Honestly, when was the first time you heard of Denzel Dumfries?
Was it just now when you saw my Scorum post coming up on your screen?
Was it yesterday during a random Nations League night?
Or was it last month, during the other random Nations League night?
Only a few people from outside of the Netherlands will have seen him before. Even less have seen him previously in the shirt he's wearing on the opening picture and if there's anyone who has seen him before that, you can call yourself a Denzel-expert!
I have seen him, but as I am Dutch that doesn't count as much as if you (world citizens out there) would know Denzel Dumfries from when he was playing for Sparta Rotterdam, or even more from when he was playing for BVV Barendrecht.
Who is Denzel Dumfries?
Just like myself, Denzel was born in Rotterdam, 18 years and 23 days later though. Most of the talented football/soccer players in The Netherlands are being scouted by one of the bigger teams. The big three, Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord all have great youth facilities and enormous records of players who developed themselves in the youth ranks of these clubs before they worked themselves up into the first teams and then into glorious international careers. To randomly name one player of each of these clubs who achieved that: Dennis Bergkamp (Ajax), Memphis Depay (PSV), Robin van Persie (Feyenoord).
As Feyenoord is from Rotterdam you would expect Denzel Dumfries to end up in their youth squads, but this was not the case. Talents that are not being picked up by Feyenoord, are then normally scouted by Sparta Rotterdam, but also they did not notice Denzel when he was younger, or they did, but they didn't think he would be able to make it at a higher level. In November 2018 the conclusion is that they have been proven wrong.
So it happened that Denzel Dumfries ended up by local amateur sides such as VV Smitshoek where he had two spells. He also played a while for Spartaan '20. When Denzel was 17 he made a move to a smaller town just (Barendrecht) outside of Rotterdam to play for their local team BVV Barendrecht. It was there when some people started to notice how talented Dumfries was. For the record, BVV Barendrecht is an amateur football/soccer side.
Aruba
Just like The Netherlands, Aruba is a country in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, they are both so called constituent countries of the Kingdom, together with another two, Curaçao and Sint Maarten. All these four countries have their own national football/soccer teams that represents them on international level. Dumfries has Aruban parents and as he was born in Rotterdam, he had the right to play for each of these nations. When Dumfries was only 17 years old national coach of Aruba, Giovanni Franken called him up for the national team despite him still playing for an amateur team.
Dumfries made his debut as a starting player in two friendly matches against Guam. In the second match Dumfries opened the score in the 2-0 win. He picked up a loose ball that ended up next to him fom a corner, shoots a missile on target and the goalkeeper had no chance. Footage of the goal below.
Becoming professional
That missile shot symbolizes the extremely fast turnaround of his career. Sparta Rotterdam (playing at the 2nd level of Dutch football/soccer) saw the potential that they did not see during Dumfries youth career. Having just turned 18 years old Dumfries signed his first professional contract. Sparta coach Alex Pastoor who just joined Sparta a month before Dumfries arrived only used Dumfries sporadically for the remainde of the 2014/15 season. Dumfries convinced Pastoor during the pre-season and started playing him as a regular in the starting eleven. With Dumfries in that position Sparta won the 2nd League that season and gained promotion to the highest league.
Besides the team winning promotion Dumfries' personal performance and qualities were not unnoticed. He became the next Sparta player to win the Golden Bull award for the best talented player in the 2nd League. The first of such trophies was won in 2009 when SSC Napoli star Dries Mertens won it when he was playing for AGOVV Apeldoorn. Current FC Sevilla player Quincy Promes won the same award as well in 2013, as a player for the team called Go Ahead Eagles. Within two seasons Dumfries developed from a decent amateur player into the most talented player of the 2nd League.
