Former Ajacied Justin Kluivert honestly looked back on his departure from Ajax on Friday evening. Five years ago he left shortly after his breakthrough with the team from Amsterdam. With the knowledge of today he would have done it differently, Kluivert admitted to Valencia.
“In hindsight, if you look at it now, you can think so,” Kluivert responded in Ziggo Sport’s Football Café when asked whether he left too early at the time. Especially in the knowledge that he never broke through at AS Roma and is now rented out for the third time. “Where would I have been if I had stayed with Ajax for another year or two?” he asked.
Especially since Ajax made it to the semi-finals of the Champions League after his departure. “But maybe I would have ended up on the bench in that very good year. Or I had just gone along with the level. It’s hard to say, but if I had to do it over again, I think I’d do it differently.”
“Only, in life you also make choices. You have to stand behind that,” thought Kluivert. Now it is important for the still young attacker to establish his name somewhere. “I just want to give everything right now. I know there’s a lot more to it. But yes, sometimes I can hit myself in the head,” he adds.
The chapter of AS Roma seems over to Kluivert
The book AS Roma seems closed to Kluivert. He remarked, “That book is closed to me. They know that too. We have a good relationship with the people there, but how many times have I been rented out? You can never be 100 percent sure, but it would be strange if I came back now and said: hey, I’m back.”
“It is no longer in my head, but also not in theirs,” Kluivert said honestly about a return to the team of coach José Mourinho. His contract expires next summer, then he can go wherever he wants. “I’ve accepted it and it’s fine. I’m facing a very important step next summer, so I have to play well and perform well now. I still have fifteen games for that,” the Dutchman concludes.
