Kees Smit thinks he has significantly increased his transfer value during the European Championship for players under nineteen years old. The AZ midfielder won the European title with Oranje (the Dutch national team) and was chosen as player of the tournament.
With the title of best player, Smit has attracted the attention of European top clubs. They reportedly now have to pay tens of millions for the top talent from Heiloo, trained by AZ.
“More, I think,” Smit replied to the Ziggo Sport reporter, who stated that the midfielder now has an estimated value of around 25 million euros. Laughing: “Maybe even 5 or 10 million euros more.”
The fact is that AZ has gold in its hands with the nineteen-year-old midfielder, who scored four times at the European Championship. “That’s certainly not bad, very good even,” Smit stated.
The down-to-earth North Hollander is taking it all in stride. “I read a lot of things and see big clubs passing by, that’s cool. I have to think carefully about what I’m going to do, but I think I’ll stay at AZ,” said Smit, who already won the Youth League, the Champions League for youth players, with the Alkmaar team in 2023.
“The most important thing is that I play football as much as possible, play, get better. Because it can still be a lot better.”
‘Thought it was a penalty’
Oranje under 19 was too strong for their peers from Spain, the defending champion, in the final with 1-0. The only goal was scored by the Spanish goalkeeper Raúl Jiménez, who worked the ball into his own goal.
The Netherlands was lucky that Spain did not score. The Spaniards hit the crossbar and the post, and may have deserved a penalty in extra time. Smit, of all people, seemed to knock an opponent to the ground.
“I thought it was a penalty, but I was glad he didn’t give it. I don’t think I touched the ball at all,” Smit admitted honestly. There was no VAR present at the European Championship.
The season is over, so time for a party for the Dutch teenagers who have written history. Never before has the Dutch youth team become European champion under nineteen years old.
“The only blemish is that I’ll have a doping control later. But I think it will be a fun evening. What does it look like? I think you can fill that in yourself; drinking a lot, especially water…”