The story of midfielder Jerdy Schouten can be written in the book keep hope, with the subtitle: ‘manual for young people with talent’. He had to leave ADO Den Haag in 2017, just 20 years old. ‘I had a few blows there and went on a training internship with ‘young’ teams of clubs in the first division. I was not selected.’
By train to Leeuwarden, on a trial basis at Jong Cambuur. Turned down. But now he, footballer of mid-level Bologna in the Serie A, is in the spotlight in Zeist, along a training field of the KNVB. Called up for the Orange squad, admittedly because other controlling midfielders (De Roon, Clasie) are missing, but he gets his chance during one or more of the four matches for the Nations League, against Belgium, Wales (twice) and Poland.
So never give up. Only one option was left, after all those rejections. ‘Just play football. That’s why I went to Telstar, because that’s where I saw the greatest chance to play every match. I wasn’t even trying to get high anymore. I just wanted to have fun in football again. Telstar gave me that feeling, also because it is a pleasant club.’
Real football family
How does he describe his pride, now that he is no longer a White Lion, but almost a Lion of Orange? “All I can say is I had goosebumps when I heard it. Really goosebumps.’ That was shortly after the phone call from national coach Louis van Gaal, when the realization descended. The election was euphoric. It went like this, practically: he drives his car back to the Netherlands, from Italy, when he gets an app. Louis van Gaal wants to speak to him. He changes seats with his girlfriend and talks to Van Gaal. After the conversation, he screams with joy. “My girlfriend wasn’t calm either.” The holiday to Curaçao has been rescheduled. He was never in Orange youth teams. “There was always hope.”
Schouten, born in Hellevoetsluis, comes from a real football family. Henk Schouten, his father’s uncle, is still the all-time top scorer in one game, with nine goals for Feyenoord against the Volewijckers, in April 1956. With cousin Jerdy it is often about that one year of the Premier League, at Excelsior, when he was visibly was for footballing Netherlands. ‘But at Telstar in the first division I went through the greatest development. I played men’s football for the first time at Telstar.’ Fellow player Anthony Correia remembers that Schouten cut a piece out of his shoe with a badly inflamed toe, in order to participate. ‘That story is correct. I think it was RKC out. haha.’ It was proof of coming of age. “I can’t imagine doing that in youth football.”
‘I would play football on a volunteer basis for the first eight games at Telstar, according to agreement.’ He immediately excelled. ‘That’s why it became three, not eight. Then the contract was quickly broken open.’ After a year, Telstar touched a ton or three from Excelsior. In the meantime he had become a different player. He came as a man on 10, the role that every good footballer wants to play, more or less free behind the striker. ‘As a youth player I was quite a lazy footballer. Maybe I enjoyed the game a little too much. I was too eager to do tricks. That’s gone now.’
Matured defensively
Trainer Mike Snoei placed him more back, at 6 as it is called, as a controlling midfielder. Fitting, disrupting and building up, seeing where the space is, closing gaps. Take balls and rebuild. He has remained such a player.
That rethinking already started in the A1 of ADO Den Haag, with Aleksandar Rankovic as trainer. ‘The transformation started with him. He made me a lot tougher by hitting me.’ The transition to Bologna was great, but Schouten immediately announced that he wanted to play football quickly. That worked out well, although he was seriously injured twice.
Three years in Italy have matured him, especially defensively. His thighs are much stronger than before. ‘A lot of work has gone into that. We go into the weight room for training.’ The red Schouten’s legs are snow white, by the way, especially for an employee in Italy who often wears shorts. ‘If I take a step outside, they have to be rubbed with factor 50.’ He laughs profusely at these kinds of comments.
He wants to perform, possibly at a higher level than Bologna next season. “I’m not here just for fun.” The former kid of tricks now also hands out. ‘I learned that. I’m not afraid to put my foot in it. Perhaps that was always there, but in the Netherlands it is not as requested as in Italy. If they see that you don’t go into the duel full one time, you will be hit on the head.’