Arnaut Danjuma Groeneveld is in top form at his club Villarreal. The 24-year-old left winger was named Man of the Match at Old Trafford on Wednesday night and scored twice tonight against Real Betis, who were beaten 2-0.
The right-footed left winger thus became the first Dutchman to score two goals in a match in La Liga since Royston Drenthe did so on April 3, 2011 on behalf of Hércules Alicante against Real Sociedad (1-3 win).
Danjuma made the switch from Championship club Bournemouth to Villarreal, the winner of last season’s Europa League, on August 19 for a fee of 24 million euros. Danjuma, born in Lagos (Nigeria), scored earlier in the competition in the away game at Atlético Madrid (2-2) and at home against Elche CF (4-1). Villarreal is still unbeaten after seven matches, but has drawn in five of the seven matches so far. The team of coach Unai Emery is therefore in eleventh place.
On Wednesday evening, Danjuma still shone at Old Trafford. He did not score himself despite many successful actions from the left wing, but did provide the opening goal of striker Paco Alcácer in the 53rd minute. Seven minutes later, Alex Telles equalized on behalf of Manchester United, who even won in the 95th minute thanks to Cristiano Ronaldo’s goal. In the first group match in the Champions League, at home against Atalanta (2-2), Danjuma did score.
Danjuma did not see his good form at Villarreal yet rewarded with an election for Orange, which will compete against Latvia (next Friday, away) and Gibraltar (next Monday, at home) in the upcoming international match. Noa Lang of Club Brugge is for the first time in the selection of national coach Louis van Gaal. The next international season is mid-November. The Orange will then play against Montenegro (away) and Norway (home), the last two matches in the qualifying series for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
The former player of TOP Oss, PSV, NEC and Club Brugge already played two international matches under Ronald Koeman in October 2018. He came in 22 minutes before the end in the 3-0 victory over Germany in the Nations League and was in the starting line against Belgium three days later. Dries Mertens opened the score in Brussels after five minutes that evening, after which Danjuma already signed for the 1-1 final score in the 27th minute on a pass from Memphis Depay. He was replaced after an hour and since then he has not been called up for the Orange squad. Because his first international match was in the Nations League, he can no longer transfer to the national team of his native Nigeria.
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