Football players go through a cycle of entering a local academy, being recognized by scouts to train in better academies, being promoted through the ranks, making it into the senior side, and finally getting selected for the national team. This is the case for the story we are about to tell but with a plot twist. Frenkie de Jong Biography holds some surprises.
Frenkie de Jong was the only child in their town to carry a ball with him all day. His spare time was always spent in the streets playing football. And here comes the plot twist we told you about. When he started playing he was only 4 years old and he was recognized and spotted at the age of 5. Can you believe that this player learned how to play football and play it well at an age when most kids try to learn the most basic skills like running without falling down or uttering some complicated words?
Retelling the exciting story of Frenkie de Jong Biography
Stay with us and learn more about this athlete as we dig deep into Frenkie de Jong Biography and explore every aspect of his life with a focus on his career and international trials.
Frenkie de Jong introduction
Before we start Frenkie de Jong Biography, we should talk about his most basic information such as the team he is currently playing for or his position, so you can update your knowledge of the player before getting to Frenkie de Jong life story.
- Name: Frenkie de Jong
- Age: 25
- Height: 1.81 m
- Nationality: Dutch/ Netherlands
- Current Team: Barcelona
- Number: 21
- Position: Midfielder
Now that we are on the same page regarding Frenkie de Jong stats, let us move on to the next section of Frenkie de Jong Biography.
Frenkie de Jong childhood and early days
For the people reading Frenkie de Jong biography, we aim to narrate the story in a straight timeline so you would better understand each section of the article. Thus, let us start with Frenkie de Jong childhood.
Like Matthijs de Ligt, Frenkie De Jong real name also has that iconic De. The Dutch city of Arkel welcomed Frenkie De Jong into the world on May 12, 1997, the same day Brazilian football player Marcelo was born. Young Frenkie was born to a football-playing mother and a second-team ASV Arkel player (also an amateur footballer), John. Also, Youri, Frankie’s younger brother, plays football with the A1 of ASV, and Frankie’s grandfather played football as a hobby. You already get a sense of why this kid was destined to become a footballer.
To the delight of his sports-loving parents, who valued their son’s enthusiasm for the game, Frankie grew up participating in football with his hometown team ASV Arkel. No matter the time of day, he was always that one child who people would see playing football. Everyone in the village where they lived knew that Frenkie was the young boy who was always carrying the ball. Even as a very young child, Frenkie excelled at football, attracting the attention of academics who wanted to recruit him from his local team. When Frenkie turned five, according to his father, scouts were already knocking on the door urging him to join their club.
Entering football
When his father deemed the young boy with blonde hair to be of legal age for legitimate competitive football, the boy had just turned seven. To that purpose, Frenkie was given trials in 2004 at mid-table Willem II and Dutch powerhouse Feyenoord. The football prodigy had the freedom to choose after succeeding in both trials.
Frenkie intuitively opted for mid-table Willem II over Feyenoord despite being a very young player. His family was surprised by the decision because they were ardent Feyenoord followers. a team that, with Steven Berghuis, once enjoyed great success. In the long run, it has turned out, the Dutch hold it in high regard.
Frenkie built and honed skills that now define his playing style, particularly his exceptional capacity to make the most difficult tasks appear absurdly simple, at Willem II’s youth systems.
The aspirational young player rose through the ranks of the club, impressing his coaches at various levels, especially Jos Bogers, the under-15 coach of Willem II, who is constantly gushing about the inherent talent that has come under his watch.
After participating in Willem II’s whole development system, Frenkie made his Eredivisie debut on May 10, 2015, when his team defeated ADO Den Haag 1-0 at home.
Several clubs, notably Ajax and PSV, tried to sign him after his impressive debut. Frenkie, on the other hand, chose Ajax and committed to the team in the summer of 2015.
Frenkie spent time at Ajax with the club’s reserve team, Jong Ajax, where he made significant contributions that led to his promotion to the senior team in 2016.
Senior career
In January 2015-16 Eerste Divise, as a central midfielder in a three-man midfield, made his 15 appearances after joining Club Ajax in 2016, scoring two goals and providing three assists. For his success in the competition, he received the Talent of the Season title in the following 2016–17 Eerste Divise.
He played for Ajax against Sparta Rotterdam in his senior debut. At the age of 20, he had made 26 appearances for the senior team, playing as a center back in a back four alongside Matthijs de Ligt of the national team. Over the season, he had assisted 8 goals in 22 league games while accruing two yellow cards.
He made his first competitive debut on August 16th, defeating Athletic Bibao by a score of 1-0 after joining his dream team Barcelona on July 1st for a fee of $75 million.
He contributed significantly to the 4-0 victory over Athletic Bilbao in the Copa del Rey final of 2021 by scoring in the 63rd minute and setting up two other goals.
