Xiaoba Yiyanjia | Supermarket Title ➡️ Manchester City’s new core! Reindez’s “counterattack” road

Reindes, who was still in Aldi supermarket eight years ago, is now a new Manchester City core worth £60 million. The Athletic author Daniel Taylor wrote an article to reveal his counterattack path.

In the Aldi supermarket outside the center of Zwolle, consumers lined up to buy daily necessities. Although prices have risen a lot over the years and self-service has been widely popularized, speaking of it, since the 19-year-old Tijani Reindez appeared at the cashier of the Aldi supermarket, this is all the real changes.

Zwolle, a quiet small town in Upper Essel Province, the Netherlands, not far from the beautiful mansion of Liverpool coach Slott. Have the Slots family been here to shop? If they had been here, would they have thought that the black-haired guy who looked down and scanned the code back then actually played for the team that Slott had been playing for the longest-time player career?

"In the Netherlands, we call this 'shelf filler '," said Bass Van Venenan, who also worked in Aldi at the time. "Tijani's job is to place goods, check in, and do everything. He has always focused on football, but at that age, he also wanted to make some extra money. This job opened his eyes and made him more determined than ever to be a professional player. "

Van Venenan himself is a talented player. He is very familiar with this past because he and Reindes were friends at that time and are still today. They have been playing football in the same youth team since they were seven years old, and later promoted all the way and joined the hometown team, Zwolle of the Eredivisie.

And the most exciting thing about this story is that in just eight years, Reindez ran from Aldi's tracker to San Siro and Etihad Stadium.

Maybe you will be curious why a potential star who plays in a Dutch top league club would go to Aldi to "set up goods, cashiers, and earn hundreds of euros a month" as he said?

The answer largely reflects how Reindez, now 27, grew up. His younger brother Eliano played for Zwolle for seven years (it is worth mentioning that he had worked in the local Lido supermarket before), and did not leave the team until last month.

Their father, Martin, was a striker for Zwolle, made 250 career appearances, including a season with the Nashville Metro in the old football league.

But Martin, 53, knows with his many years of experience that young players are too likely to get out of real life. He believes that it is beneficial to let the sons experience a "ordinary" job.

The children's mother Angelina thought so. It was she who saw the "Recruiting Employees" advertisement on the Aldi bulletin board. "I went straight to the manager," she explained later in an interview with reporters. "They gave me a form. I said, "It's not me, it's my son. I went back to Tijani and told him, "Go quickly, fill it out now." It's so good that Tijani worked there very happily. "

He has two friends who also have a dream of football and work in the same supermarket, which makes it easier for him to adapt. One is Van Venenam, who is now the midfielder of Dutch amateur team VV Belkum; the other is Steine ​​Van Aker, who is one year older than him, currently playing for DOS Kampen.

"At that time, we were all playing football in Zwolle," said Van Ak, "When we were not training, we worked together in Aldi. The three of us were together, yes, it was very interesting. We made some money and experienced the feeling of regular work. But Tijani, of course, has always had a bigger plan. "

played three rounds in the new season, and for many Premier League audiences, they are still slowly getting to know the player - he just made his debut at Manchester City against Wolves last month, and he repaid Guardiola's trust with a wonderful goal and best performance in the game.

What you may not know is that this Manchester City has a Boski dog named Messi - well, you can probably guess who it is to pay tribute to.

The people who know Reindez best say that he is very down-to-earth and never breaks off contact with his childhood friends, and family means everything to him. He and his childhood sweetheart wife Marina have a son named Savian. He talks with his younger brother every day. If he returns to Zwolle's home, he likes to pick up his sister Shane, who has a talent for dancing, from school. He calls his parents almost every day.

Even when he was selected for the Dutch national team for the first time, he happily asked his mother to drive him to Zester's training base. "You really want this?" asked my mother, "There are few international players sent by my mother." He didn't care at all, so the mother and son went together.

But in Zwolle, a small town of 130,000, there are many stories that illustrate what kind of person he is, why he is so popular, and his focus on football - even when he was in the Statzhagen Community Primary School.

"Everyone in the class wanted to be with him," his class teacher, Master Kroll, told reporters, "He always plays football, behind the bushes, on the playground... He loves to show off his skills. "

"When I said goodbye to him in the year of graduation, I said to him, 'You will definitely succeed '. I was very moved at the time and said to him, 'If you become a star, you must sign me '. He himself doesn't seem to believe that he can be so outstanding. But yes, I got his signature - he grabbed a piece of paper and wrote me a name. "

What's the worst? "I couldn't find that piece of paper everywhere. I had a big box that specialized in collecting these souvenirs, but I was still rummaging through the cabinets. "

At least she still had old photos. One is Reindez and his classmates when he was a student: a gray cardigan, a lapel, and a bright smile. Another photo was taken while camping. He rode on his friend's shoulders and emphasized again that he smiled very happily..

How is he in class? "Very sociable and never cause trouble," said Master Kroll. "At first I didn't know his father was a player. Then I met his parents and you could see their impact. Tijani always smiled cheerfully, exactly the same as he is now. "

His talent began to blossom in the WVF junior team in the suburbs of Westholt. Reindez joined the club at the age of seven and stayed for five years.

