Late on Thursday afternoon, after Liverpool’s training session at Melwood had ended, Gini Wijnaldum climbed aboard the private plane he had paid for to whisk him to Holland for the evening.
It was not so he could attend a rock concert or party the night away in a club in Amsterdam. That is not really his style. It was because he wanted to repay a debt of sorts.
Six years ago, during an unhappy period in his time at PSV Eindhoven when Wijnaldum was being left out of the side and his critics were saying he had failed to live up to his early promise, Willem van Hanegem, one of the great Netherlands players of the Seventies, wrote an article about him in a Dutch newspaper.
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‘At an important moment in my career, he was protecting me against all the negative things that were being written about me,’ says Wijnaldum.
‘I didn’t know him but he wrote that I was too good to play the way I was playing and that in your career, you will always have moments when it doesn’t go well. Soon after that, I called him and we became friends.’
So when the organisers of a 75th birthday celebration for Van Hanegem asked Wijnaldum if he could attend Thursday night’s event, even though he is consumed by the relentlessness of Liverpool’s Premier League title race, he did not hesitate.
He checked his work schedule and booked the plane. It flew Wijnaldum to Rotterdam, the city where he grew up and he was driven to De Doelen concert hall, where he was introduced on stage as a surprise guest.
Van Hanegem was moved that Wijnaldum had taken the trouble to attend but whether to go or not was not something Wijnaldum needed to think too hard about.
‘Sure it would have been easier not to go, but I felt it was important because he did a lot for me without me even asking him,’ he says. ‘People wanted me to be a part of this celebration and I said “yes” immediately because he did so many things for me.’
Wijnaldum told Sportsmail that he had no intention of leaving Liverpool last summer
The 28-year-old midfielder admits he has an ego, but says that it is under control
The story fits with what everything you hear about Wijnaldum. One of the men on the gate at Melwood says he has been there for more than a decade and Wijnaldum is in the top five nicest players he has met. He does his job quietly and without fuss. He works for the team, not for himself.
He has an ego, like all of us, he says, but it is very much under control. ‘I don’t think it’s wrong to have a big ego,’ he says. ‘Sometimes a big ego can help you also. As a football player, you must have a big ego to respect yourself. So if you are a good player, you must say that you are good. You need to have the confidence.
‘With Ibrahimovic, say, I like it because he knows he’s good so he appreciates himself. I’m a bit different to that. I’m quite a shy person but I know I’m a good football player. That’s just the way I am. That’s the way I grew up. My grandmother brought me up and she is the same way. She’s understated but she knows what she’s worth.’
Wijnaldum is understated and underrated but gradually the second half of that description is being eroded. As Liverpool prepare to face a Manchester United side whose supporters are desperate for them to dent their rival’s title challenge on Sunday, the importance of Wijnaldum to Jurgen Klopp’s team has never been more obvious.
Able to play as a No 8 or as a holding midfielder, Wijnaldum, 28, has become Klopp’s most trusted player, his go-to-guy.
When Liverpool’s rise is discussed, people talk about Mo Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane. Or they talk about Alisson and Virgil van Dijk. Somewhere in the middle, Wijnaldum is the glue that holds it all together.
Wijnaldum accepts attacking players will get more praise but stresses football is a team game
WIJNALDUM’S RECORD THIS SEASON
Premier League: 23 appearances, two goals
Champions League: Seven appearances, one assist
Total: 30 appearances, two goals, one assist
Wijnaldum has been the unsung hero for much of his two-and-a-half seasons at Anfield but most Liverpool supporters will tell you they are only too keenly aware of his worth.
When Klopp bought Naby Keita and Fabinho to the club in the summer, some thought Wijnaldum would lose his place. In fact, he has played more games for Liverpool this season than any other midfielder.
‘I didn’t worry when the club signed Keita and Fabinho,’ says Wijnaldum. ‘You play for Liverpool. Liverpool is a top club. Even if you do well in your position, if there is another player that does well, every club wants to sign him.
‘So also Liverpool wants to sign him because Liverpool is a good club. That’s how it goes in top clubs. They will sign them to make the team better but I have to show the manager that I’m the best one in my position.
