brace, penalty and a “failed” past – Corriere.it

Double for Weghorst, and an intuition from Van Gaal. First the 2-1 with a header, then the equalizer at the last second on Koopmeiners’ feint on which the Albiceleste defense, surprised, could do nothing. Weghorst, not too much of an accidental hero, smiles. It doesn’t seem real to him when he doesn’t miss the penalty lottery and puts his team back in a position to be able to hope again. Thus he intuits on the most beautiful night (and saddest for how it ended) of his career that work pays off, sacrifice too. And that his mantra (believe in yourself) was probably the total value he gave himself when he realized that Nature had not given him the talent he desired. Weghorst dreamed of a soft pair of feet, instead he found himself with a stubbornness more unbreakable than stone. In the afternoons spent in Borne, a town of twenty thousand inhabitants a stone’s throw from the border with Germany, he repeats to himself that he would become a professional footballer, despite being always rejected by football schools: uncoordinated and does not have a basic technique.

The story changes at 19, when Weghorst finds an engagement in Deto Twenterand, the fourth tier of Dutch football. Not much, but still a step forward. In the first season he arrives in double figures, so Peter Bosz’s Heracles offers him an audition. The step turns out to be too long. Even for a 197 cm tall toe. The other players move too fast for him, the pace is too high. So they thank him and greet him. Again. Studies become his parachute. He goes on books, first in business administration, then in journalism. Even if when he goes on the field he continues to sweat and fight.

His obsession with his performance leads him to quarrel with everyone: teammates, opponents, coaches, referees. Anyone who lacks his determination automatically becomes his enemy. In truth Wout is simply secretive. One day he sees a program that talks about the loneliness of elderly people, so he shows up in a nursing home and asks if he can help out in any way.. She comes back every week to walk for a couple of hours with an elderly man. He goes on like this for months, until his friend shuts down leaving him in despair. Wout’s life would change soon after. In 2018 he moved to Wolfsburg. He starts scoring one goal after another. his second life as a striker, the call of Van Gaal and the two-faced night in the Qatar desert.