February 27, 2024 at 06:45

Football

ZEIST Marley Dors (18) from Zeist plays football for Jong Almere City FC, but is participating in a tournament in the Caribbean with Suriname under-20s this week. For Dors, this is his first call-up to the national team.

“It’s very different when you start playing for your country,” Marley Dors said by phone from South America. With Suriname Under 20, the midfielder from Zeist, who can also play as a striker, is preparing for the Concacaf tournament which takes place this week in Antigua, an island in the Caribbean Sea that became independent from Britain in 1981 and is part of it. Lesser Antilles as an archipelago.
The tournament started last Friday. Suriname U-20s must qualify for the new tournament to be played in the summer by beating El Salvador, Antigua Barbuda, Guyana and the Turks and Caicos Islands in a tough group. Only the group winners qualify for the event, so Suriname’s formation, with Dors in its ranks, will have to get to work. “It takes some getting used to,” Dors said. “Especially for Dutch kids with the weather, because it’s warm.”
For Dors, who represented Zeister Jonathan up to and including the U-16 team, this is certainly a special journey. De Zeistaar, who now plays for Jong Almere City FC, was called up to the U-20 national team for the first time. “I am in good shape and well received by my fellow players. Our goal is to qualify from the group stage. The Suriname U-20 team has never managed to do that, so it would be great if we achieved it.”

APPRENTICESHIP

Dors is a talented soccer player. While with Jonathan, he completed internships at professional clubs PSV, FC Utrecht, Vitesse, PEC Zwolle, FC Den Bosch and Almere City FC. In the end, the last club from Flevoland agreed. Dors is entering his third season at Almere. “This is very good, even better than expected. At first you wouldn’t immediately think of Almere City as a very big club, but they are really making progress here. Even at a young age you realize that the competition is becoming more and more difficult.”

CHALLENGE

In Flevoland, Dors was part of Jong Almere City FC’s selection. At U-21, the team has won the Premier League title. Now they play in the U-23 competition. A challenge, Dors said. “The opponents you face are older and have more experience. But we handled it well. I was also allowed to take part in two practice matches with the first team. No, I haven’t entered the competition yet, but that’s the next step. That’s where I want to go.”
Professional football is his dream, the Premier League will be the pinnacle, but Dors still has a long way to go. “I at least want to play in the Premier League. How far am I from there? This can vary greatly. On the one hand I am close, on the other hand I can also be far away due to injury. The most important thing is that I continue to develop.”