Sneijder: from boy to man!

Wesley Sneijder’s status has changed in his first Spanish season: “In the first weeks, the other players let you sort it out yourself if you needed to get to the training pitch. Now, players like Raul and Guti look for me in the dressing room and say: come on, Wes, let’s go train.”

“when I signed, I said people shouldn’t compare me to David Beckham. We can both hit a ball well and I wear his jersey number, but that’s about it. We’re very different players. I always said, allow me one season to show you what I can do. After my first season, people can judge me: was I worth the investment or not…”

Sneijder is satisfied after his first season. The 24 year old: “I didn’t hear Becks name after 6 matches. Of course, I myself said the comparison isn’t realistic, but still it’s a good sign.”

As starter in Madrid, he played 38 of the 50 official matches, of which 34 as a starter. He scored 8 goals, the second best scoring midfielder of Spain. “I truly feel I have been part of this title. Sometimes people say they’re happy with you, but I have to feel that. And you do feel it in the number of minutes the coach lets you play and in little things, little details. I think I managed to make myself a part of this group. Raul and Guti wait for me to be ready before we go onto the trainings pitch, you know?”

Sneijder sees himself as a slow starter in his career. He made his debut at 19 years old for Ajax, but needed some time to get to the European top. Other than for instance Robben and Van Persie who made the step to Chelsea and Arsenal at 19 years old. “I wasn’t ready for that at 19,” he admits.

He had to learn a lot in his first years in Ajax 1. Sneijder only thought of attacking and scoring. “That’s a drawback from the Ajax youth. Our teams are so strong, we only think offensively. You’re basically almost always better than the opponent. I was still playful in Ajax 1 and very headstrong.”

Guus Hiddink said it in his biography: “Do players understand what their role is. Do they see it’s a job, with responsibility. Why they get those paychecks and who actually is responsible for paying those salaries? Players who will develop that insight have a change of making it. The others aren’t fit for top football.”

Sneijder: “You can see my development in my free kicks. Every free kick needs a form of return. Whether it’s a goal, or a chance for a forward. I only hit the ball with my right now. Never with my left. In the Dutch eredivisie I used to take them with left as well. To show off. Sometimes it would go way off target. So what, I though. Too bad. I stopped that nonsense at some point. Looking back, that was a huge leap in my awareness.”

And his infamous row with Wesley Sonck, about who should take a free kick. The camera’s recorded it close up. “That won’t happen again. Never. It was frustration and I took it out on a team mate. That’s unprofessional. I remember it well. Rafael van der Vaart and myself were named the new leaders of Ajax, but we weren’t. We were too young. And then you start doing stupid things.”

The big difference between Real Madrid and Barcelona is Real’s team spirit, according to Sneijder. “That’s my belief, at least. Barcelona is more focused on Messi and Ronaldinho. In Madrid, there is not one star. Raul, Guti, Ruud van Nistelrooy… They all treat each other as colleagues, as team mates. Raul works his ass off on the pitch, and every one sees that it’s the team as a whole that needs to do the job. Barca has a great group of players as well, but you could see in the last Classico (Real won 4-1) how they attacked with six, seven players and when we turned the ball over they all stayed up front, waiting. We would never do that. And you can’t in modern football. We should have scored nine goals against them.”

Van Basten saw that too. Recently he said he’d rather have Sneijder than Pirlo. Reason: Sneijder works for the team.

“I missed that program on tv, but Marco had told me this earlier already. He sees the statistics like I do after a match. I’ve never ran more in a match than here in Madrid. If an attack ended, I quickly run back 4 or 5 meters to position myself. If you don’t, the fans here will pick that up and give it to you.”

Looking at Oranje, and the EC, it seems Sneijder has a different position in the Dutch team. At Madrid he is one of the many, with Raul, Casillas and Van Nistelrooy as the top dogs. In Oranje, Sneijder, Van Persie and Van der Vaart are the top dogs. Will the temptation be too big for them to go for glory for themselves?

“Oh no… I can’t see that happen. Raf and Robin have grown as well. We all know how good it is to be part of something bigger and successful. We are two years stronger and more experienced since the WC. We can make this EC into something magical if we cooperate and bundle our qualities.”

“But there are no guarantees. It depends on the individual form. We all will have to work for the team and if one or two have an exceptional day, we will be allright. In 2004 and 2006 I couldn’t make the difference, but I did grow into the tournaments.”