:quality(80)/cdn-kiosk-api.telegraaf.nl/f64bb32e-3870-11eb-b254-0255c322e81b.jpg "Jetro Willems: ‘I smuggled drugs as a 9-year-old’ | Football")
sport">“At first my parents tried to take it with them, but it didn’t work. Then I sacrificed myself. I said, ‘go with me’. I was a bit crazy anyway. If I have to do that for my family, I will just do it ”, he says very frankly.
sport">With the drugs glued to his legs, the later Orange International ventured the hours-long flight across the Atlantic Ocean. The smuggling was successful and brought a solution, Willems assures. “That was the light for us. Everything started running. My parents got a job, for example. ”
sport">Willems, who is currently recovering from a serious knee injury, did not need a cent of the proceeds himself. “I didn’t want anything, yes, never get into that situation again. I said to my parents, ‘give whatever you wanted to give to me to my sister. I just want a ball. ‘ Ultimately, that ball saved my life. ”
Jetro Willems during the European Championship 2012.
Ⓒ ANP / HH
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sport">Within ten years Willems made it to the Dutch national team. In 2012, the PSV defender went to the European Championship in Poland and Ukraine as an eighteen-year-old football player. The Netherlands never sent a younger player to a final tournament. In total, Willems played 22 times for the Orange squad so far, for the last time against France four years ago.
sport">In his career, the born Rotterdammer played for Sparta, PSV, Eintracht Frankfurt and Newcastle United.
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