An unexpected success for Dams, who imagined spending the season with the Eindhoven B team, in Dutch D2, before receiving his chance thanks to a succession of injuries. An early Christmas story for a boy who doesn’t look like a classic footballer. It is even the opposite of the cliché. “I stay calm with all thishe said with surprising phlegm. I am sometimes nervous in everyday life but I have been calm on the pitch since the start of the season. Yes, even in the Champions League seeing that Ousmane Dembélé is my direct opponent. He’s strong, he’s the best I’ve faced with Achraf Hakimi who was on the Parisian flank with him.”
Why would I leave my host family? They live 5 minutes from the club, it’s convenient.
But Dams had a solid match, like almost every time. PSV left the Parc des Princes with a draw and the young Belgian returned home to Eindhoven. Well, almost at home. “I have lived with a host family for a long time. When PSV spotted me at the age of eight in Antwerp, I initially stayed with my parents who drove me every day. Then the club placed me with a family and I’m still there today.”
In the A core of PSV, he is obviously the only one who has not taken off. “It’s funny in the locker roomsmiled Dams. My teammates often make fun of me for returning to my host family after training. But why would I leave? They live five minutes from the training center and they have always been very nice to me. I feel good there. I regularly come to the club by bike when it’s not raining. Otherwise, I drive in a Golf that I bought. No, I did not receive a BMW, even if the brand supplies the club.”
My friends and family were talking to me about a selection for the Devils when Seys was injured, it worried them more than me.
It must be said that Dams was not pampered by PSV. Last spring, a few weeks before his contract expired, management offered him a one-season extension to continue playing with the B team. Without benefits in kind and with a very small salary. But his explosion causes an incongruous situation in modern football: a twenty-year-old talent whose market value has increased tenfold (from €350,000 this summer to €3.5 million currently according to Transfermarkt) and who is reaching the end of his lease in June.
Obviously, many clubs, major championships, have been lurking around Dams for several weeks, tracking the golden deal. But, here again, the 1.82 m left-hander stands out with his reaction. “Me, I want to stay at PSV; This is my club. Finally, one of my two clubs. Even though I left when I was eight, I remain a fan of Antwerp too. My whole family supports this club. Monetize my good season and my contractual situation? Well, I don’t really think about it. I just hope that the negotiations between my agent and management go well and that we can reach an agreement. I’m not the type to call my manager every day.”
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However, this new contract could change his life, financially. “Yes, I might go live in an apartment but we’ll see. Me, I just want to keep playing and everything else doesn’t bother me.”he replies with disconcerting freshness. And the story could have been even better. Dams did not come far from a direct call-up to the Devils. “I was in the A preselection before being taken up in U21. And when Seys got injuredmy relatives called me telling me that I could be taken back. It bothered them more than me, I think (smile).”
