Joren van Nieuwenhuijzen: "I wasn't planning on stopping"

Fortuna announced on 11 November that Van Nieuwenhuijzen is stopping, after a long period of injury recovery and rehabilitation (the announcement). He himself says he was fit again.

"I worked extremely hard to be fully fit again at the start of the indoor competition. I achieved that goal." In the preparation he played three matches. "Every single one of them went well. I felt strong, fit and had my confidence fully back."

Not in the plans

"If you have played in the first team for ten years and have always been of value to the team, then you at least expect to be seriously involved in the plans again", says Van Nieuwenhuijzen. "Unfortunately they saw that differently for the coming period."

Read more: Joren van Nieuwenhuijzen retires after ten years in the Fortuna squad

"I am a person for whom trust and perspective are very important. If I don't get that, then a decision like this follows. It's a shame because I wasn't planning on stopping." He does not want to say more about it.

Not even being able to walk

He calls the recovery period strange and difficult. "Going from being able to do everything to not even being able to walk, that is almost impossible to describe if you haven't experienced it yourself. You miss the winning and try to stay involved with the team, while you yourself have hardly any influence on it."

"At the same time I remained enormously motivated to give it one more try. Training hard, staying mentally strong and giving everything, without knowing whether and at what level you would ever come back."

National champion

Van Nieuwenhuijzen made his debut in Fortuna's first team at the age of seventeen. His finest moment is the national championship of 2018-2019, including the elimination of TOP in the play-offs. "As a little boy I sat in the stands at the Korfbal League final almost every year, dreaming of one day standing there myself. That this dream came true and that we also became national champion is impossible to put into words."

"The players I have been able to play with all those years are class acts, every single one of them", he says. "When I look back on those ten years, what mainly prevails is gratitude that I was allowed to be part of such a special group and successful period in the history of Fortuna."

Some distance

What he will do now, he does not know yet. "To be honest, after everything that has happened I want to take some distance from korfball for the time being. My phone is now red-hot with messages and offers, which is of course nice to see. But for now I mainly want to find the peace to think carefully about my future before I make a decision."