Barcelona star Frenkie de Jong has hit back at his critics in the wake of the Netherlands’ 5-1 win over Sweden at World Cup 2026.
The midfielder shrugged off some minor physical issues to play an hour in an impressive win for Ronald Koeman’s side.
Afterwards he addressed criticism that he does not contribute enough offensively with some strong words.
“I get the feeling that a lot of people don’t understand anything about football,” he told SBS6. “They watch it, but they don’t see it, so to speak. That’s
not a bad thing, because it allows everyone to talk about it, but it’s the truth.
“I hear people say I don’t play through balls, but that’s not true. They’re simply not paying attention to the game. It depends on the match, but also on the moment. You can play that through ball, but then it always goes to the goalkeeper. Yes, I think some people struggle to understand that. Maybe I should sit down with them sometime . It also depends on the moment itself. Whether someone is running or not, how they’re running…
“I think that, in general, in the Netherlands we could value players a bit more. Of course, you can criticize if you think someone isn’t having a good game. That’s fine, and we have no problem with that. But often it’s exaggerated so much that they’re immediately labeled as a bad player.”
De Jong and Netherlands now go on to play a final group game against Tunisia on Thursday.