"Even at a young age, he always thinks about how to deal with it before touching the ball," said coach Rick Van Ak. "He can outsize, score goals, assist. He was short at the time, and we put him on the same team as a child who was one or two years older and much stronger, but that doesn't matter: He is always one of the best players. "

Rick's son Steine ​​is also on the same team. He said: "Tigiani has had a special temperament since he was a child. Now you see that he is strong, but when he was a child he was smaller than everyone. But that doesn't matter, because his skills are so outstanding. "

Will he be kicked? Rick replied: "Not often, the other party will try sometimes, but he is too fast, too talented, too energetic, and no one can catch up with him. "

It was Twente Football Club who initially took a fancy to the potential of the Reindes brothers. This means they set off at 6:10 a.m. four days a week, commuting for one hour each round trip, and heading to Twente’s training base in Henerlo.

Later, Tijani and Eliano became bigger, and the club sent a minibus to pick him up. But in the first year, Angelina drove. Every day she prepares Nandoy chocolate sauce sandwiches for her sons on the way. As she explained to reporters, the fuel expenses were spent a lot during that period.

"I sometimes say, 'We can sponsor Esso and Shell a lot. But I never thought, 'I quit.' They want to be professionals. As a mother, you will definitely support it, right? "

In 2015, this routine life ended - 17-year-old Tijani left Twente and joined Zwolle's amateur team CSV '28 with 15-year-old Eliano, where their father was the head coach.

There is a father's suggestion that has been engraved in Tijani's mind since then: "There are enough gray rats (mediocre people) in the world ". He shot more, and his father guided him like this - he must be confident and dare to do different things. This advice will prove very useful in the coming years, especially after his height surges during adolescence, physically enough to deal with kicks and elbows that are twice as old as his opponent.

As Reindez recalled in a 2022 TV interview: "We often hear our opponents say, 'Are we playing against the junior team today? '. But in the end, they were kicked up badly by us. "

This journey eventually led the Reindez brothers into the Zwolle first team - 19-year-old Tijani broke through (although he only played once on the bench and played in the 91st minute), while he was still working in Aldi. It wasn't until Alkmaar's transfer to Alkmaar that his career really took off. Then, European giants began to pay attention to him.

Growing up, Reindez's favorite players were Ronaldinho and Kaka. Therefore, it is of great significance when he signed AC Milan in July 2023 and put on the red and black striped shirts that the two Brazilians once shined with. The same is true for his father – after all, his idols Van Basten, Gulit and Rijkaard all had success in San Siro.

But for a while, Reindez seemed to be going to Barcelona. The Catalan giant is very interested in him, and his old teammates in Zwol also pay close attention to the news.

His old friend Stein Van Ak said: "When he told me I was going to Milan, I reacted: 'Wow! ', few players can jump directly from Alkmaar to a club of this level. For Tijani, this is a perfect step. He always said that he only had one plan: no Plan B, only Plan A - playing in the Champions League. "

Last season, Reindez was elected the best midfielder in Serie A, scoring 15 goals. He has also stood firm in the Dutch team and has made 25 appearances for the national team in more than two years.

Many people were surprised that Manchester City had only spent £45 million in signing him in June - especially the team that just lost the Premier League title urgently needed a high-quality replacement to replace De Bruyne.

And in Zwolle, people are proud of him. Everyone is saying: Fame has not changed Reindez, he is still the down-to-earth young man, and his success is the reward of years of dedication. Former CSV '28 winger Jabir Mazuz said: "He and Eliano gave it all, they always sleep on time and don't go to town to drink. They will go home after eating French fries. "

Reindez is still in the same WhatsApp group with six old friends from the junior team. His family motto remains unchanged: "Walk with your head held high, but never look down on anyone."

If you don't believe it, you can ask Rick Van Ak, who is still in touch with Reindes, and likes to joke that this former disciple can reach the top of the top of the world depends on one thing - when he was a child, he had the best coach in the industry: Rick himself.

In November 2023, Rick's son Steine ​​went to San Siro to watch the Milan vs. Udinese game. When he flew back to the Netherlands, he brought his father a gift: Reindez's No. 14 jersey. This was given to the player himself, and Van Ak also wrote a sentence behind it: "To the best coach ".

Now, under Guardiola, Reindez is looking forward to making a name in the Premier League.

His old teammate and Aldi colleague Fan Weinan said: "It's amazing to see how successful he is now. Looking back on his leap in the past eight years, it's impossible to describe it. But I'm not surprised. I still remember a match in WVF, when he came in from the right cross and he scored directly. He was only eight or nine years old at the time... Unbelievable! You've never seen a kid of that age barb goal.. "

So, did the people in Aldi supermarket realize this?

"He was not very famous at that time," Rick smiled. "If you were to go to the supermarket, you would never have thought that the cashier who would pay you would be the future superstar. But this is ‘T ’ (Reindez nickname) – a guy with great talent but extremely low-key. "

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