Jetro Willems (now playing for Deportivo Castellón)

[Beth]

Plenty of Stone Island arseholes in Holland as well I see.

[MrRaspberryJam]

On 20/03/2023 at 18:08, toon25 said:

 

Thread title update

 

Jetro Willems: Chinned

 

Big boy shit.

[jack j]

40 minutes ago, Beth said:

Plenty of Stone Island arseholes in Holland as well I see.

Hooliganism is far more common in the likes of Germany and the Netherlands than it is in England thesedays

[magvicar]

Let's be honest, football hooliganism could be almost stamped out with the correct sentencing after identification, which is fairly easy with the big brother like cameras we have around grounds and cities/towns.

Simply make the punishment fit the actual crime instead of pussyfooting around this type of idiocy.

[LV]

Alreet President Snow 

[BonesJones]

He's back in black and white!

[wormy]

Bring him home.

[HawK]

Just remember him being quality from the little I saw of him. A LB that actually got in the box, was our first decent LB since Enriqué if memory servers.

[toon25]

18 minutes ago, HawK said:

Just remember him being quality from the little I saw of him. A LB that actually got in the box, was our first decent LB since Enriqué if memory servers.

Will never forget Wor Steve sticking him central midfield for his first appearance as a sub for us. Jetro didn't know what the fuck had just been pulled 

[HawK]

1 minute ago, toon25 said:

Will never forget Wor Steve sticking him central midfield for his first appearance as a sub for us. Jetro didn't know what the fuck had just been pulled 

 

Gosh I had forgotten that, how he had no idea where Jetro played and the whole palaver was caught on camera and he tried to deny everything in the following days. Started well for us didn't he, Brucie

[Unbelievable]

A very candid interview with wor Jetro in the Netherland’s largest online publication, in which he talks about suffering from depression after that horrific injury vs Chelsea, just as he was getting his career back on track (with us):

 

Quote

On Saturday, Jetro Willems will play for the first time against PSV, the club where a great future was predicted for him as a top talent. But things turned out differently for the 29-year-old left back of Heracles Almelo due to a cruciate ligament injury and depression.

After a while of the interview, Willems picks up his phone. He shows a list of sixteen names, including Olympic champions Simone Biles and Michael Phelps and 23-time Grand Slam winner Serena Williams. "I made that list last weekend. They are all top athletes who have also had it."

By 'it' Willems refers to mental problems. As a young footballer, who switched from Sparta to PSV at the age of seventeen, he didn't think it would ever bother him. A career at the top almost seemed a given. Willems, born in Curaçao, won a starting spot in the Philips Stadium and with the Dutch team.
 
In 2012, at the age of eighteen, he was the youngest player ever to play at a European Championship. And in the following years, as a left back, with 'the drag' as his trademark, he scored 12 goals and 34 assists for PSV. In Eindhoven he formed a tandem with Luuk de Jong, who scored many of his crosses. "I was on cloud nine," says Willems.

In 2023, the reality is different. At the age of 29, Willems is not a player for a top club, but plays football for Heracles. At times slightly philosophical, he explains where things went 'wrong'. "You cannot choose your own path. I was also able to learn a lot as a person from that difficult period. But of course that injury destroyed a lot."

What happened on January 18, 2020 marked his career. Willems had just found his way up at Newcastle United, after two seasons at Eintracht Frankfurt. The then 25-year-old defender was a revelation in the Premier League. He scored against Liverpool at Anfield and Newcastle wanted to sign him permanently

In the meantime, a return to the Dutch team beckoned, until Willems was seriously injured against Chelsea. "It immediately turned out to be a bad thing. I turned out to have an injury that only 1 percent of football players get," he says about his complicated cruciate ligament injury. Doctors were clear: Willems would no longer be able to play football at the top level.

Willems' world was turned upside down. "No more playing football? How? I had so many questions, but no answers. Why me? I was angry because I didn't understand it. At some point the switch has to be turned, but that is difficult when you are on the bench for four months." lies with a brace from your ankle to your hip. You are reminded again and again what you have."

Willems was supported by family and his best friend Georginio Wijnaldum at that time, but still felt alone. "Everyone wanted to help me, but that wasn't possible. I hurt a lot of people. In the meantime, I went on holiday and did fun things. But I wanted to play football. Then I saw that money doesn't buy happiness. And if you're not happy, you are nobody."

Afterwards, Willems realizes that he was depressed during that period. "I escaped reality. Sometimes I would take my car and sit in my car somewhere all night. Or I would go to friends' houses and not come home until the next day. I also stopped sleeping in my bed ", but on the couch or in my cinema. At that time I often thought: I'll quit football, go do something else. This won't work anymore."

When he signed with the German Greuther Fürth after his rehabilitation, he noticed that the depression was not yet over. He therefore stopped playing football after the 2021/2022 season. "That was exactly what I needed to overcome that depression."

"At first I was ashamed. As a man you always have to push and keep going, be tough. But during that period I really gave in to it. I did train for myself. But other than that, I was finally a human being instead of a football player. I often went to watch to my football-playing son or gymnastics daughter. And I attended many Feyenoord and PSV matches. It was great."

As he recovered mentally, Willems slowly became a fan of the game again. During the winter break of last season, he got such an itch that he signed with FC Groningen, which was already at the bottom of the Eredivisie at the time. And last summer he settled down with PhD student Heracles. These are not clubs that Willems thought he would play at in his twenties.

But he enjoys it no less. "I experience the sport differently now, also because I have to put more time into it to be fit. I have accepted how things turned out. I have experienced almost everything in my career. Championships with PSV, cup wins with Eintracht Frankfurt. Not many people can say that, right? And I'm still playing in the Eredivisie. I can't complain."

Willems is not the first footballer to suffer from mental problems. And he won't be the last either. "I've often been asked by players lately if I can give them advice about their mental problems. I do. But I don't want to be a poster boy or confidant. I care too much about other people's problems for that. Then I go been thinking about it all evening."

He advocates more attention to mental problems in the football world. "Guys like Ricardo Kishna and Gregory van der Wiel have come out about it, but otherwise I don't know many in the Netherlands. I think there is a lot of shame in talking about it and that is why it remains a secret. It is a taboo in the football world, in which you You can't always be yourself anyway."

That is Willems. For example, he tells how he cheered on PSV's goals against Ajax on Sunday. "Because PSV is special to me. Those six years at PSV were one big highlight for me. I love how well they are doing now. And yes, they use De Jong perfectly." Laughing: "Although he would have scored fifteen instead of ten goals if I had been PSV's left back."

It's a joke with a serious undertone. Willems has not yet given up on returning to a top club. "Why not? I believe that I can be one of the best backs in the Netherlands again." Then seriously: "And otherwise it's also good. So many great athletes have had mental problems. I got over it. I'm proud of that, no matter what."

 

 

Edited November 4, 2023 by Unbelievable

[Ikon]

Thanks for sharing U. He looked soooo good before that.

 

 

Edited November 4, 2023 by Ikon

[Conjo]

Remember Bruce sending him out on his debut without telling him which position he was playing?

[Stifler]

23 hours ago, Conjo said:

Remember Bruce sending him out on his debut without telling him which position he was playing?

Immediately resulting in us conceding.

[Facundo Ferreyra]

 

Signed for yet another team that plays in black and white. 

[McCormick]

That Jetro-Maxi partnership on the left was so fun to watch. Absolute suicide defensively, sure, but so fun.