Belgium Enigma: Unraveling the Mystery

• Frank Hettinga

  Editor Football

Kasper Dolberg left six seasons ago as a boy at Ajax. Now the striker has returned to Amsterdam as an adult man of almost 28 years, where he can make his comeback against PEC Zwolle tonight. And the 55-time Danish International has something to put right.

“I can imagine that Kasper himself thinks: it’s not completely ready for me at Ajax,” says former Ajax player Lasse Schöne. “He didn’t leave the way he liked it of course.”

Schöne experienced the stormy development of his countryman from 2016 up close. The teenager marked Ajax to the Europa League final that season and was compared to Marco van Basten; Finally, the club from Amsterdam again had a real number 9 in the house à la Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Luis Suárez.

Yet Dolberg could never fully match the shape of that first season afterwards. Injury and also the tough competition with Dusan Tadic and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar pushed him to the exit in the summer of 2019. To the French Nice, for around 20 million euros.

Danish teammates Schöne and Rasmus Kristensen also left after that successful 2018-2019 season, when the team of trainer Erik ten Hag almost reached the Champions League final.

The three kept contact. They still share a WhatsApp group. “If something happens in our lives, we talk about something in that app. Kasper is happy to be back. He missed Amsterdam.”

Although a lot has changed, says Schöne. “Then he was single, together with Rasmus. Then you see Amsterdam in a different way than now with wife and children,” laughs the former footballer of Heerenveen and NEC.

Schöne still offered Dolberg to come and stay with him in Haarlem until he found a house. “I still have a room left, I said. But Kasper said:” With those two little ones of mine? They never sit still, so that doesn’t seem so nice to you, haha! “

Initially, Dolberg seemed to flourish after his departure to the South of France, but due to injuries his level dropped again. He also found type 1 diabetes for him. After our successful lending to Seville and Hoffenheim, the turning point came. The last two seasons at Anderlecht, he was really appreciated.

Peter Vandenbempt, Belgian football commentator and columnist, therefore speaks of a “very large loss for Anderlecht”. “Yes, it’s a shame. Dolberg was a bright spot in the darkness, with eighteen goals. He was very popular with the supporters. The class dripped off.”

According to Vandenbempt, it was purely a financial necessity for the club from Brussels to sell Dolberg to Ajax for 10 million on the last day of the transfer period.

“In the period of great decline in which Anderlecht have been in for a number of years, Dolberg was considered the last stylish football player who suited the old DNA of the Paarwitte Huis. Thanks to his technology. His beautiful goals. Despite his closed character, he was certainly appreciated here.”

Closed. Unperturbed. It sticks a bit to Dolberg, since his debut at Ajax. Especially thanks to his modest and supercooled reaction after goals. “Also in Belgium he has always remained an enigma, almost emotionless, like a sphinx,” says Vandenbempt.

“He is a calm boy,” says Schöne. “Stoicin. Certainly. He doesn’t always show the back of his tongue. But if you know him well, it can really be different.”

“When it went great in the beginning at Ajax, everyone thought it was wonderful that he was so calm, timid cheer. But that is also the football player … If things go a bit less, they say: there may be a little more spice in it. But that he is not so pronounced, doesn’t make him a lesser football player.”

At his presentation on the Ajax website, Dolberg says: “I am a little more open than when I left here. You grow as a person and I have gained a little more confidence. I also think I am a better player now than then.”

Yes, he will have to compete with Wout Weghorst. Trainer John Heitinga left in the middle which of the two against PEC tonight is in De Punt.

Schöne is in any case convinced that Dolberg will do it “excellent” as a replacement for the Brian Brobbey left for Sunderland.

“He can play football, create something himself, play a man, turn away. He is fast, has his posture and also has a huge bang in those legs. I think he is quite complete.”

Dolberg: “I came here to win. To become a national champion with Ajax. That is the most important thing. I just want to enjoy myself again, have fun. And of course I want to score many goals.”