Jasper Cillessen (33) broke the silence. After the NEC goalkeeper had been radio silence for weeks in a row, he was again speaking to the media after PSV-NEC (3-0) on Sunday. Three weeks before the start of the World Cup, the goalkeeper each put a word on a gold dish. “We will first get Cambuur and RKC with NEC and the World Cup is still a long way off,” said Cillessen. Until then I will have to perform at NEC and I have to stay fit. I can not do anything else.”
It is hard to believe that the World Cup is not yet in play for him from the mouth of a goalkeeper who sees himself as the number one of the Dutch national team. Even a return from Valencia to Nijmegen suited his goal to play in the World Cup. An unexpected transfer. NEC had a talented goalkeeper under contract with Mattijs Branderhorst in whom there was confidence. Moreover, the question was how fit Cillessen still was.
Cillessen had not immediately thought of a switch from Valencia CF to NEC Nijmegen. It was billionaire Marcel Boekhoorn – fan and sponsor of the club – who flew to Spain to convince Cillessen in a conversation. It worked. After Edgar Barreto and Lasse Schöne, Cillessen became the third top player to return to NEC in the autumn of his career. Cillessen had watched Valencia-Barcelona (0-1) on TV with some melancholy on Saturday. „I looked with mixed feelings, because I played for both. I was hoping for a draw.”
His return to the club where he started in the youth academy at the age of eleven also suited ‘the family man’ Cillessen. It is an open secret that the goalkeeper was followed virtually everywhere he went by his father, mother and former partner, whom he divorced in 2019. Cillessen had never felt so lonely as in the spring of 2020 when he was in total lockdown for months together with 47 million Spaniards. Suddenly life in Valencia wasn’t so romantic anymore.
First choice
Cillessen returned to Nijmegen with a good feeling. It was an advantage that he didn’t have to get used to neither his hometown nor the club. At NEC, Cillessen was immediately undisputed with his new number 22. He never had that status as a goalkeeper at FC Barcelona and Valencia CF. In six years, Cillessen made only 89 appearances in Spain. Cillessen not only wanted to become first choice as a club keeper again, but also wanted his place in Orange back.
Cillessen said in Football International that he was assured by national coach Louis van Gaal and goalkeeper coach Frans Hoek that a transfer to NEC did not have to be detrimental to his place in the Dutch national team. Cillessen: ‘They said: “If you perform and reach your level, it’s no problem for us where you play”. Although Cillessen van Van Gaal had to “deliver” at NEC.
And that’s what the goalkeeper has done in recent months. He also made good saves for PSV, but did not make the difference for NEC. In eleven games, Cillessen conceded fourteen goals. Including the goals of PSV players Anwar El Ghazi, Luuk de Jong and Noni Madueka on Sunday afternoon.
Cillessen is looking for rehabilitation at Oranje, for which he made his debut in 2013. Looking for the status he had at the 2014 World Cup under Van Gaal in Brazil. Although the national coach never had unconditional confidence in the goalkeeper, Cillesen was preferred over Michel Vorm, Kenneth Vermeer, Tim Krul and Jeroen Zoet at the time. Although Cillessen was substituted for Krul in the quarterfinals for the penalty shootout against Costa Rica. In the semi-final against Argentina, Cillessen remained standing after extra time, but was unable to stop a penalty. The battle for third place against Brazil was his last match in a final tournament.
The Dutch national team was missing at the 2016 European Championship and the 2018 World Cup, and Cillessen missed the postponed European Championship in 2021 due to a positive corona test. At least, he seized the then national coach Frank de Boer not to select him. Cillessen was left with a sour feeling.
Room for speculation
The returned Van Gaal started in September 2021 with Justin Bijlow, but the Feyenoord goalkeeper dropped out with an injury after six international matches. After that, Van Gaals ‘discovery’ Mark Fleks was preferred, but he was not convincing. This is how Van Gaal ended up with Cillessen again. Again not unconditionally, because Ajax player Remko Pasveer got the chance during the last international matches. With this, Van Gaal – consciously or not – gave room for speculation.
Cillessen wanted nothing to do with a goalkeeper fight. “I’m the only one who still has tournament experience, I’ll take that with me,” he told NOS. That comment didn’t sit well with everyone. Former international Rafael van der Vaart caught up at the beginning of October Studio Football out to him. “I have seen him a few times at Oranje. If I’m honest, he’s just a bit of a nasty guy,” said Van der Vaart. “He does such an interview very cleverly, but I find it very uncollegial.”
Various other media also held Cillessen up to the light as a ‘human being’. And not always positively. For example, former internationals such as Wesley Sneijder and Andy van der Meijde laughed at the entourage that Cillessen always took with him at Orange. The goalkeeper kept quiet for weeks on end. Now he wants to speak again. But rather with hands and feet than with words. Wasn’t he offended? “Ah,” Cillessen sighed, “I have to do my own thing and I don’t concern myself with others.”
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