Top scorer of the eredivisie, the most assists, the most successful passes, the most chances created and so on. It's a nice list of stats in which Cody Gakpo excels this season.
After the final selection of national coach Louis van Gaal on Friday, the 23-year-old winger of PSV is ready for his first World Cup. "I know it's something special. It's the highest stage you can play on and I'm very curious to see how I feel about it."
Special relationship with Dumfries
Playing for club or country can involve differences in tactics and position, but also when it comes to the environment and with whom you share the dressing room. That is also realized by nine-time international Gakpo, who at the last European Championship was allowed to participate eleven minutes in the group stage against North Macedonia.
"It's very different, because you don't often play together. But the group has broadly stayed together in the past year in such a way that you are a bit used to each other."
He can count on PSV colleagues Luuk de Jong and Xavi Simons. And a former teammate who acts as a kind of mentor. "Denzel Dumfries and I, we have a very good relationship. I speak to him often when I have questions. He already has a bit more experience, so he helps me a lot."
Gakpo continues: "With Steven Bergwijn I also go, I also played with that at PSV. I also have to say that Jurriën Timber and I are growing closer to each other."
Learning during the World Cup
Despite his top statistics after fourteen games in the eredivisie, such as most shots on goal (26) and the second most successful dribbles (25), the native of Eindhoven still sees plenty of areas for improvement.
"I want to be even more consistent and score even more. I think I can also learn a lot in terms of my head strength, my left leg and choosing position."
In the 105 matches he played in the eredivisie, he only came to seventeen goal attempts with the head. Of those, four ended up between the posts and one in the goal. It is true that in the same period of time he already scored twelve times with the left: a third of his shots with his wrong leg ended as a goal.
But you also improve yourself by learning and gaining experience, for example at a final tournament. "Of course you can learn a lot from other professionals in your team, who have already experienced such things. How they deal with certain situations. You get to know each other better and I think you can get a lot out of a tournament like that on the field, but also off it."
The next step
A good World Cup will only increase the interest of foreign top clubs. Yet the tastemaker of PSV does not think of an interim departure, after all the transfer troubles of last summer.
Gakpo: "I think at the end of this season I'll be ready to make that step. I feel like I was at the beginning of this season, but after this season I'm even more ready to take that next step."
His dream club? He's already there, he says with a smile. "PSV was always my dream club. Other than that, I don't really have one."
But when he thinks of the world top: "Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, Manchester United, Manchester City and Liverpool. It would be an honor to be able to play there, but I also have to see what kind of team I would do best."
First orange and the World Cup, with the first group game in more than a week.
https://nos.nl/artikel/2452101-gakpo...nog-meer-ready
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