His kung-fu kick to the chest of Xabi Alonso was a defining moment in last year’s World Cup final in South Africa. And it proved to be a major landmark in Nigel de Jong’s career.

“It taught me a lesson or two”, the Manchester City midfielder told Radio Netherlands Worldwide last month. That’s all he wanted to say at the time. Now, ahead of another major event, the English FA Cup final scheduled at Wembley on 14 May, Nigel de Jong speaks out on his infamous tackles in an in-depth interview with the newspaper de Volkskrant.

“I’m less open now and more suspicious”, De Jong admits, reflecting on the public outcry over a series of nasty fouls, some of them leg-breaking, which turned him into something of a hate figure in international football.

“It felt like a witch-hunt and I had become public enemy number one. The whole episode was tough for my family. And it made me think more in terms of black and white; there’s no grey in between anymore. I haven’t become a cynic, though, more of a realist. Why should I give my opinion if everyone else has formed theirs? I’ve experienced too much in my life to care about what others think about me.”

Nasty foul
De Jong agrees that a red card could have been given for his karate challenge at the World Cup final. He’s watched images of the incident quite a few times, he says. And he vividly remembers how he felt at the time: “Oh dear, I thought, that’s a nasty one. But it was an unfortunate foul, because I really went for the ball and didn’t see him coming.”

Matters went from bad to worse in October after a wild De Jong tackle left Newcastle’s Hatem ben Arfa with a double leg fracture. The foul prompted Dutch coach Bert van Marwijk to suspend the player for five months.

“Again, my intention was to go for the ball, which I got in the end. But the trouble was that my other leg swung after it and hit him. Because it was unintentional, I was given a yellow card, not a red one. I wasn’t suspended either. I wrote to Hatem to tell him that I never meant to hurt him and he accepted that and told me he didn’t harbour any bad feelings. I’ll look him up in Newcastle next month.”

Swallowed pride
De Jong says that at first he was disappointed by the disciplinary measure meted out by the Holland manager. “I told him I couldn’t understand why a foul committed in a league match could be more important than my value for the Dutch national team. But then I thought about it again and I realised we have to work together to move forward. So, I swallowed his decision, however difficult it was.”

The suspension has made his relationship with Bert van Marwijk more business-like, De Jong says.

“It left a major impact. But we’re both professional enough to brush things aside and do what’s best for the Dutch national team. Oranje is more important than Nigel de Jong or Bert van Marwijk.

So, will last year’s kung-fu foul haunt De Jong for the rest of his life? “The 2010 World Cup final was a poor match, so I fear most people will remember it by 'that kick'”. Besides, he says, “if we’d won, it might not have become such a big issue.”

(tt/as)