Another thing de Jong needs to work on: “I don’t score much. Often I’ll dribble into a shooting position around the penalty area, but then I’ll pass. People say, ‘Why don’t you shoot?’ and I’ll think, ‘Next match I will’, but then I pass again. I’ve still yet to find that mental switch, it’s like I want to score but I don’t really want to score. I’ve always loved just football itself, playing the ball, putting someone else in the position to score.”
Before he goes, de Jong was asked about the Dutch anti-racist gesture he took part in during a match against Estonia last November. The weekend prior, spectators in the Dutch lower division had racially abused a black player. After the Netherlands’ opening goal against Estonia, the scorer Gini Wijnaldum and de Jong ran to the touchline together, and in front of the TV cameras de Jong placed his hand on Wijnaldum’s.
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