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Thursday, February 13, 2020 at 00:00
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The Kitchen Champion Division has been the birthplace for domestic and foreign talent for decades and again this season there are many players with potential on the second level. Soccer Zone, the official media partner of the Kitchen Champion Division, highlights one of these talents every two weeks, this time focusing on Kjell Scherpen, the goalkeeper who wants to become the first keeper in the Johan Cruijff ArenA via Young Ajax.
By Robin Bruggeman
“I don’t know, then you have to be with Marc Overmars and Edwin van der Sar”, is Scherpen’s smiling answer to the question what he expects from next summer. Ajax has an undisputed first choice in André Onana, but the Cameroonian is now busy in his fourth season as goalkeeper of the team from Amsterdam and seems to be gradually orientating himself for the next step. His stand-in Bruno Varela will be rented from the Portuguese superpower Benfica until the end of this season, although Ajax does have the option to definitively incorporate the closing post. Behind 23-year-old Onana and 25-year-old Varela work with the just 20-year-old Scherpen and, more than two weeks younger, Dominik Kotarski two keepers on their development at Young Ajax, hoping to make the move to the future. to be able to put ‘large’ Ajax.
Scherpen was trained at FC Emmen and was 34 times under the bar last season on behalf of the Drentharen in the Eredivisie. The switch to Ajax followed last summer, which immediately showed itself to be very interested in the young goalkeeper: “They saw me play and contacted me, then it started to run a bit. At that moment you are naturally very happy and proud that a large club is interested in you, then you know that you are on the right track. ” At that time there was not really any clear interest from other clubs: “Not that I know at least. Ajax was actually quite straightforward and then we started working together. There was trust from both sides and you focus on that, ”Scherpen continues. After the deal had already been completed a few months earlier, he made the switch to his new employer after the end of last season and the goalkeeper has now found his place in Amsterdam.
“I’m making more steps”
“I’m having a good time, I enjoy living here and I enjoy going to the club. And I see many things that go better than when I first came here, that also helps in the process. You know that everything here goes much faster, with a higher intensity, “he explains. In the first few weeks, it was therefore quite a bit of “getting started” for Scherpen: “At a certain point you go along with it and then it only gets better. I do not know what I expected, you will enter a large club with top players. Then you know that the level is high and that is only good. I am making more and more steps. ” The facilities available at Ajax also give Scherpen every opportunity to develop further: “Of course, that is all much more extensive than at Emmen. It cannot be compared in that area. That is also not necessary, because Emmen comes from the small, they are now also growing and that is nice to see. Ajax is simply the top and here you also see that you are on the pitch with top quality players, it is nice to measure yourself against that. ”
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Scherpen made his breakthrough at FC Emmen last season
Scherpen and Kotarski are under the bar at Jong Ajax this season and it took the former a moment to familiarize themselves with the playing style of the Amsterdam promises: “With Jong Ajax you know that you are almost always the better team. Teams often try to stop us and play on the counter. That’s how the games usually go and you have to be there at a few moments. At the beginning you also see that it took some getting used to, but in the end you get to know how we play and how you should function as a keeper in that. That is now going well ”, he looks back on his first few months in Amsterdam service. “How far you play from your own goal is, for example, a big difference, just like the way the balls end up behind our defense. At the beginning that was something new, getting used to, but I am pretty good at it now. Last year we were of course often under pressure with Emmen and playing football wasn’t good enough for me either. I have become much calmer now and that makes a very big difference. ”
“Here you train every day at the highest level”
Where he played his matches in the Eredivisie last season, Scherpen has to show it in the current kitchen season in the Kitchen Champion Division. In addition, he alternates with Kotarski who will go along with the main force as a third goalkeeper. The closing post, however, does not see it as a problem that it is not active at the highest level this year: “Of course, that is something else, but that is not the only thing to look at. On the contrary, I have the feeling that I can learn much more during training as a keeper. Of course you have to play games to get better and I play them here too. Last year I played at the highest level every week, but here you train every day at the highest level and play matches at the second highest level. That’s not really a thing for me. I know what I have chosen. So for now it is good, but it is not intended that I will continue to play only Kitchen Champion Division for four years. For this year, that is just fine. “
During the training sessions of the main force, the four goalkeepers often form a separate group and Scherpen looks closely at Onana’s actions in these situations: “There are still plenty of things that I can learn from him, he is world class. If you see how calm he is at the ball and also choose the position and react to the ball. The peace and conviction that he has, in my opinion, also influences the strikers that come at him. Then they think for a moment how they are going to shoot because he is on goal and that is something you want as a keeper. ” At Kotarski too, Scherpen sees a number of qualities that he would like to make himself acquainted with and he speaks of a healthy rivalry with his contemporary: “There is always competition. You are the same age, but you also have to make each other better. Of course there is a struggle, but I think that is good for both parties. He is of course totally different than me. He is very athletic, sometimes you see him fly out of the goal and extend his legs and arms and then you think: “He is very fast”. Those are things that you would also like to see in yourself, although of course you also have to see if that is possible in proportion. ”
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Scherpen learns a lot from Onana during the training sessions of Ajax
“I think it is 1.85 meters tall and I am still just 20 centimeters above that. We are also totally different as a person and also as a keeper. You see things that you notice, but he may also have that with me. ” During the various finishing exercises and party forms, Scherpen is on the pitch with the rest of the selection and, due to the attacking qualities that are available at Ajax, he occasionally experiences tough training sessions: “Sometimes you have yes from those days, but on other days you stop it enough too and then I also finish the training with a good feeling ”, he smiles. Routinier Klaas-Jan Huntelaar forms a formidable opponent for the sixteen-year-younger keeper during these training sessions: “I always like those duels, he is still someone who always wants to score. No matter what kind of training it is, he always wants to score at every game and every game. Then it is nice to try to stop everything from him, then you have a bit of a fight with each other and that is just fun. ”
“You know you’ve just been here for a year”
Scherpen signed a four-year contract with Ajax last summer and in his first year in Amsterdam he mainly focuses on his own development. In a few months’ time, hopefully, the next step will follow, although he will take a beating when he is asked when he will regard his first year as “successful”: “I think that’s a good question. If after this season I can make the move to at least a second goalie or possibly the first goalie. That I have developed in such a way that they have confidence in me to perhaps go a step further next season, then it would be a successful season for me. I don’t know how things will go in the summer and that is actually not that important to me. I just have to make sure that I develop in such a way that they cannot get around me. ” In the case of a departure from Onana, Scherpen does not want to immediately claim the place under the bar at the first of Ajax: “You know that you have just been here for a year and you do not know how things are going. But if you get the chance to be there, you also have to make sure that you are there. “
Name: Kjell Scherpen
Date of birth: January 23, 2000
Club: Young Ajax
Position: goalkeeper
Strengths: rescue on the goal line, reacting to high balls
Voetbalzone is the official media partner of the Kitchen Champion Division
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