There
are only a few ways out of the sleepy Dutch town of Dronten. The most
popular route is to head west on the A6 past Almere and towards the bright
lights of Amsterdam.
The lure of the capital is strong. It offers hope and possibility. But it
also brings with it distractions.
That helps to explain why the young Hakim Ziyech was sent off in the other
direction. His father suffered with multiple sclerosis and died when Ziyech
was just 10. It would have been easy – too easy – for him to go down the
wrong path.
He went north to Heerenveen instead.
“It was a very difficult time for Hakim and his family,” Hans de Jong tells
Sky Sports.
De Jong was the coach of Heerenveen’s U17 side at the time but made a habit
of watching the younger age groups in action. He still recalls the first
time he laid eyes on Ziyech.
“He was 13. I realised immediately that he was one of the best that we had
here,” he says.
“The club knew all about what he was going through. He was from a small town
and his family thought it would be a good thing for him to come here.
Heerenveen is not a big city, it is more like a big village, so it is real
quiet and there is not a lot of temptation.
“Believe me, there is a big difference between going to Heerenveen and going
to Amsterdam. Everybody agreed that it would be good for him to move here.
The teenage years are the most important part of a player’s development, I
think. Football is usually the biggest thing in the life of any 13 year old
but for him it was particularly important.”
Even at Heerenveen, there were challenges. Ziyech has spoken since of his
anguish at having to play while other boys’ parents stood on the touchline.
His father had once been there too, but no longer. It was a source of
frustration. “I got sh*t on the world,” he later admitted. “I stopped going
to school. Football didn't bother me either. I was completely gone.”
Support structures were in place. Ziyech leaned on Aziz Doufikar, a Morocco
international midfielder himself who had played for nearby PEC Zwolle.
Jeffrey Talan was an important figure too. One of his first coaches at
Heerenveen, so strong is their bond that Ziyech continued to meet up with
Talan for motivational talks long into his career at Ajax.
De Jong had a different role to play. While Ziyech credits Talan with
entrusting him with the No 10 role as a young player, De Jong was the coach
who took it away from him. He was the one who taught some of the hardest
lessons – lessons that needed to be learned.
Was he really that tough on Ziyech?
“That is one of the things I was known for,” acknowledges De Jong. “I have a
background in educating. Boys at that age need to think about what they want
to achieve – and if they do want to achieve it they need to realise that
they have to work for it. That means not being distracted by things outside
of football and focusing completely on becoming a professional.
“We had to challenge him big time. We moved him up one year above the rest
because in his age group he was actually too good and that was causing some
problems for the other coaches. I told them just to move him up to me where
he could work with the older guys who were actually very good at that time.
That worked out very well for him.”
Not that it felt that way at first.
“He was used to playing as a specific 10. When he came to me I made him play
on the left of midfield so that he had to do a lot more defending. This was
because in the younger age groups he was used to getting the ball and just
being able to do whatever he wanted to do.
“I tried to explain to him and make him see that he was only able to do all
that because others were helping him by defending and allowing him to do his
own thing up front. It was only going to benefit him to gain that
understanding and that grasp of the game. He had to see what others had to
do for him so that he could then show his quality.
“He was not too satisfied with the role that I gave him but I knew that it
would be to his benefit when he was older. That is always difficult when you
are working with someone who is 15 – getting them to see the bigger picture.
In fact, it is normal when you are 15 just to worry about how things are
here and now. But eventually he figured it out.
“That was when he just started becoming better and better and that is when I
started to realise too that he would make it to the very top. He had a good
first year with me and then in the second and third years, well, he was just
magnificent.”
Ziyech made his debut for Heerenveen in a Europa League qualifier at the age
of 19 in August 2012. His Eredivisie debut arrived later that month but his
real breakthrough came the following season when he scored nine goals as
Heerenveen finished in fifth place.
By that stage, Ziyech had already attracted interest at home and abroad.
“Ajax wanted him,” reveals De Jong. “PSV wanted him. Some English clubs
wanted him. But we explained to him that he was way too young to go to
England at that time.”
Ziyech moved to FC Twente in 2014.
Ostensibly, this was a more manageable step. But it was not without its
difficulties.
Trouble at Twente
FC Twente had been Eredivisie champions in 2010 and almost retained the
trophy one year on but despite finishing a creditable third just before
Ziyech signed, that cycle was at an end.
Boudewijn Pahlplatz was there throughout all of it. In October, he will hope
to bring up a decade as assistant manager at Twente. He remembers this as a
particularly tricky period.
