Touzani: One day, you get an email or a message that you’ve been invited to a camp for the senior team. Do you still remember the first message you got? Tell us about how that went for you.

Jackie: I saw the coach at my club actually, and they were actually in Germany to watch someone else play. I talked with him a bit there, and I was secretly hoping that he would invite me to a camp for the senior team. I think my first camp was in January, and we went to Turkey. That would be my first trip, and I got a message at home saying that I’d been called up, and I was very happy with that.

22-01-2016

Touzani: January 22, 2016. You nodded straight away.

Jackie: Yes, that was the day of my first game, no?

Touzani: Okay wait, I’m going to change things a little.

21-01-2016

Touzani: January 21, 2016. The day before the game. The day before your debut. How did you sleep?

Jackie: I wasn’t actually that nervous. I’d also been a part of the youth teams and I knew some of the girls, so it was pretty relaxed. We also had our training camp where the atmosphere was very good and it was very fun, so everything had gone well up until the game. It was a bit of a “low-key” game and there wasn’t much riding on the game

Touzani: Legend says that very good footballers don’t get that nervous for moments like this.

Jackie: In that moment, it actually was okay. I think the first time that I really got nervous was before the first game of the Euros. We were playing at home in the Netherlands and that’s the first time I thought “okay, what do we need to do, how are we going to do this?”

Touzani: So you’ve always been able to do your thing on the pitch, how is it different playing without fans?

Jackie: I find that it’s a very different feeling, and especially when we play with the Dutch team because we’d built up this tradition almost of when we play at home, it would be one big part with all the fans. That’s versing, one difference. For me though, when the game begins, my focus in on football, so that doesn’t change, whether there are fans or no fans.

Touzani: My understanding has always been that when footballers have played a match in front of say 50,000 people, and you guys have also played in front of full stadiums, that does do a lot for a footballer. Is that different now? Do you sleep differently knowing there won’t be any fans?

Jackie: I’d say the adrenaline is less than if we were to have a full stadium. When we would play in those big stadiums with lots of fans, I wouldn’t be able to sleep through the whole night because I’d just be awake.

Touzani: What would you do then?

Jackie: I’d maybe watch a show, try to relax a little bit and try to sleep. That never really worked out though.

Challenge

Touzani: Head it or catch it. Catch it means head it, and head it means catch it. Jackie, do you want to start or should I start?

Jackie: I think I’ll throw first.

*game of head it, throw it*

20-10-2016

Touzani: October 20, 2016.

Jackie: Lemme think what happened on the 20th of October 2016... Did we play against the USA? No?

Touzani: Golazo

Jackie: Jackie: Was that when I scored my first goal? Against Scotland I think that was.

Touzani: Was this one where you thought, “it’s against Scotland and it’s my first international goal, but I’m not jumping for joy or anything”

Jackie: I think it was 6-0 or 7-0 here. I was subbed in I think, and the score was 6-0 or 7-0, so the nerves were gone. It was nice though to get my first goal.

03-08-2017

Touzani: Thursday, August 3, 2017.

Jackie: Is that the first game of the euros?

Touzani: Let’s look at the videos.

Jackie: I think that I was really “in the game”, especially considering I was willing to do a move like that in my own half during the semifinals of the Euros. I felt really good and it was going really well. I also think that we started playing more freely as a team building up to that semifinal. We had the feeling that everything we were doing was good and fun.

Touzani: Something else happened in that game too. Something very important from you specifically.

Jackie: Oh, my cross!

Touzani: Yes your assist.

Jackie: We played with very wide players (ie. the wingers), and England would have been anticipating that. So we thought, what would happen if Shanice drifts in and I make the field wider and created room. That’s exactly what happened in that situation. Shanice drifted in, and I went wider and had a free chance to cross the ball basically because there was no one around me.

*video of Miedema’s first goal in the final, courtesy of Jackie’s pass to Shanice*

Jackie: I think this was my favourite pass of the tournament.

Touzani: Can I call this the assist to the assist?

Jackie: I don’t know actually, but I think that at that moment it was very important. Especially because we had just conceded a goal and we had to respond to that. I think this might be my favourite action of the whole tournament.

Belgium

Touzani: What do we see here?

Jackie: This is me in Belgium. I played with Belgium for a bit when I wasn’t playing with the senior Netherlands team yet after the youth teams. I think it was in Duisburg and I played against Anderlecht in a friendly match. The coach of the Belgian team was there, and they asked “do you play for the Netherlands” and I said “no, not yet”. He then asked, “do you want to play for Belgium?”, and I said “yes, I think I do”. I trained with them for half a year or something like that.

Touzani: How did you switch in the end? The Dutch almost lost you!

Jackie: In the end, I did have to choose and I felt that I was more Dutch than Belgian. I grew up in Belgium of course and I’ve lived there my whole life as well. When I initially chose for Belgium, my thoughts were that I really wanted to play in the Euros and World Cup. When the Netherlands became an option though, I chose them in the end.

*game of two-touch*

World Cup

Touzani: 98 minutes and 55 seconds played.

Jackie: My goal in the semifinals of the World Cup against Sweden?

Touzani: Take us through what happened.

Jackie: The ball fell perfectly in front of me...

Touzani: This is for the couple of people who didn’t watch the game because much of the country watched on NOS.

Jackie: Yeah (laughs). It just fell perfectly at my feet and I hit it well. Once I’d hit it, I had a feeling it was going in and then in the end, we went to the final.

Touzani: The video says more than words (plays video).

Jackie: That was really a surreal moment. I’m not someone who scores a lot, so for me it was like how am I going to celebrate? Before the tournament, I was joking with Loes Geurts about what I’d do if I scored and if I scored, I would run towards her. She said “if you ever score in this tournament, come celebrate and run towards me”. I totally forgot about this though.

Touzani: There are probably 14/15/16 year olds watching. What would you want to say to these footballers in order to get the best out of themselves?

Jackie: I think that you always need to make your decisions based on what you think the best decision is. There might be another choice that’s more logical, but it might not be the choice that you feel is the best at that moment. I think sometimes people say “a step backwards is three steps forwards”. You should always do what you think is right I think. I’ve always based my decisions on this advice as well, and your decision or choice doesn’t always have to be the logical decision. I think it’s important to do what makes you happy because otherwise you won’t be able to keep doing it. This applies to everything too, it doesn’t just have to be with football.

Touzani: That’s great advice. Just do your thing, it’s that simple.

Jackie: I think it is quite simple. You’re going to have to do things in your life that are less fun or things that you don’t enjoy as much. Overall though, you can choose things that you want to do and you like doing.

*crossbar challenge*

Touzani: You’ve come far, you play for one of the biggest clubs in the world. You play for one of the most successful countries in the world. You’ve come so far because of certain people around you, and that could be people like that one scout or that one family member who always brought you to games. Who do you want to thank at the end of this video?