ESPN analyst points to former PSV player after NEC transfer: ‘Where is this headed?’

Last season, NEC managed to surprise both friend and foe in the Netherlands by finishing third in the Eredivisie, meaning Dick Schreuder’s shock team may take part in the Champions League qualifying round in 2026/2027. Moreover, Nijmegen Eendracht Combinatie also pulled off a coup on the transfer market by signing Emre Mor.

Mor came to prominence in the past, among other things, at Borussia Dortmund, for whom the winger debuted in August 2016 and a bright future was predicted. After a year he left for Celta de Vigo in Spain, but he couldn’t make a breakthrough there, so in 2022 he left on a free transfer to Fenerbahçe SK.

Also in Istanbul, the former talent could not live up to expectations and was allowed to leave once again on a free transfer. As a result, NEC struck and caught the Turkish player.

ESPN analyst Kees Luijckx, a former player of, among others, Excelsior and NAC Breda, is curious to see how Mor’s transfer to Nijmegen will turn out. In doing so, the analyst also points to former PSV player Zakaria Bakkali, who had a stormy start in 2013 and then gradually faded from view in Eindhoven.

''I haven’t played against the greatest footballers, but I was certainly used to something. Only I had never seen this before. There are players who always stay with me, and this was one of them. I immediately had to think of Lionel Messi. Or of Zakaria Bakkali, who burst onto the scene at PSV so fast. That you thought: 'Where is this going to end?'. Really bizarre'', says the current analyst to ESPN.

Even the newly appointed NEC'er has seen Luijckx's compilation videos on YouTube. ''I recently watched one of those compilation videos of Mor on YouTube again. I saw players who were played off. 'Well, that sure makes it look easy'. Seeing myself walking around in there too, like a wooden Klaas'', concludes the analyst.