NOS Football•
Julian Jenner came running towards them. One leg over the ball, sometimes two legs. Several defenders have sometimes lost sleep over the one action that made the winger so famous in the Netherlands: the scissors.
Nowadays, the former right winger of AZ, NAC and Vitesse tries to convey his creativity to football players in Hungary, which is now his second home country. A country that has won its heart and is making considerable progress.
“Football is experienced very intensely here. Clubs are developing enormously and considerable investments are being made in stadiums and training complexes. We are working on creating new stars,” says the 40-year-old assistant coach of MTK Budapest.
‘Huge amount of talent’
Ferenc Puskás and Sándor Kocsis were the last two big names to emerge from Hungarian football in the 1950s and 1960s. The times with world stars must return. Although Jenner sees that the current selection also has talent.
“Dominik Szoboszlai plays for Liverpool and gets a lot of attention. Willy Orban is at RB Leipzig and Milos Kerkez at Bournemouth in the Premier League. That was not the case in the national team ten years ago. The real world stars have yet to come, but there is a huge amount of talent here.”
Jenner made waves as a winger during his time at AZ:
Back in time: Jenner excels as a winger at AZ
Jenner knows this because he has been living and working in Hungary for many years. As a footballer, the ‘scissor king’ played almost fifty times for the Hungarian top club Ferencváros and after his active career he worked in various positions for Diósgyőri VTK, again Ferencváros and now MTK Budapest. The former winger has a Hungarian wife and three of his five children were born in the Eastern European country.
Thanks to an incident in the derby against FC Újpest, he became very popular with the fanatical supporters of top club Ferencváros “I had a coin hit on my head. I reacted impulsively. Then the turnips were done and I became a favorite of the crowd. “
“But I also gave 1,000 percent in every match. They really appreciate that effort. Then they don’t see you as a foreigner in Hungary, but as an equal.”
“I have lived here for seven years now. I like it very much and I can develop myself well as a trainer. Hungarian football should not be underestimated. Footballers here sometimes earn three times as much as players in the Netherlands.”
As an assistant coach, Jenner wants to ensure that attacking football is played at MTK Budapest. “National coach Marco Rossi mainly plays defensive football. But I go more for total football, not for results football. Unfortunately, you see that Rossi’s vision is still leading in Hungarian football.”
‘Outside players are being destroyed in the Netherlands’
But Dutch football does not appeal to Jenner at the moment. “We drew 1-1 in Hungary and came away very well. Why is that? A lack of creativity.”
“There are no more wingers who are being destroyed in the Netherlands. The creative spirit is being taken away by trainers who only work with laptops and have never played with a ball. These types determine how the game is played. There is so much talent in the Netherlands, but they must be given freedom.”
In the current selection, only Noa Lang can delight Jenner. “He has the personality and the bravado to remain himself. We used to have assertive boys like Sneijder and Van der Meijde. I miss them now.”
Tonight, Jenner will of course be in front of the television when the Netherlands and Hungary compete against each other. “I hope for a draw again, because if the Netherlands wins I will probably have to sleep on the couch, haha.”
