Sport | Football
Wesley Sneijder: leader of the pitch
Wesley Sneijder picked a memorable moment to prove he could be the natural leader on the pitch for the Dutch at Euro 2008.
- Reuters
- Published: 00:14 June 22, 2008
Basel: Wesley Sneijder picked a memorable moment to prove he could be the natural leader on the pitch for the Dutch at Euro 2008.
On June 9 at the Stade de Suisse the creative midfielder put the icing on the cake after half-an-hour of their opening Group C match against Italy.
Starting the best counter-attacking move seen at the tournament so far, he found Rafael van der Vaart and the ball was then moved on for Giovanni Van Bronckhorst to send a long cross-field pass to Dirk Kuyt who headed it back for Sneijder to volley home brilliantly.
Sneijder showed everyone that night in Berne that he was the real deal.
Sneijder left Ajax Amsterdam for Real Madrid at the start of last season and during his first year in the Spanish top flight became a more complete player.
As a young player with Ajax, Sneijder was always feted as the small midfielder who had a knack of scoring goals. But in his final year in youth team football he was criticised for not doing enough defensive work.
His then-coach Danny Blind regularly argued with him about that but Sneijder always said he did not need to defend.
Blind used an old coaching trick and played Sneijder as a holding midfielder to make sure he did his share of defending.
The Ajax youth team lost that match but Sneijderlearned his lesson.
From that moment he started to become a team player. At 18 he made his debut for the senior side and six weeks before his 19th birthday won his first Netherlands cap.
Since then he has won 47 caps, and the Euros is his third major tournament.
On current form it seems unlikey that it will be his last.
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