Lorenzo Calkhoven. (Photo: Key City)
Footballer Lorenzo Calkhoven of Sporting Leiden has won bronze with the Dutch team at the CP Football World Championship in Salou, Spain. The Dutch had won everything in the group phase and only had to acknowledge their superiority in the Ukrainian team in the semi-finals in extra time. Partly thanks to a spectacular goal from Calkhoven in the initial phase, the Dutch team managed to win the consolation final against Brazil 3-1. “It was actually one of our worse games.”
CP football is football for people with brain damage. The matches last two thirty minutes and the teams are also different, Calkhoven explains. “You play seven against seven. This means you have to think more and run more, even though the field is slightly smaller than for ‘normal’ football.”
Lorenzo Calkhoven talks about the World Cup at Sport071.
The good result was no surprise for the international. “I said beforehand that we would go for the top four. We still had to wait and see how we would get through the group stage, but we won everything there. Then I knew there was something special in it.” The semi-final against Ukraine was a chance for revenge. “In 2014, the Netherlands lost the European Championship final to Ukraine and the Ukrainians still largely played with the same players as then. We were able to keep pace with them for a long time, but in extra time they were still better.”
Wind
After a day of disappointment, the focus had to return to the match for the bronze medal. “Of course you shouldn’t overestimate yourself, but I did have the idea that we should actually win that match. We had learned from the semi-final loss and we had been so good throughout the tournament.”
Calkhoven opened the score early in the match. “It was in the eighth or ninth minute, I don’t know exactly. I was handed the ball and ran with it to the center line. I saw that the Brazilian goalkeeper was a little too far from his goal and I shot the ball into the corner from the halfway line.” He was helped a bit by the wind, but that did not diminish the euphoria: “The relief was really great.”
For Calkhoven it was already his sixth goal of the tournament. “Prior to the World Cup, I had only scored once as an international, and now the count suddenly stands at seven.” The Dutch CP team is still young and very eager. “It certainly leaves you wanting more. Next year is the European Championship and I certainly hope for a place in the final.”
Guided tour
Normally Calkhoven is an amateur at Sporting Leiden. There he plays ‘normal’ football. “I had a brain haemorrhage around my birth. As a result, I have limited fine motor skills on the right side of my body. This is usually not noticeable, it mainly bothers me when I am tense.”
That brain damage made him eligible for the CP national team. “I was once at the KNVB for an open day for ball boys. My father was then given a tour and came across the CP team. Shortly afterwards I signed up.” He would like to encourage anyone with brain damage to sign up for the sport.
I
The Dutch team’s performance at the World Cup is extra special when you consider that CP football hardly receives any money from NOC*NSF. “It has no longer been a Paralympic sport for a number of years,” Calkhoven explains. “We lost a lot of money as a result. We were actually only able to train together ten times in the run-up to the World Cup.”
That doesn’t stop him from looking forward to next year’s European Championships. He only has to answer the question of where and when that tournament is. “That is not yet known at all.”
Leiden Sports
