He was named after the Hollywood star - and he plays like a Hollywood star

A boy from Rotterdam was playing for a local amateur team for fun – just like many boys worldwide do. But this boy turned out to be remarkable. In the following seven years, he went on to play for not one but two national teams! Meet Denzel Dumfries.

Oh, and before we get any further, let's get his name out of the way. He was named after the Hollywood star Denzel Washington. Cool? Yes, it is. With that sorted, let us move on.

The 25-year-old Dutch right-back has enjoyed a steady rise in stature and reputation over the past seven years. At 17, he was still only playing for laughs at a tiny club called Smitshoek. But even then, Denzel was a bit different. A former teammate, Sean Verburg, remembered that Denzel always showed a professional footballer's mindset.

"He wasn't the best player in our team, and we were only Smitshoek, but while we spent our spare time laughing and drinking, he did extra training. And when we became champions, and he was almost forced to drink a beer, he sneakily passed it over to me."

Sure enough, Denzel made progress and was picked up by one of the biggest amateur clubs in the country – BVV Barendrecht. In his only season there, he was asked to travel to Aruba and represent the tiny country's national team. So he did. Dumfries was 17 years old when he flew to the Caribbean island. There, playing against in two friendlies against lowly Guam, he scored with a rocket of a shot and instantly became a star in the country of his parents.

However, playing for Aruba wasn't what the boy from Rotterdam really wanted to do. He had other things on his mind, like playing pro football in Europe and making a name for himself in his birth country. To him, the Aruba trip was no more than a short holiday and a chance to enjoy the sunshine and the beaches. He went back to The Netherlands and earned a move to Sparta Rotterdam, a professional club from his city. Things were starting to get serious.

At 21 years of age, Dumfries signed for a big first-tier club SC Heerenveen and, just a year later, to one of the country's most prominent teams - PSV Eindhoven. At this club, Brazilians Romario and Ronaldo and Manchester United striker Ruud Van Nistelrooy made their name. Denzel has occupied their right-back berth for the past three seasons – and has also earned the Dutch call-up he wanted so much. So far, he's got 20 games for the national team and, since Sunday, he's got a goal to his name.

And during Oranje's Euro 2020 clash with Ukraine, he scored the opening goal – his first in the famous orange shirt. It proved huge as the Dutch ran out 3-2 winners.

"So far, it could be said that it was the most beautiful goal of my career. It was a great relief to finish it like this."

Speaking to Algemeen Dagblad, Dumfries said that he used to have a notebook to write how he wanted his career to develop. He described the steps he tried to make during his career, what he did wrong and how he would need to improve himself to reach his goals. One of the goals he described in that notebook was that he wanted to get to the Dutch national team. According to Dumfries, there are still pages left in the notebook. His ambitions are high, and he is confident that more goals will come to his mind that will need to be described on those pages.