Kenneth Perez Questions Ro-Zangelo Daal Hype
Kenneth Perez is not buying into the Ro-Zangelo Daal hype just yet.
The 18-year-old AZ forward lit up the weekend with two goals in a 5-2 win over Go Ahead Eagles and drew plenty of excited reactions, but the ESPN analyst slammed the brakes on the rising buzz.
On Dit was het Weekend on ESPN, presenter Wouter Bouwman admired the clips of Daal and noted how quickly things seem to be happening for the youngster. Perez cut straight through the excitement.
“Take it easy, man. I’m really going mad from all that nonsense about multi-talent, great talent,” he snapped. “He’s a young and decent player. Let’s wait and see what it all becomes. All those superlatives about ordinary players... Calm down, please.”
No top-talent label. No early coronation. Perez wants time and proof, not headlines and hashtags.
Bouwman then highlighted that Daal is already on the radar of the Curaçao national team and floated the idea that he could still wait for a possible Netherlands call-up. Perez needed just one word – and barely that – to show his skepticism about fast-tracking the AZ attacker into the Oranje picture: “Well…”
Not everyone shares that caution.
Arie Haan, working as a reporter for De Telegraaf, went the other way entirely. The former Ajax and Netherlands international not only praised Daal’s performance, he placed the winger straight into his Team of the Week.
“They kept trying to block off the outside. Then he just went inside,” Haan explained. “He played brilliantly. It’s good for Xavi that another winger is emerging who is developing so spectacularly.”
Where Perez sees noise, Haan sees a solution for the national side.
According to Algemeen Dagblad, Daal has already made it onto a “watchlist” compiled by Netherlands head coach Xavi. He is not alone there: fellow forwards Lucas Vennegoor of Hesselink and Shaqueel van Persie are also reportedly being monitored by the Spanish coach.
So the split is clear. One prominent voice calling for calm, another pushing Daal into a Team of the Week and pointing him towards Oranje. The teenager sits somewhere in the middle of that tug-of-war – already scoring, already noticed, and already under the kind of scrutiny that decides who really makes the jump from promise to proof.
