{"id":373577,"date":"2025-11-12T10:45:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T10:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/373577\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T10:45:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T10:45:11","slug":"real-madrid-target-compared-to-pedri-names-barcelona-as-his-favourite-club-i-watch-almost-every-match","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/373577\/","title":{"rendered":"Real Madrid target compared to Pedri names Barcelona as his favourite club &#8211; &#8216;I watch almost every match&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Earlier this week, Netherlands manager Ronald Koeman made waves with his statements, comparing Dutch starlet Kees Smit to Barcelona midfield superstar Pedri.<\/p>\n<p>Smit, who plays for AZ Alkmaar, has <a href=\"https:\/\/barcauniversal.com\/barcelona-and-real-madrid-express-interest-in-signing-young-dutch-midfield-prodigy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">previously been linked with Bar\u00e7a<\/a> and is very much <a href=\"https:\/\/madriduniversal.com\/real-madrid-quietly-tracking-dutch-wonderkid-along-with-half-of-europe\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">on the radars of their arch-rivals, Real Madrid<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>And Koeman, who gave Pedri his breakthrough at Barcelona, stated that he saw similarities between the 19-year-old prodigy and the Spain ace.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cI coached Pedri at Barcelona, and I see things of him in Kees Smit.\u00a0The turns, the use of both feet, the vision\u2026 It\u2019s what I saw in Pedri back then,\u201d<\/strong> Koeman had said.<\/p>\n<p>Kees Smit a Barcelona fan<\/p>\n<p>Now, Smit, who is currently with the Netherlands U-21 national team, has opened up on the comparisons made by Koeman.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cIf he thinks so, maybe he is. I wasn\u2019t expecting it, but I think\u00a0it\u2019s a good comparison,\u201d<\/strong> Smit said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cI understand that people found it a rather strange comparison,\u201d<\/strong> he added. <strong>\u201cBefore I was De Bruyne and now I\u2019m Pedri (laughs). Or Frenkie de Jong.\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/crystal-palace-fc-v-az-alkmaar-uefa-conference-league-2025-26-league-phase-md3-1-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Kees Smit of AZ Alkmaar\" class=\"wp-image-183847\"  \/>Kees Smit is a Barcelona fan. (Photo by Richard Pelham\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p>Smit then went on to make an interesting revelation, stating that he was a big fan of Barcelona. <\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cI watch almost every Barcelona match.\u00a0It\u2019s simply my favourite club,\u201d<\/strong> remarked Smit.<\/p>\n<p>Regarding his chances of going to the World Cup, Smit said that while he does not expect it, it would obviously be something special.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cIf the coach is talking about you, I think you\u2019re pretty close. But I wouldn\u2019t say I\u2019m in the running.\u00a0I have to prove if I really deserve it.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Barcelona and Netherlands midfielder Frenkie de Jong also weighed in on Smit being compared to Pedri, stating that there was no footballer like the Spanish international, and the 19-year-old should be left to keep growing without any added pressure.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/as.com\/futbol\/internacional\/kees-smit-el-barcelona-es-mi-club-favorito-f202511-n\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">AS<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Earlier this week, Netherlands manager Ronald Koeman made waves with his statements, comparing Dutch starlet Kees Smit to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":373578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[1386,4444,5727,112971,79794,10214,179781,221,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-373577","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-barcelona","9":"tag-barcelona-news","10":"tag-fc-barcelona","11":"tag-kees-smit","12":"tag-pedri","13":"tag-real-madrid","14":"tag-ronald-koeman","15":"tag-soccer","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115536326028909525","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}