The Kitchen Champion Division has been used as a nursery for national and international talents for decades and this season too, many football players with potential are walking around on the second level. Voetbalzone, the official media partner of the Kitchen Champion Division, highlights one of these talents every week, this time focusing on Bradly van Hoeven, who obtained his PhD last season with Go Ahead Eagles and hopes to perform the same this year with Almere City FC.
By Chris Meijer
When Bradly van Hoeven was forced to watch Almere City’s practice match against NAC Breda (1-2 win) – he had just returned from a corona infection – from the reserve bench, he really noticed. “So, we play really good, well-groomed football. Offensive, trying to make the play on the opponent’s half. That appeals to me, I think that’s nice to see,” the 21-year-old wing attacker nods. “That way of playing football shows a bit where this club wants to go. That’s not down, so to speak. If you really want to play at the top, you have to try to impose the will on the opponent. For example, look at Cambuur last season. That’s the way you would prefer to do it, even if it doesn’t guarantee success. It’s a bit of daring or showing guts. Full on the attack, then it will only be 4-2 instead of 1-0. But hey, winning is winning. That is of course true.”
It was a consideration when Van Hoeven chose to exchange Sparta Rotterdam for Almere City earlier this summer. Not an easy choice, because he came to Sparta at the age of eight. “Or well, crawling actually”, laughs Van Hoeven. He went through the youth academy at Nieuw-Terbregge and joined the first team in the 2018/19 season, in which he made his debut in the 2-0 home match against MVV Maastricht. “We got our PhD that year and I think that was a bit of my bad luck. Then I knew I wouldn’t stick with the first. Because yes, they now had money and could go get players. I wouldn’t just be thrown to the lions in the Eredivisie, there is no time or space for that. That timing was not ideal in hindsight.” The following season he trained little with the first team. “I knew a year ago that I had to work hard in Jong Sparta before I would get a chance. Then Go Ahead suddenly came by with a super nice offer, to gain experience with two trainers that I know well.”
He still knew Kees van Wonderen from the the Dutch Under-17, while assistant Paul Simonis was his trainer for years in the youth of Sparta. “We did have some issues, one of which really stood out”, Van Hoeven points out that Van Wonderen briefly removed him from the selection. “Mentally it has been a really valuable experience. I actually went into it quite neutrally, I didn’t have a good idea how everything worked in the Kitchen Champion Division. Or well, what the charge of the battle for promotion would be. I had a hard time with Go Ahead, so at one point I thought: oh man, how is this going to end? But yes, in the end every football fan in the Netherlands knows the story. In retrospect, I couldn’t have wished for better. I went to live on my own, in another city. You subconsciously learn a lot from that.”
Van Hoeven celebrates the promotion of Go Ahead Eagles to the Eredivisie after the 0-1 victory over Excelsior.
With eight goals and five assists, Van Hoeven was the most valuable player of Go Ahead Eagles, which was promoted to the Eredivisie as number two of the Kitchen Champion Division. Teammates Sam Beukema (to AZ) and Jay Gorter (to Ajax) deserved nice transfers. Had Van Hoeven also expressly hoped for a chance in the Eredivisie? “Not necessarily per se. My agents did say that I was asked, so that’s good,” he analyzes realistically. “It is not wrong at all to play in the Kitchen Champion Division for another year. If I run another year like last season, I’m really ready to take that step. You shouldn’t want to go too fast, but you shouldn’t settle for too little either. It’s like a scale.”
Van Hoeven initially ‘just’ joined Sparta at the start of the preparation. Even before an exhibition game was finished, Almere City already reported in Rotterdam. So Van Hoeven had to make a decision. “How much will I play at Sparta? Am I going to play at Sparta at all? What are my chances at Almere? What plans or ideas do they have for me? How do they want to play football? What are they aiming for?”, he sums up a number of questions that he asked himself when choosing Almere City. “If you look at how Sparta plays and what type of player I am, I don’t really fit in that. I can work hard, play duels and walk back and forth a lot, but that’s not where my qualities lie. As a result, I was already 1-0 behind. Moreover, there were still a lot of guys around who did well with Sparta last year. So I started thinking up scenarios.”
“If you don’t play at the first, you drop back to Jong Sparta and you are in the Second Division again. After you have played Kitchen Champion Division for a year and have been promoted. Maybe that’s too negative, because you can also think: I’m going for my chance, I play Mario Engels from the base and play twenty Eredivisie matches. If I had been given that on a piece of paper, I might not have made this choice. But yeah, that’s the point. You can’t get that certainty.” At the same time, Van Hoeven concludes that Almere City’s attacking football in the top of the Kitchen Champion Division might suit him better at this point in his career. “While at Sparta I didn’t know how much I was going to play. Of course they didn’t give me a note at Almere that I would play thirty matches, but I thought my chances were better. Playing minutes are now a priority in my career.”
Van Hoeven earlier this summer during the first training of Sparta.
Still, it was not easy to leave the club where he had played for twelve years. “I was allowed to make my debut and experienced the promotion, then you really hope for more. The boyhood dream is to break through there. So if it doesn’t come out, it hurts a bit and it’s just as difficult. When I stood in front of the group to say goodbye, I also had a bit of a lump in my throat.” In the past year, Van Hoeven, in his own words, learned that there is a different path for everyone in professional football. “For some, that is already a basic player at the age of eighteen, for others not. Look at Marten de Roon, who now plays in the Dutch. While no one saw that coming at first. I’m starting to see and understand that more and more. You don’t have to play in the Eredivisie at eighteen and make the step to a top club at 22 and then come to the Dutch. That’s not the only way out there. As a young boy you think that, also because you often look at other players.”
So Van Hoeven will play a second season in the Kitchen Champion Division. With Gertjan Verbeek as trainer, it took some time in the first weeks at Almere City. “We train differently. I don’t know if it’s necessarily harder, but mostly different. Of course we also spend a lot of time in the weight room, people’s stories are not made up. It’s tough,” Van Hoeven nods with a smile. What about his goals for this season? Almere City started the competition with a 2-1 defeat against Jong AZ and a 1-1 draw against Jong FC Utrecht. “It will be difficult to match last season with the club. Of course you can still become a champion. Personally, I know that statistics are important, but I don’t like to put a number on them. It comes or it doesn’t. If I’m comfortable in my own skin and can do my thing, that’s it. The ultimate goal is to be able to make the step to the Eredivisie within one or a maximum of two years. That can also be with Almere, or ultimately without Almere. The best would be with Almere.”
Name: Bradly van Hoeven
Date of birth: Apr 17, 2000
Club: Almere City FC
Position: winger
Strengths: speed, passing, insight
Voetbalzone is the official media partner of the Kitchen Champion Division
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