Soccer-Passing master De Jong is heartbeat of Dutch team
(Reuters) - Frenkie de Jong is the heartbeat of the Netherlands team, the passing master whose acumen in midfield is key to their hopes of success at this month's European Championship in Germany.

A freak ankle injury playing for Barcelona against Real Madrid in April means there is concern over what condition he will be in when the Dutch open their Group D campaign against Poland in Hamburg on June 16.

However, coach Ronald Koeman has expressed confidence that his playmaker will be ready on time.

With his boyish charm, De Jong still looks like the precocious 21-year-old who made a storming international debut six years ago as a substitute against Peru, setting up a goal and scoring the winner in a friendly in Amsterdam.

He barely missed a Netherlands match after that until last September when he made the most recent of his 54 appearances.

Ankle and knee injuries have kept him out since, serving only to illustrate Dutch dependence on his role in the midfield.

There is very little that does not go through De Jong, fetching and carrying the ball, probing with little runs at opposing defenders, or passing with finely-tuned accuracy.

He has always had unerring composure on the ball and the ability to break opposition lines with his dribbling.

He often acts as a deep-lying midfielder, dictating the tempo of the game, but his versatility is such that he can play various midfield roles -- as a defensive one, a box-to-box player, or even contributing higher up the pitch. Koeman once even had him as a makeshift centre back in the Dutch side.

But in Germany, if De Jong is fit, Koeman has made it clear where he will use the 27-year-old. "For me, I think he performs better playing deeper."

At the same time, however, the coach is critical of his conversion rate. "I know Frenkie has a lot of quality as a player to help build from the back but he has also had to give the team more offensively. We have talked about this and that he had to score more goals."

De Jong came to prominence at Ajax Amsterdam in the 2018-19 season, when they went all the way through from the preliminary rounds to the Champions League semi-finals.

Barcelona wasted no time in signing De Jong in an 86-million-euro ($93.50-million) deal and he has been at the Catalan giants for the past five seasons. A possible move to the Premier League from next season is the subject of growing speculation.

($1 = 0.9198 euros)

(Reporting by Mark Gleeson; Editing by Ken Ferris)
(Reuters) -     Frenkie de Jong is the heartbeat of the Netherlands team, the passing master whose acumen in midfield is key to their hopes of success at this month's European Championship in Germany.