De Zeeuw: something had to change!

Demy de Zeeuw was so out of form last month that Van Gaal instructed him to start again in the Young AZ team against Young Groningen.

Tomorrow, the 25 year old will start for Oranje again versus Norway. “That’s football, I guess…”

The life of a football pro has it’s happy moments. While the reserves worked themselves in sweat, the players who beat Iceland were chilling out in the sun, having a laugh and sipping on their sports drinks.

“During that long bus ride from Alkmaar to Groningen with the youngsters, I realized I had to make a change. I was letting the team down, and myself. I needed to plot a different course. I decided to train harder and work harder than ever. Every meter and every ball counted. I’m happy to be back in the first team and very happy that Van Marwijk called me up. Maybe that trip to Groningen was the best trip of my life.”

,He was an unknown, playing for Go Ahead Eagles in the Jupiler League. No big club had him on their scouting lists. Until Van Gaal came by, looked at the way De Zeeuw played and signed him. He was on a rollercoaster, almost helping AZ win the title in 2007. Louis van Gaal: “Players like De Zeeuw are a rarity and sometimes they’re not even used right by the coaches where they play. I saw immediately what unique strength De Zeeuw has. He plays every ball with pace and precision deep. Every ball is an effort to set up an attack. He never did anything without an idea behind it. He is constantly aware, reads the game well and plays without an ego. A rare thing indeed. Sneijder has it. Sno and Engelaar sometimes show it. Schaars has it and De Zeeuw has it.”

The midfielder: “When I came to AZ, everything went well. I had the wind in my sails. I never realized what was happening and when I lost my edge, maybe only 5%, suddenly things went wrong. I lost challenges, was just 10 inches too late, my passing was too slow… If that creeps in, you go from the motor of the team to being a liability.”

He hoped to be able to play some good games on the EC2008 and maybe get himself a transfer to a European top club. But suddenly, Van Basten picked De Jong over De Zeeuw, because the former Ajax player was physically stronger. “I read that in the papers. Van Basten never explained his decision to me and I was very disappointed with that. But I’m not the only one. John Heitinga was distraught when he suddenly lost his spot without any explanation.”

De Zeeuw only played against Romania – gave the assist on Van Persie – and struggled to reclaim his position with AZ in the warm up. And then, Hamburger SV wanted to sign the player, right before the closing of the transfer window.

“Hamburger SV was happy to pay AZ’s price for me, but they couldn’t get the paperwork ready before midnight. That was a huge disappointment for me. It took some time for me to digest it, and I think the Groningen bus-ride was my wake up call.”

He then played a couple of tremendous games against PSV, Heracles, Willem 2 and Sparta, with great assists and wonderful and dominant midfield play. When Van Marwijk saw De Jong getting injured against Iceland after 14 minutes, he immediately called Demy’s name. “I was delighted. Happy as. Don’t get me wrong, Nigel is a mate and it’s really sad for him, but I can’t hide the fact that I was glad to be able to play and show myself.”

“My goals haven’t changed. I still want to be important for Oranje and I’d love to make big transfer one day. Better players than me have gone through similar dips. I want to come back from this wiser and stronger.”