Clint Leemans is embarking on his long-awaited first season in the Eredivisie with VVV Venlo as he has the potential to make PSV regret letting him go on a free.
- By Chaka Simbeye
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Clint Leemans is an exponent of the PSV academy whose pathway to the first team was blocked by Jorrit Hendrix, Stijn Schaars and Andres Guardado when he left for greener pastures at VVV Venlo. He like Hendrix is able to play as a centre-back, defensive midfielder and a box-to-box midfielder as it took the 21-year-old a solitary season to earn promotion to the Eredivisie as a starter and the team’s designated penalty taker. In his final pre-season at PSV, he studied under the tutelage of Schaars and Guardado as he was Jong PSV’s captain while playing regularly with the Dutch youth teams.
Style of play
A lamp-post of a midfielder but a player who is very gifted especially at having the vision and execution to thread tidy through balls into runners. He played with a defensively Netherlands youth team at the Toulon Tournament in 2015 as he had a very mixed tournament playing as both a centre-back and a midfielder. He had a moment of genius as he was preparing to receive the ball while facing his own goal, the centre-back passed him the ball for the midfielder to flick a lob to a teammate with the outside of his right toe without even turning. He set Brahim Darri up for a goal with another beautiful lob as Darri started calling for the ball the moment Leemans received it as he knew Leemans could find him.
One of his last acts with the PSV youth team was in the Barclays Championship when he picked up the ball near his own box to ping an accurate long-ball to an onrushing Steven Bergwijn to score against Chelsea. Last year, he played mainly as a box-to-box midfielder as he is comfortable demanding possession from his centre-backs as he has the vision to help his team progress into the opposition half. A player who is also physically well prepared for the battles in the Eredivisie while he will need to work on his positioning when he is playing as a defensive midfielder. Many times he positions himself too far away from his centre-backs leaving them vulnerable and leaving him with a lot of ground to cover.
What is next for Clint Leemens?
He will gain regular Eredivisie game time with his newly promoted side as he will make PSV regret letting him go a year ago. Many Eredivisie sides missed the opportunity to buy him for free but it is plausible that he could make a move to a team in the higher echelons of the Eredivisie after another few seasons at VVV. He is a player that can play many roles and positions while he has the potential to be a top player in the Dutch top flight. He was well prepared for the Eerste Divisie with his experiences at Jong PSV but it will not take him too much time to settle in to the Eredivisie in a talented young side with a talented young coach.
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