Robin van Persie will be taking two potential debutants with him to FC Volendam on Sunday afternoon. They are Ilai Grootfaam (16) and Jivanyo Zinhagel (16).
Both Feyenoord youth players are sixteen years old, but they have something else in common: for years, they trained together in Ajax’s youth academy.
During the international break, the teenagers were allowed to train with Feyenoord’s first team. They made a good impression on Van Persie, the manager said at Friday afternoon’s press conference.
“Zinhagel and Grootfaam have trained well. When I see them in action, it really warms my footballing heart. They’re fresh and take the initiative whenever possible, and that rubs off on the rest of the team,” said Van Persie.
The breakthrough of Zinhagel and Grootfaam has caused some grumbling in Amsterdam. Stan Bijl, coach of Ajax Under-17s, was a guest on the Pantelic Podcast and thinks it’s a real shame that the two talents no longer play for Ajax.
“I think we have quite a few good youth players at Ajax, but you also have to make sure you can keep them. If you look at what’s happened over the past year…”, Bijl begins.
“Feyenoord have opened their wallets and invested heavily in signing players. Just imagine if we’d simply kept Tim de Koning (who also went to Feyenoord), Zinhagel and Grootfaam in our academy. They’re currently the best players in their academy, and they came from us. That doesn’t seem right to me,” he concludes.