Let’s keep it real, says Sneijder

With the Spanish – Dutch dictionary in his hand, Sneijder was seen reading the Spanish papers. The Spanish reporters couldn’t find the words to describe Sneijder’s magic on the pitch. “I’d say, let’s act normal here and keep it real,” the former Ajax captain reacted.

The number of Spanish journalists in Holland’s training camp brings back memories of the days when Barcelona had 9 Dutch players working under coach Van Gaal.
And they didn’t even look at Van Nistelrooy, last season’s top scorer nor at new Sevilla signing Boulahrouz. They came especially for Wesley Sneijder, who was compared with topnotch players like Schuster, Beckham, Di Stefano and Maradona.

“That is utterly ridiculous,” realizes Sneijder after three goals in two matches. “I should first perform at that level for 3 seasons. How can they compare me with the best of the world after having seen me play in two games? If I play two lesser games, they’ll probably write that I’m not good enough for the junior team of Real.”

Sneijder will have to suppress the goings on at his new club for at least a week. If Oranje loses against Bulgaria this Saturday, the chance that Holland will qualify will melt. “Oh, we know we should win. We need 6 points out of the next two matches. Then, we can’t miss the EC. And we need to go. With this group, we belong at the EC.”

Team manager Marco van Basten has a lot of good strikers and offensive midfielders. “Yeah, it will be crowded on midfield, I realize I have to compete with Seedorf and Van der Vaart. The coach has 25 good players in the group and only eleven can start, as you know.”

Sneijder again: “I can only do my utmost best on the training. And maybe it’s in my advantage that my team work with Ruud van Nistelrooy at Real is very good. I can sense what he wants and I think I know how and when he wants the ball. Ruud is a super striker to play with. And, he’s been a fantastic help in the last weeks in Madrid.”

Although Wes is on Cloud #9 in Madrid, he didn’t close his eyes to Ajax, who lost the CL qualification against Prague. “That was terrible. I have and will always have an Ajax heart and I think it’s really terrible that they miss out on the CL. I called Jaap Stam, John Heijtinga and assistant coach Fons Groenendijk. I can’t understand why it went wrong. But I don’t feel guilty. I mean, I had to move on and Ajax wasn’t only depending on my contribution.”