One of Adelaide United’s greatest ever goal-scorers was in town watching the Reds’ Hyundai A-League 2019/20 season opener against Sydney FC.
Adelaide United ambassador and MC, Jarrod Walsh, spoke to Sergio van Dijk before kick-off live on the Club’s Facebook page to get his thoughts on two of our strikers and his life after football.
The Dutchman was a prolific talisman throughout his career, particularly with Adelaide where he scored 25 league goals in 55 matches – the highest goals to games ratio in the Club’s history.
Van Dijk said he told the Director of Football, Bruce Djite, and Chairman Piet van der Pol that he has been impressed by Al Hassan Toure’s meteoric rise in such a short space of time.
“Straight away I spoke to Bruce and to Piet the Chairman and I said, ‘that looks like a real striker to me’ and I think he’s going to do well in the future,” he said.
The 37-year-old said new signing and fellow striker, Kristian Opseth will also be key for the season ahead with the healthy competition between the pair only beneficial to the squad.
“For him (Opseth) it’s also important to get his minutes,” he explained.
“But the coach can be happy that he has difficulties in choosing who’s going to play, having Toure and Opseth.
“But I hope everyone stays positive and works together as a team and hopefully at the end of the season they get the right result.”
Having now retired from professional football, van Dijk revealed he has begun venturing into the business side of the sport.
“I’m still playing on an amateur level, so like the NPL,” he admitted.
“I’m 37 years old so it’s not that bad if I still play. That’s the main thing I still love football, still like to play and I won’t be stopping for years I hope.
“But on the other hand, I want to work in the football business and that’s what I’m starting to do now.”
The former Helmond Sport forward, who enjoyed two spells with the Reds between 2010 and 2012 and briefly in 2016, claimed he always enjoys returning to the City of Churches.
“I still feel very welcome here,” he said.
“To be honest, I really love this place and if it was up to me I would love to come back and live here as well.
“I have a family and we’re originally from the Netherlands, so we’re staying there for now but hopefully in the future we can come back.
“And as I said people still know who I am and people also like to have a chat and that’s great. It’s a good place for me and it always has been.”
