In Vloggertje, presenter Mounir Boualin visits familiar faces from football. This time he catches up with former goalkeeper Dennis Gentenaar, who brings up anecdotes about, for example, his time at NEC, Borussia Dortmund and Ajax. Together they wonder why the top of the Netherlands never caught on to the phenomenon of VVV-Venlo.
Gentenaar went through the youth academy of NEC and gradually rose to become the first goalkeeper of the team from Nijmegen. Gentenaar became one of the key players and made himself popular with the supporters because of his outspoken distaste for arch-rival Vitesse. “In the Matrixx (a discotheque in Nijmegen, ed.) I met a few supporters of NEC. They told me that I should ‘do something fun’, after which I promised that I would make my hair red, black and green. paint for the game at Vitesse. The branch was full and went completely crazy, but the others (Vitesse supporters, ed.) Of course also went completely crazy. I think that was the game that they threw a bomb. Anyway, if you If you do things like that, you should also be able to receive.”
Gentenaar has therefore never considered a transfer to GelreDome. “I was sometimes asked: Suppose you were to receive ten million euros. You’re not good if you don’t go, are you? I then said that they would have to go bankrupt from those ten million, then I might still do it.” In the summer of 2005, Gentenaar received his reward in the form of a transfer to Borussia Dortmund, although he had to make do with a reserve role “I got the chance to play for a bigger club in a bigger league,” explains Gentenaar BVB he played together with greats such as Tomás Rosický and Jan Koller. “He was really a giant”, Gentenaar refers to the 2.03 meter long Czech striker. “When I got a ball back and we were under pressure, I thought: Find Koller.”
After one season in Germany, Gentenaar transferred to Ajax in 2006, where he also took up a reserve role. “You had Maarten Stekelenburg and Kenneth Vermeer there. You know, to play for such a Dutch club… I thought it was fine.” After three seasons in the capital, the closing post moved to VVV-Venlo. There, one teammate stood out above all the others. “Niels Fleuren”, Gentenaar laughs. Not Fleuren, but Keisuke Honda was the absolute star in Venlo. “In the first week that I trained there, I called someone from Ajax and said: ‘Listen, if you want to become champion, you have to get him right away.’ I don’t know why Ajax didn’t do it. He wasn’t super fast or anything, but if someone got in, he was gone.”
Mounir Boualin is a freelance football vlogger, video journalist and presenter. For Voetbalzone he makes interviews about matches, among other things.