‘Ryan learned to work hard’

• Iliad of Tongeren

  editor Autovantra Sport

While Liverpool star Ryan Gravenberch is preparing for the Premier League match against Fulham at a packed Anfield, his big brother Danzell is lugging a Bluetooth speaker into the dressing room at a drizzly sports park in East Amsterdam after the warm-up. Hat on, thick winter coat.

The brother of the 18-time Dutch international is coach of the multicultural amateur club Real Sranang in Amsterdam. He combines being a head coach with a professional life as a striker at FC Den Bosch. While Ryan plays football in front of 60,000 fans this afternoon, there are about 70 people along the line at Sranang.

Danzell has always been busy, but in recent years he has taken on an important job: guiding Ryan. Via Ajax, Bayern Munich and current club Liverpool, he reached the absolute European top in the foreseeable future.

Danzell quickly saw that Ryan had the talent to succeed. “But he didn’t really like hard work in the past. At a certain point you can’t do everything based on talent and you have to work hard. He learned that and it has made him the player he is today.”

Due to his packed schedule – he is also raising three young children – Danzell does not often have the opportunity to watch Ryan in Liverpool. He can finally play again next weekend, for the top match against Tottenham Hotspur.

“My own professional career makes it difficult to visit him,” says Danzell. “But we are in daily contact. If he is not in the starting line-up, I will be told well in advance.”

There is a good chance that Gravenberch will be back in the starting line-up against Spurs. The 22-year-old midfielder has become a permanent fixture under head coach Arne Slot and has done away with the image that he sometimes cuts corners. This season he almost always completes the ninety minutes.

“I try to follow his every game,” Danzell said. “If things stand out, I coach him on them. We spar a lot about football.” For example, it concerns a pass that Ryan should give more often, a duel that he should have entered into or an action that he should no longer make.

They used to often play football together. On Cruijff fields in IJburg, or on the fields of an amateur club in the area. Training on shooting or tricks. Or they would play a game of FIFA against each other online. “That was the only game we played,” he says.

But above all, Danzell is and remains his big brother. “What I tell him is that he has to be himself and have confidence in himself. That he has to be grateful that he can play such matches at this age. And that he has to convert setbacks into success.”

Then he adds with a laugh: “I mean, he’s 22 and plays for Liverpool. I basically don’t have to teach him anything anymore.”

This afternoon the focus must be on his own match. The cup meeting with fourth division OSM ’75 starts eleven minutes later. Striker Leroy George (ex-FC Utrecht, NEC and Fortuna Sittard) was still watching his son and he did not want to start the cup match without the former professional.

Anfield turns out not to be far away. At half-time, Gravenberch walks to the big screen in the canteen, which shows the Liverpool match. 0-1 behind, Liverpool has been down one man since minute seventeen due to a red card. “I can’t watch live. But I keep an eye on the score all the time.”

Liverpool eventually came back from behind twice, the score ending in 2-2, partly thanks to a goal from Cody Gakpo. Gravenberch plays the entire match. The result in Amsterdam-Oost is more satisfactory: Real Sranang wins 4-3, George curls a corner into the cross in the final minutes.

“I didn’t get to see much of it,” Danzell answers when asked whether he is satisfied with his brother’s performance. He mainly had to make do with keeping score. “But what I saw looked good.”

Danzell is not surprised that Ryan has become so important for Liverpool this season. The message he has been giving all his life: have faith. “Slot has given him that confidence. That has been very good for him.”