Donny van de Beek moving to Real Madrid would have been a ‘DISASTER’, says his youth team coach at Ajax who believes £40m transfer to Manchester United was a ‘great choice’
- Donny van de Beek completed a £40m move to Manchester United last week
- The 23-year-old former Ajax attacker was heavily linked with Real Madrid
- But his youth team coach Ruben Jongkind says United was the right choice
- Van de Beek is currently with the Holland national team on international duty
Donny van de Beek’s youth team coach at Ajax insists his former protege moving to Real Madrid this summer would have been a ‘disaster’.
The 23-year-old, who rose to prominence in the Ajax side which reached the 2019 Champions League semi-finals, completed a £40million move to Manchester United last week.
However, the Holland international was also closely linked with a move to the Bernabeu – with a deal reportedly agreed before the coronavirus pandemic – but van de Beek’s youth coach Ruben Jongkind believes the move to United was the right decision.
Donny van de Beek completed a £40m move from Ajax to Manchester United last week
Real Madrid were also heavily linked with Van de Beek before the coronavirus pandemic
Van de Beek’s youth coach, Ruben Jongkind (left), says Madrid move would’ve been a ‘disaster’
‘He [Van de Beek] will be challenged, the average age in the Premier League is probably around 26 or 27, but I think he has shown in European campaigns that he has enough skills to play at the highest level,’ Jongkind told the Manchester Evening News.
‘He likes a challenge and he has this mindset that he wants to go further every time. I think this is a better time than, for example, [Justin] Kluivert to AS Roma, that was too early.
‘It is also a good club to move to. United have a history of bringing in youth players, I think it’s a great choice, much better than Real Madrid, I think that would have been a disaster.
‘The playing style is more akin to Donny at United than Real Madrid as well.’
Jongkind added that Van de Beek’s talent in the Ajax academy was spotted over 10 years ago, when he was just playing in the Under-10s side.
Van de Beek is currently on international duty with Holland and played Poland on Friday
‘It must have been in 2008 or 2009, I think he was playing in the Under-10s at the time,’ he said.
‘I was also involved with the younger age groups. He ended up being selected for Ajax and he was in the team of [Dennis] Bergkamp.
‘After a short while we talked about him and Dennis said ‘this player is going to be big so you have to work with him individually now’.
