those competitions, you notice that everything is very alive. The boys are all extra focused and tense, you notice that something is really going to happen. All the better that I can experience it shortly. Maybe that will open doors for me to the Asian football world, because in the Netherlands everyone now knows what I can and what not. If you, as a footballer, can add the Asian Champions League to your resume, that’s not wrong. ”