He does get regular playing minutes from coach Jorden Takiddine, but there is currently no starting place for 18-year-old attacker Rik d’Haens at fifth division Graauw. ‘The trainer currently opts for others during rush hour. It’s up to me to make it as difficult for him as possible.’
The youngster is a permanent member of the first selection, but for the time being he has to make do with substitute appearances in which he tries to show what he has to offer. He has not yet scored in the first team this season. “That is a goal for me to try to score at least one goal in the remaining matches. It is not easy to make a difference in just ten or twenty minutes, although that is of course what you want.”
His older brother Kevin has now managed to secure a starting place as a midfielder, something of which the younger Rik can only be proud. “Kevin is a completely different type than I am. He is a player who makes moves from midfield, while I do best in the front line. With the second team I get plenty of opportunity to get used to the physical opposition in senior football. As an attacker you get just a little more time and space to make an action, to place the ball correctly and to finish it in a targeted manner. I have scored there regularly. Now it’s up to me to make it happen with the first one. There you have just a little more pressure and that is something to learn to deal with.”
Competition progress
Graauw had not really stated a real objective in advance. “Just have a great season and try to finish as high as possible. I think the place in the middle is already very good for Graauw and we must try to hold on to that until the end. We have a group that tries to link performance and atmosphere. Sometimes the results are still too variable, but a lot of young boys have also come through from their own youth. Then it can happen that players relapse or sometimes do not perform consistently enough. Fortunately, the board never demands or imposes much pressure. That’s nice and says a lot about the state of the club. A friendly association that wants to perform, but not at all costs. And certainly not at the expense of the good atmosphere and solidarity. I feel perfectly at home there as a person and as a footballer.”
Home is on weekends for the youngest of the d’Haens Graauw brothers, while during the week he studies in Harderwijk. “I am training there as an agricultural mechanic. As a result, I can never be present to train on Tuesdays, which is a pity, but unfortunately the study does not allow it. You also don’t come back home ‘just for a little while’. My school days are Monday to Thursday. Then I sometimes go to the gym, but generally I only train on Fridays now. On Sundays I usually first play in the second group and then join the first group. Next season I hope to be able to work towards a starting place. I hold that key myself and I will do everything I can to make it as difficult as possible for the trainer to make a choice.”
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