“Few believed in me, not even my parents…”

The outside of theHolland and ofInter Denzel Dumfries in an interview with NU.nl retraced his career from the beginning: “Few believed in mebut I always thought I would make it to the national team“.

Dumfries: “My folks didn’t believe it either”

“Few people around me believed in that dream. My parents never pushed me. In reverse. They thought my development as a person was more important, I had to finish school – explained the oranje winger on the eve of the match against Argentina -. So yesand if I wanted to stop playing football, everything would have been fine. At home I was the only one watching football on TV, plus we didn’t have any sports channels. My parents only started watching games when I started playing Sparta“.

Dumfries: “The sports psychologist is decisive”

“In the beginning during a game I could be completely absent. Then I thought, I looked around a bit – said Dumfries, who considers his sports psychologist decisive, Annemieke Zijerveldfor its growth -. I owe her a lot, even if I wasn’t supposed to talk about her these days. It just happened, I’m vulnerable like everyone else. Maybe a young man now thinks: a player from Holland does it, maybe even a sports psychologist can help me further”.