Teun Koopmeiners has found the answers

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In January 2021, after six more than convincing matches played as captain of Az Alkmaar in the Europa League – in group F, that of Napoli, against which, however, he missed a penalty -, the Telegraaf, the best-selling newspaper in the Netherlands, dedicated to Teun Koopmeiners an article in which two questions were asked: how long would it take Frank de Boer to make the Kaasboeren midfielder one of the pivots of the Dutch national team and which big European club would take him. At that moment Teun Koopmeiners had scored ten league goals, had conceded four assists to his teammates, had recovered hundreds of balls, had missed only less than ten percent of passes. And all as a back midfielder.

The two questions were more than legitimate. To such an extent that in the summer even the Algemeen Dagblad, the second largest newspaper by circulation, wondered about it.

The Telegraaf had spoken of an interest from Atletico Madrid, Tottenham, Leicester and Aston Villa for the midfielder. Interests that led to nothing. At the end of August, a few days before the end of the transfer market, Teun Koopmeiners was still a player and captain of Az Alkmaar.

Then came Atalanta and Louis van Gaal.

In a few days, the people of Bergamo reached an agreement with the Dutch. The following month, the coach who had replaced Frank de Boer on the Oranje bench in August called the midfielder back to the national team.

If in the Netherlands the qualities of Teun Koopmeiners had been known for some time, the arrival of the Dutchman in Italy took a back seat. They described him as a good midfielder good at scoring, they told of Lazio’s interest two years earlier, as heralded among the many interests in many other young talents and with a more or less exotic surname, which is so much a football manager. A central midfielder like many others, nothing special, a good stand-in for Mario Pasalic, Remo Freuler or Marten de Roon.

However, Gian Piero Gasperini has the advantage of not caring about the schemes, the name and the pedigree. After a few months spent coaching the Dutchman, the Nerazzurri coach is convinced that he should have counted on him and not on others, because someone like him, like Teun Koopmeiners, deserved the effort to question some details of the way of playing Atalanta football.

Gasp tried the defense with four and the midfield with five, he retraced his steps with the defense with three and the midfield with six. He used it as a midfielder and on the frontline, then arranged the others around him.

It was no longer the beautiful and successful Atalanta of the years before, the one that finished third and fourth in the Champions League. It was a good sight for sure, but a good sight on and off. A good look with a more beautiful player than the others, more central and centered than the others: Teun Koopmeiners. The one around which, in the Netherlands, they wondered how long it would take to be the pivot of the national team. One year and a few months the answer.

Now many would like Teun Koopmeiners: ten goals – the same as Rasmus Højlund, five less than Ademola Lookman, but the forwards do the work –, four assists and hundreds of recovered balls are not a few, they would be useful for many. New voices, new expressions of interest. They say in the Netherlands, always the Telegraaf, that Jürgen Klopp is in love with him and would love to see him play for him. And if you think about it, it’s easy to understand why.

Ed. For a month Olive stood still, there would have been writing about the (not necessarily) protagonists of Serie A, but there was the Giro d’Italia and my interest was focused on the Giro d’Italia. To write a portrait of a footballer it takes time and patience for in-depth study, I didn’t have it, so I thought it best to give Olive a break. Also because writing about football is good, but writing about cycling is better, at least as far as I’m concerned. I apologize to the readers. The last leg of this journey is completed, we will see if there will be another journey.

Olivesis the address book ofJohn Battistuzzion the (not necessarily) protagonists of Serie A. In the first episode there was talk of Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (Naples), in the second of Emil Audero (Sampdoria), in the third of Boulaye Dia (Salernitana), in the fourth of Tommaso Baldanzi (Empoli) , in the fifth by Marko Arnautovic (Bologna), in the sixth Gabriele Spangaro entertained you with Beto (Udinese), in the seventh by Christian Gytkjær (Monza), in the eighth Armand Laurienté (Sassuolo), in the ninth Sergej Milinkovic-Savic (Lazio ), in the tenth Sandro Tonali (Milan), in the eleventh Cyriel Dessers (Cremonese), in the twelfth Tammy Abraham (Roma), in the thirteenth Stefano Sensi (Monza), in the fourteenth Federico Baschirotto (Lecce), in the fifteenth Moise Kean (Juventus) , in the seventeenth Rasmus Hojlund (Atalanta); in the eighteenth M’Bala Nzola (Siena); in the nineteenth Federico Dimarco (Inter); in the twentieth Cyril Ngonge (Hellas Verona); in the twenty-first Riccardo Saponara (Fiorentina); in the twenty-second Perr Schuurs (Turin); in the twenty-third Ola Solbakken (Rome); in the twenty-fourth Riccardo Orsolini (Bologna); in the twenty-fifthHenrikh Mkhitaryan (Inter); in the twenty-sixth Rolando Mandragora (Fiorentina); in the twenty-seventh Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Milan); in the twenty-eighthNemanja Radonjic (Turin); in the twenty-ninth Mattia Zaccagni (Lazio); in the thirtieth Maxime Lopez (Sassuolo); in the thirty-first Lazar Samardzic (Udinese); in the thirty-second Mathías Olivera (Naples).

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