Eredivisie
Due to the promotion of Sparta, Denzel Dumfries started playing on the highest level in Dutch national football/soccer. As a key player of the team coach Pastoor had no other choice than playing Dumfries as a regular starter again. It quickly became clear that despite his team was struggling to stay away from relegaton Dumfries could handle the step upwards extremely well. Sparta did not relegate straight back out of the Eredivisie in the end, finishing just 16th with the same amount of points as 17th placed NEC Nijmegen. Dumfries impressed and was contracted by 9th placed SC Heerenveen for the following season. Earlier that season Dumfries made his debut in the under 20 and under 21 teams of The Netherlands.
Also at SC Heerenveen it didn't take much time for Dumfries to proof himself. Already during pre-season he convinced coach Jurgen Streppel that he should be a starter. A starter is exactly what he became and he played 33 out of the 34 league matches the club played that season. Newly hired national coach Ronald Koeman was aware of Dumfries' progression the last couple of seasons and offered him a training internship with the Dutch national team at the end of the 2017/18 season.
Earlier in this article you could read that Denzel Dumfries played two matches in the national team of Aruba, both times in a friendly match against Guam. Due to these matches not being any official competitive encounters Dumfries was still eligible to play for the Dutch national team.
It was clear that Dumfries was ready for the next step in his career. Speculation started about where he would end up. Would he go to one of the traditional Top 3 clubs in The Netherlands, or would he perhaps move abroad and show his skills in another league. The answer came during the summer transfer window.
Dumfries decided to stay in the Eredivisie. His new club for the 2018/19 season is indeed one of the Top 3, it is PSV. Dumfries was aware that he could have potentially moved to another league in another country, but felt like he had still la lot to learn in the Dutch league. In his first couple of weeks Dumfries at PSV Dumfries started to show his potential to the wider audience. PSV ended up in a very tough Champions League group with FC Barcelona, Tottenham Hotspur and Internazionale Milan. It is no surprise PSV is bottom of the group, but Dumfries is one of the inspiring youngsters in the squad. Dumfries proved to be a troublemaker for players like Luis Suarez and Ivan Perisic.
Denzel in Orange
It didn't take much time for Dumfries to convince Ronald Koeman that Dumfries was again ready to make a step forward in his career. The Netherlands have had a difficult four years after becoming third at the 2014 FIFA World Cup, in which they only lost against Argentina in the semi final, but beat home nation Brazil in the battle for the bronze medals. After that heroic tournament the Netherlands were unable to qualify among the best 24 countries in Europe for the UEFA European Championship in 2016. They were close to qualify for the Play Offs that could give them a second chance to qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, but a few unfortunate moments saw Sweden ending up second in the qualification group behind France.
With Ronald Koeman as the national coach and some young talent developing quickly the Dutch seem to be on their way back to the top, or perhaps they are back already. In sports things can go very quickly. Denzel Dumfries is the living proof of that. Nobody gave The Netherlands a single chance in the newborn UEFA Nations League in a group with newly crowned World Champions France and the previous World Champions of 2014, Germany. Now, three months later everything looks a little bit different. When The Netherlands played their first match of the new league in Paris away to France, Dumfries was not yet part of the team and boys in orange lost that match 2-1.
It was in the home match against Germany in Amsterdam that Denzel Dumfries became a Dutch international football player. His debut was outstanding, forcing German national coach Joachim Löw to bring on Leroy Sané. Even the quick striker playing for Manchester City did not have the ability to change the game and stop Dumfries from moving forward. The Netherlands were back and Dumfries was one of the highlights symbolizing the comeback, the Dutch won 3-0. In just four years time Dumfries went from being an amateur player into an international star.
Sister
Denzel Dumfries has a younger sister. Just before the match started his sister sent him a photo to remind him how quickly his career went up. The photo was taken on 13 June 2014, a day that most of us football fans will still, and probably always remember. Denzel Dumfries as well. He was dressed up in orange and went as a fan to Amsterdam to experience the 2014 FIFA World Cup from a big screen with a massive crowd. It was the opening match for the Dutch team during that World Cup, in which the Netherlands outclassed Spain to win 5-1.
