It has taken just over a year, but the rest of the world has now realised what everyone at Ajax has known for some time – Justin Kluivert can become one of the best players on the planet.
The 18-year-old’s professional career is barely 50 games old but his devastating pace and mesmerising skills have seen him go from academy graduate to first-team regular at the Johan Cruijff ArenA.
Coaches and pundits are lining up to tout him as the game’s next superstar. He has beaten Gianluigi Donnarumma to this year’s NxGn award, while Europe’s top clubs are scrambling for his signature. Yet rather than turn his back on such attention, Kluivert is embracing it.
He will casually talk up a future transfer to either Real Madrid or Barcelona, while at the same time listing Arsenal, Tottenham, Chelsea and Manchester United as alternative destinations, insisting that the “possibilities are already there” to join one of the continent’s top teams.
It may be rare to hear a youngster so willing to fuel rather than quell transfer talk, but Kluivert is no ordinary player. He conducts himself with a swagger. Nothing fazes him.