Whirlwind Rise

The Small Skinny Teen With Spindly Legs Is Now The Future Of Barcelona’s Midfield

- Nick Bidwell

Jurgen Streppel, the former coach of Dutch side Willem II is one tough cookie. And he needs to be, condemned to be forever known as the man who once turned his nose up at the golden goose; who just a few years ago, while in charge at Willem, declared future Barcelona and Holland midfield sensation Frenkie De Jong surplus to requirements.

De Jong spent 10 years in the Willem academy system – which they run jointly with nearby RKC Waalwijk – but he made just three substitute appearances for the Tilburg club, with the hard-nosed Streppel deeming the teenager too callow to pass muster in the lower reaches of the Eredivisie.

Earlier in his senior career it had all looked so good for De Jong. Labelled a Willem youth-scheme class act, he was handed his first professional contract at the tender age of 16 and made his first-team debut in May 2015, earning a move to Dutch giants Ajax, who promptly sent him back on loan to Willem for the 2015-16 campaign.

Then came the collision with harsh reality as Streppel decided to park him in the reserves. Little wonder De Jong looked so frustrated at the time: being sufficiently impressive to be drafted into the Ajax fold, but only an afterthought further down the food chain at Willem. Something had to give, and in the end the loan was aborted, the teen returning to Amsterdam in December 2015.

To be fair to Streppel, the youth-development business is not an exact science and at that point the Willem boss simply could not have imagined that De Jong would emerge as one of Europe’s most promising young schemers, become of ever-increasing importance to the national team and be the subject of a €75million move to Barca.

From Streppel’s perspective all that would have been science fiction.