AZ Alkmaar will have yet another representative in the Dutch national team squad after their striker Vincent Janssen was called for national team duty for the first time.
He has been named in the squad to face England and France in back-to-back friendly games. It is not surprising that this call up has come about. The 21-year-old has been one of the leading goal scorers in the Dutch Eredivisie this season. Just before the international break, he took his tally to 20 goals for the campaign. This included a whopping 12 goals scored as the opening in matches.
The Dutch national team is expected to undergo various changes over the next 12 months. This is down to the national team missing out on the Euro 2016. Ever since qualifying for the World Cup 2010 final, Netherlands have been on an up-and-down form. They qualified for the World Cup 2014 with relative ease but struggled to make a major impact at the tournament. Even though they finished third under the regime of Louis Van Gaal, many felt that the team should have gone further. Now, they have missed out on the Euro 2016 and a number of players are facing the consequences.
Robin van Persie has been left out of the squad once again and he has not played for several months now. “I’ve come from a long way. So I’m really proud to be back with Oranje,” said Ron Vlaar. The defender recently won his first call-up for the national team since 2014. This has been done to his much improved form with AZ Alkmaar. Only very few established names like Arjen Robben and Wesley Sneijder continue to be present in the team. It remains to be seen ifJanssen can grab this opportunity with both hands and be a regular for Netherlands.