International trials
Frenkie is one of the few players who has played for most of the international age levels. Stay with us as we explore his international career in this section of Frenkie de Jong Biography.
This midfielder first appeared on the field for Netherlands U15 national team. Then he scored his first goal for Netherlands U18 where he had the chance to appear 5 times.
De Jong earned eight caps for the Netherlands under-19 team; his first game was on July 7, 2015, against Russia. He was quickly rising through the ranks.
He played for the Netherlands under-21 team in six games, scoring one goal. In a friendly (2-1) victory over Peru on September 6, 2018, de Jong came on as Georginio Wijnaldum’s replacement at the break. He assisted Memphis Depay in scoring fifteen minutes into his debut by recovering the ball high up the field and setting up the forward.
He later scored the game-winning goal and completed all 21 of his passes in the opposing half at a 100% rate. He quickly established himself as the Netherlands’ go-to starter in both the UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying matches and the 2018–19 UEFA Nations League. He was selected for the FIFA World Cup 2022 and the UEFA Euro 2020. He scored his first goal of the campaign in the latter, helping his team defeat the tournament’s host nation, Qatar, 2-0, in the group stage.
Love life
It’s not the first time that a young athlete falls in love and commits to a relationship once his career takes off. Frenkie has been seeing his stunning girlfriend, Mikky Kiemeney, for a few years. Frenkie was still a member of Willem II’s youth systems when the couple first met and started dating. Many people used to see them residing in Amsterdam, but now that Frenkie is representing Barcelona, we are unsure of his precise residence or whether or not his girlfriend is sharing it.
In Camp Nou in 2019, Frenkie de Jong GF Mikky was by his side as he was introduced as a Barcelona player.
After a romantic vacation to Mexico, Frenkie de Jong proposed to his lover Mikky Kiemeney. In the middle of a desert, in front of the setting sun, the midfielder proposed to his partner.
We have seen most of them on social media and pictures are taken by photographers. They both look alike and most of their similar facial features make us think that Mikky might be the exact female version of Frenkie.
The fact that they both grin the same is one of the many things that can cause admirers to be envious of the couple’s union.
More about his girlfriend
She was born in Hilvarenbeek, Netherlands, on April 17, 1998. Marc and Barbara Kiemeney are her parents. Also, she has two brothers named Bing and Billy Kiemeney.
Attained Jan Des Bouvrie Academy graduation for Mikky Kiemeney. Mikky enrolled in the Netherlands’ King Willem II College after completing high school. Mikky played hockey in her school days but later gave it up. Her aim was to play professionally, and in 2015 she made her significant debut for the women’s squad of HC Den Bosch. Because she used to play hockey, Mikky may have gone on to become an athlete. She is currently, however, relishing her life as a Wag!
Mikky Kiemeney, a successful entrepreneur at the moment, wants to build her own brand. She is the proprietor of the Mikkyki brand. It is a company that sells t-shirts, hoodies, phone covers, and other clothes and accessories.
Frenkie de Jong honors and achievements
Frenkie has won a few awards and honors up until now and we would list most of his trophies in this section of Frenkie de Jong biography. Why most? Because there is not enough room to talk about all of his trophies. That’s how successful of a player this man is.
His first club trophies started rolling in when he joined the senior side of Ajax. Since this team is one of the top-class teams in The Netherlands, it is natural to see it perform so well and win awards left right, and center. He played three years for Ajax and had the chance to lift the league title in 2018-29. Plus, Ajax managed to win KNVB Cup in the same season.
His recent club trophies are with Barcelona. The team won Copa del Rey in 2020-21 and then went on to win Supercopa de España in 2022-23 with de Jong in the squad.
With the international team, de Jong hasn’t had the chance to achieve anything. The closest that he has ever gotten is UEFA Nations League runner-up for 2018–19. However, he is still young and has a few years ahead of him to prove to himself and his country that he can win some honors for his nation.
Let us get to his individual awards. As mentioned before, we would look at the most important trophies and honors to not enlengthen the article of Frenkie de Jong biography more than the length it should be.
Individual trophies
To finish everything about Frenkie de Jong we should take a look at his individual awards.
His first individual honor was Eerste Divisie Talent of the Season in 2016–17. Before joining Barcelona he also won Eredivisie Player of the Season and Eredivisie Team of the Season in his last season with Ajax. Moreover, he shone so brightly in the Champions League that he got the UEFA Champions League Midfielder of the Season award.
Some of his other trophies that bear significance are:
- UEFA Nations League Finals Young Player of the Tournament: 2019
- UEFA Nations League Finals Team of the Tournament: 2019
- FIFA FIFPro World11: 2019
- IFFHS Men’s World Team: 2019
- UEFA Team of the Year: 2019
This was all there was to Frenkie de Jong biography. We hope that you enjoyed what we have created with love and enthusiasm.
