KNVB’s director De Jong has been in the post since January. The 38-year-old former player acknowledges that after ending his playing career he did not have all the knowledge about management ready. He did, however, benefit greatly from a special training offered by UEFA.
De Jong followed the two-year Executive Master for International Players at UEFA. In short, a crash course in management for former players. The former midfielder thinks that the training played a role in the choice of the KNVB to appoint him as director of top football. “It is important for an organization to see that someone is willing to learn before embarking on a new adventure,” De Jong said on UEFA’s website.
‘It was important for the KNVB that I followed this course,” continues De Jong. “And it was understood that I was not only a footballer, but also someone with a brain that I can use off the pitch. What have I learned? A lot about myself, about what I can and cannot do. Football players have a big ego, they think they can do anything. Sometimes it’s useful to sit in a classroom and find out that giving a Powerpoint presentation can be quite difficult.”
Classmates with Evgeniy Levchenko, Sami Khedira and Nemanja Vidic
De Jong was in a class that included Evgeniy Levchenko, Sami Khedira and Nemanja Vidic. “You have to be humble and accept that you only have a limited knowledge of things that happen off the field, such as marketing, commerce and managing a stadium. We kept talking about different things during the course and we developed along the way,” he continues.
De Jong now wants to use the energy he brought to the field as a player at the KNVB. He adds, “As a leader you have to have passion, but you also have to be energetic. If you have to make decisions, you also have to be innovative. Think outside the box. As a player I always tried to provide positive energy and I do that now at the KNVB, with the same mentality and the same approach. This is only the beginning of my career in this position, but I hope I can leave something behind.”
The first time that De Jong will be in the spotlight will be in the summer, when the Netherlands organizes the final four of the Nations League and meets Croatia itself. KNVB’s director De Jong concludes, “It’s going to be a tough match. Croatia did a great job at the World Cup. Our goal is to win the prize. For us it is an advantage that we play in our own country. I hope it will be a wonderful tournament.”
