Former Alkmaar crowd favorite Ferdy Druijf wants to make more minutes during rush hour

“Vienna is really a very beautiful city with a lot of history,” says Ferdy Druijf about his current place of residence where he lives with his wife and son. The former AZ player has been playing in the Austrian capital for about a year and a half now. “Rapid Wien is a real family club with fanatical and committed fans. What also strikes me is that the mentality here is quite different than in the Netherlands.”

Institution

“I am a player who relies on hard work and less on my technique”, Druijf analyzes his game. “You have that over-my-corpse mentality here more than in the Netherlands. Both at AZ and NEC there are regularly guys who live on their talent, I think that’s a shame. Many players really have so much more to offer.”

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“Here, every player really gives everything,” Druijf continues with his argument about the difference in mentality between the Netherlands and Austria. “Not only on the field, but also in the gym, for example. I notice that the same attitude creates more cohesion and connection in the group.”

AZ

Anyone who thinks of Druijf in Alkmaar also quickly thinks of his important European hits. In November 2019, for example, he shot AZ to European wintering after two hits against Partizan Belgrade. “AZ will always be a special club for me. I played football there for years and know the club through and through. Only then again I don’t miss AZ.”

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Top scorer title

For the upcoming season, it is just possible that Druijf will act again in the Alkmaar stadium on the A9. Not in the shirt of AZ, but perhaps in that of NEC. “I can’t say much about it at the moment, because there is nothing concrete yet. There is interest from the Netherlands and also from abroad, by the way.” From January 2019 Druijf played half a year for the club from Nijmegen and he did more than excellently. He scored 15 times in 18 games. Plus the 14 goals that Druijff made for Young AZ before the winter break earned him the top scorer title of the first division in that season.

That nose for the goal is still there, according to Druijf, only he is rarely in his favorite position in Austria. “This season I only started in the striker once and also scored right away. That also gives me the feeling that I just have to play in that place more often.” However, his trainer Zoran Barisic put Druijf in different positions several times, sometimes even as a midfielder.

“The club knows how I feel about this,” said Druijf about his future at Rapid Wien. Last season, the 25-year-old footballer scored seven times in all competitions, partly due to injuries. “On the one hand I am having a great time, plus the club also wants to keep me. On the other hand, I also just want to act as a striker.”