‘A lot of players think: “OK, they signed him so I’m not needed any more”, but as a player you have to show the manager and force him to put you in the team. Show your quality with the way you train and the way you play.
‘The thing that irritated me was that a lot of stories appeared in the media saying I wanted to leave. It didn’t bother me that Liverpool were signing players. When they signed me, they already had good players. It was annoying. I didn’t like those stories.
‘I spoke with the manager about it. Actually, he spoke with me. He was surprised about the stories. It was a surprise for me, too. I don’t know if he really thought that I said it. The manager said “you’re not leaving” and I told him I didn’t want to leave. I like Liverpool. I like the club and I like the fans. The people appreciate me. That’s the most important thing.
‘I’ve heard people say that phrase “unsung hero” about my role and maybe that’s true, but that’s not a problem for me. I know how my team-mates think about me and I know how the manager thinks about me and they really appreciate me. They don’t see me how people outside the club see me. So that was not a big deal for me. I feel I’m loved by the other players and the manager so that’s more important.
‘Our defending is really stable this year and because we are defending so well, we can attack more, but that will not get praise. The people who score get praised, but one goes with the other. Football is a team sport and you have to work to a point where you try to make a team-mate better. We just help each other.’
Perhaps some of Wijnaldum’s generosity of spirit comes from his grandmother, Francina, 84, who brought him up from the time his mother moved to Amsterdam when he was five.
His father appeared only sporadically in his life. He talks about a visit a few years ago to Paramaribo, the capital of Suriname, where his family is from originally.
Usually, on his visits there, he hung out with friends but, on this occasion, his trip coincided with a week when his grandmother was visiting, too, and he went to see her every day.
‘She has a big house with a balcony so she can look out at the street in Paramaribo’, he says. ‘I just sat with her and spoke about life. I told her I wanted to thank her for everything she did for me. She said: “Why are you thanking me?” I said: “For everything you did for me, you took care of me, you brought me to football”.
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‘When I was young, I used to go to training so early in the morning that the trams in Rotterdam weren’t running yet so my grandma would walk there with me even though it took 45 minutes.
‘She said again: “Why are you thanking me? I’m your grandma. I have to do it. I didn’t do it for you to be a professional football player, just to keep you off the street, but if you can make something of it, great”.
‘A lot of people would say: “It’s because of me that you are where you are. I helped you to do this”. She just said: “You did it all yourself. I just did my job because I’m your grandma. When we agreed you come to live with me, I had to care for you”. A lot of people say: “I helped you and I want something back”. She is not like that.’
Wijnaldum says that only time will tell whether Liverpool possess the nerve to outlast Manchester City and Spurs in the title race. He also understands how desperate United fans are to stop Liverpool winning the league.
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Wijnaldum has been a very important figure for Liverpool so far this campaign
‘I know exactly how they feel,’ he says. ‘I played at Feyenoord and the year that FC Twente became champions, it was getting near to the end of the season and it was close between them and Ajax and we had an away game against FC Twente.
‘Training is open to the fans in Holland and the day before we played, we were warming up when 50 of our fans came on to the pitch. They said: “It’s not going to happen tomorrow”. They wanted us to lose to Twente to stop Ajax overtaking them at the top. We were playing for fourth place but all they cared about was not helping Ajax. It’s the same with Manchester United and Liverpool.
‘I really love football and I love to win but a lot of times the result doesn’t give you the joy you want. I don’t play football only to win. I play football to get better and show how good I am.
‘That’s why I like what is happening now with City, Liverpool and Spurs. If we win it, we can say: “Oh, we really had to fight for it, we had to dig deep, we had to stay concentrated, because City and Spurs had to win games, we had to win games”.
‘I am quite confident that we can deal with the pressure but it is always easy to say it. If you ask at the beginning of the season, would you prefer to have the pressure of playing to be champion or play without pressure but that means you’re not going to win anything, everyone chooses playing under pressure.
‘It makes the game more fun if you have three teams playing to be champion. I am enjoying it. Who’s going to make the mistake? Who is going to go to the end? I like it.’