“Hakim came with big expectations but the club was already in a bit of
financial trouble,” Pahlplatz tells Sky Sports. “We had qualified for the
Europa League but the problem was that we’d had to sell our best players
such as Quincy Promes and Dusan Tadic.”
In one sense, what should have been progression for Ziyech proved nothing of
the sort. Twente finished below Heerenveen in each of his two seasons at the
club, suffering a points deduction in his final year. The club had to
overturn a decision to relegate them.
But in another sense he thrived like never before, topping the Eredivisie
assist charts in his first season. The move to a struggling side brought out
the best in him – and the worst. Rewarded with the captaincy for his second
season, he was stripped of it by January after publicly demanding a
transfer. Pahlplatz has some sympathy with how it all played out.
“He was the one who kept Twente in the league,” says Pahlplatz. “The
financial issues were big and the team level dropped because we replaced
good players with average players.
“He was the exception. You could see immediately his quality. He was already
a good player but at Twente he became a better player. He was so important
to the team. He was the one who was taking the team by the hand and leading
them throughout those two years.”
This brought with it familiar problems. It was a similar issue to the one
that Ziyech’s youth coaches had faced at Heerenveen all those years before.
He was just too good.
“Hakim had to cope with that situation and you could see during training
that there was no challenge for him because he was always the best player.
It was all too easy for him.
“Hakim has a certain attitude. When he doesn’t like things he will let you
know. Sometimes you can see it at Ajax too where he shows his attitude on
the pitch. It is not always good but it tells you that he is a winner. He is
someone who wants to the best and he wants the standards to be high. But he
is a great person and a man with a big heart.”
Adventures at Ajax
The next challenge was a bigger one. In 2016, came the move to Ajax.
Amsterdam at last. But even there his unique approach had consequences.
“He had problems in the beginning,” remembers Pahlplatz. “The crowd did not
like his attitude. But you saw during that period that he did unbelievable
things on the field and he always worked hard for the team. Now the fans
there love him. He is a spectacular player.”
Ziyech’s issues at Ajax were not fleeting. He was attacked by his own
supporters when attempting to board the team bus after a humiliating defeat
to PSV in April 2018.
It is curious that he was the target given that he was also named Ajax fans’
player of the season that year. He won it again the following season. In
each of his first three years at Ajax, he was named in the Eredivisie team
of the season as well as topping the assist charts.
How can one man inspire such adulation but also such frustration? Perhaps it
is because of that body language. The suspicion that because he makes
everything look so easy then any occasion when he fails to come out on top
can only be explained by a lack of desire.
“Look at the goal against Chelsea in the Champions League,” recalls
Pahlplatz, referring to the outrageous free-kick from the near the corner
flag that looped over the head of Kepa Arrizabalaga in the 4-4 draw at
Stamford Bridge in November.
“That is typical Hakim. He does things that you do not expect. Sometimes he
tries his luck but he so often finds that his luck is in. He is capable of
doing the unexpected.”
Choice of Chelsea
Ziyech has already given Chelsea supporters a glimpse of what he is capable
of but they will be hoping to see much more with his forthcoming transfer to
the Premier League club now imminent. At 27, he is older than many who make
that same journey but that could prove to be a positive. This move is not
coming too soon for him. He is ready.
“He has played in the Eredivisie for seven or eight years now and knows all
about Holland,” adds Pahlplatz.
“The step to the Premier League will do him good. He will be playing with
the best players every day and that is a new challenge for him. I think he
will do well there. He will have to get used to the amount of games and the
physical side but in the end he will succeed, for sure.”
As for his old coach at Heerenveen, he has heard all the question about his
former player many times before. That is why he has no concerns about
Ziyech’s ability to step up.
“They are still saying that he has a problem with his physicality,” laughs
De Jong.
“That is what everybody is saying right now but they were saying the same
when he came from the academy at Heerenveen. They said the same when he went
to Twente – problem with his physicality. Same thing at Ajax. So I don’t
think it’s a problem.
“I have absolutely no doubts. He is going to beat the next challenge.”
Perhaps if that happens and Ziyech does become a Premier League star at
Chelsea, there will be a moment when he reflects on the journey that has
taken him there.
On the decision to choose ‘village’ life in Heerenveen over the excitement
of Amsterdam. And, yes, on the academy coach who was hard on him but helped
him to fulfil his potential.
De Jong is philosophical. The credit belongs to Ziyech.
“That is the life of a youth coach,” he says. “If there is a moment when
they figure out that the stuff they were told all those years ago was right,
it usually comes much later.
“It is no problem for me. It is going to be great to see him excel at
Chelsea.”
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