The contrast with the reality is massive. Who could have thought that nowadays he is actually playing together in the same team with some of these players? Maybe the only person who believed that was Denzel himself.
In an interview with Mikos Gouka (journalist for the Algemeen Dagblad) Dumfries explained that when he was younger he had a small notebook in which he described for himself how he wanted his career to develop. He described the steps he wanted to make during his career, what he did wrong and how he would need to improve himself to reach his goals. One of the goals he described in that notebook was that he wanted to reach the Dutch national team. According to Dumfries there are still pages left in the notebook. His ambitions are high and he is confident that more goals will come to his mind that will need to be described on those pages.
Belgium and France
Dumfries and The Netherlands continued to impress the world in their aim to confirm their comeback. In a friendly match against Belgium just a few days after the 3-0 win against Germany Dumfries was in the starting eleven again. His direct opponent this time was super star Eden Hazard. Dumfries was not impressed and gave Hazard almost no opportunities to show his abilities and skills. Dumfries only played 45 minutes in this match, but again he had proven himself against a world class player.
Just a month later The Netherlands faced World Champions France in Rotterdam, my and Denzel's home town. This time he had to proof his defensive skills against Kylian Mbappé, the other super star, the best young player of the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Mbappé was nowhere to be seen yesterday. Was it because he had an off-day? Probably not.. when does Mbappé have an off-day? Almost never from my personal experience. No, it was Denzel Dumfries that gave him no chance. Dumfries played so strong that his main concern was to think about how to cross the ball forward to Ryan Babel and Memphis Depay, rather than to think about how to stop Mbappé from scoring.
The Netherlands won 2-0, and confirmed their return to the top of international football/soccer. They eliminated Germany from the group with a game in hand, away to them on Monday. Whatever is going to happen in that match is not going to change that. Germany will be relegated to the B-League, whereas the Netherlands will remain in the A-League. On the other side, now the Netherlands are even on course to reach the final four of the Nations League. Just a draw against Germany will secure the top spot in he group for the Dutch. In that case they will be equal on points with France, but then the mutual result between France and The Netherlands will be in favour of the Dutch.
Position
Denzel Dumfries is an extremely strong, quick and powerful right wingback. During his time at Sparta Rotterdam he had Michael Reiziger as the assistant coach of Alex Pastoor. Reiziger used to play right wingback himself as well and played for Ajax, AC Milan, FC Barcelona and PSV during his career. It's logical to say that Reiziger has been very influential in the career development of Dumfries. Since joining PSV Dumfries has been able to work closely with another talented player on the same side of the pitch, Steven Bergwijn. Both have now played together in the Dutch national team as well and have been able to show their skills on the highest level against Germany and France. Dumfries has he ability to rush forward every couple of minutes as he is capable of recovering from heavy strength efforts quickly. Still fairly unknown to the bigger audience, and perhaps to players of the opponents it can work frustrating for some defenders. Lucas Digne showed that yesterday, when he fouled Dumfries hard on the edge of the pitch shortly after Dumfries showed his abilities. Digne was lucky to get a yellow card instead of a red.
Right Back of the future?
Dumfries debut in the Dutch national side came at a moment where his competitors Darryl Janmaat and Timothy Fosu-Mensah were missing out due to injuries. Other Dutch right backs such as Kenny Tete and Rick Karsdorp who also played in the Dutch team a couple of times weren't getting enough playing time at their clubs at the time. If this wasn't the situation Dumfries might not have made those great impressions just yet. Sometimes though, things start to go into a certain direction and it seems like Denzel Dumfries direction is straight up to the top.
Can he be the best in the world? I think he has all the abilities that it takes to become the best of the best. Denzel Dumfries seems to be the perfect combination of Thomas Meunier, Stephan Lichtsteiner, Kyle Walker, Antionio Valencia, Dani Alves, Carvajal and Joshua Kimmich. Add the speed of Ulrich van Gobbel to that and there you have him, the Dutch Diesel, Denzel Dumfries.
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