Yet it still happens, albeit not at the highest level. The amateurs of Volendam are only two places lower than IJsselmeervogels in the third division and do so with a selection of only Volendam residents. Even the trainer, Berry Smit, is a Volendammer. Urk, number 13 in the third division, does have a trainer from outside, but the selection contains hardly any players who do not come from the former island. “These are exceptions,” says Jaap Jan de Graaf, technical affairs board member of IJsselmeervogels. “We want to compete at the top of the second division again in the long term. If you look at the clubs that currently play there, hardly any of their own boys play there. That will no longer make it.”
My own youth rarely breaks through with top amateurs: ‘The fact that I succeeded is very special’
