This piece is about Wout Weghorst. No, don’t give up now, because we can all learn something from Wout Weghorst. Especially those who don’t believe in themselves or don’t believe enough in themselves, because they think they were born with too little talent.
Sunday morning I was watching the now 29-year-old Weghorst in the BBC program Match of the Day† He played his fourth game for Burnley, a mediocre club in the English Premier League, but rich enough to buy him from Vfl Wolfsburg for 15 million euros. He hadn’t really noticed in the first three games, but away against Brighton he played the tiles off the stadium roof, insofar as they had not already been blown off by Eunice.
Weghorst opened the score with a great shot, showed himself agile in the combination and also did a lot of defensive work. In short, an ideal striker. In the studio, the commentators led by Gary Lineker were pleasantly surprised. What a class! Brilliant! Look at this! A few fragments were repeated in order to be able to enjoy Weghorst’s mastery for a while.
My thoughts inevitably went back to the Dutch football commentators who often spoke so scornfully of Weghorst. Piece of wood, show-off, crazy, can’t really play football, et cetera. And, let me be honest for a change, I myself didn’t see much in that tall, somewhat awkwardly moving striker.
It was as if Weghorst didn’t care about all the criticism, but I suspect that he actually did and used the criticism as fuel for his internal engine, that device that every top athlete hides somewhere deep under his ribs. He would teach them, those know-it-alls, he would show them that he still had more talent in those stiff legs of his than all those critics combined.
And so began the boys’ book about Wout Weghorst that could be called: Where there is a will, there is Wout† That is why I will only refer to him as ‘Wout’ hereafter. Wout started as a 16-year-old at an amateur club in his birthplace Borne, Overijssel, and although the professional clubs initially did not see much in him, he climbed through Willem II, FC Emmen and Heracles to AZ, where he finally emerged as a potential top player. and reached the Dutch national team. Wolfsburg bought him for ten million euros, he scored continuously in the Bundesliga.
Why did Wolfsburg want to get rid of him anyway? Because of his character, it is whispered. Wout is a loner. He is so fanatical that his colleagues in the dressing room look at him with amazement. He is also stubborn, because he did not want to be vaccinated in Germany.
Wout knows that he has to compensate for his lack of natural talent with extreme perseverance. ,,I draw my own plan”, he said in Heroes Magazine, „work on my own goals, dreams and ambitions. I know that I am not always the easiest for those around me. I accept that.” He means: we have to accept that from him.
How will it end for him? I foresee a Netherlands–Germany final at the World Cup in Qatar this year. Score 0-0, the Netherlands gets a penalty in the final minute, nobody dares to take it. Then Wout steps forward because he knows how a boy’s book should end. He puts on.
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of February 21, 2022