BOUDEWIJN ZENDEN
CLUBS
1993-98 PSV
1998-2001 Barcelona
2001-04 Chelsea
2003-04 Middlesbrough (loan)
2004-05 Middlesbrough
2005-07 Liverpool
2007-09 Marseille
2009-11 Sunderland
COUNTRY
1997-2004 Netherlands
Driving from Eindhoven’s city centre to De Herdgang, PSV’s leafy training ground, you come across the club’s stadium. It’s a pretty route which brings back some good memories for Boudewijn Zenden, who spent many hours of his youth in these climes.
As a kid, ‘Bolo’ would make the daily commute to Eindhoven by train from his native Maastricht. Now, after a long and illustrious playing career, he takes the same journey again – by car, these days – to inspire PSV’s next generation. Previously a first-team coach, Zenden became assistant manager earlier this campaign after a difficult period for the club led to changes behind the scenes.
FFT arrives to discover the Dutchman guiding players through an afternoon training session, then staying on with a group of forwards for a finishing drill. One of the attackers whose game he helped to refine is now turning heads in the Premier League. Just like Zenden, Steven Bergwijn made a very good first impression in England by scoring on his debut for Tottenham last month.
Zenden himself spent the thick end of a decade in the English top flight, after his big breakthrough at PSV and three years at Barcelona. As he greets us, we dig out your questions...
Was it difficult, trying to break into PSV’s first team in the mid-1990s?
Joshua Stevenson, Burnley
When I was in the PSV academy, there weren’t too many examples of youth players breaking into the first team. It wasn’t like I didn’t have any confidence in myself; I just wanted to wait and see how far I could get.
When I was 17, I was invited to join the first team for a tournament over in Alicante. On the plane, my manager Aad de Mos was next to me. He said, “How would you feel about starting as a professional next year?” I thought, ‘Wow!’ Only then did it really occur to me that there was actually a chance of making my breakthrough with PSV.
I had to fight for a place in my debut season, as I didn’t play every game as a newcomer. I commanded a starting spot after a while, and a few years later was Dutch Talent of the Year. I played for the national team at that time, and began to get offers from clubs abroad.
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