after cup game Feyenoord waiting for phone call Koeman?

Things are going fast for Quilindschy Hartman. Last season the 21-year-old defender still played in Feyenoord Under-21, now he has a starting spot with the front runner of the premier league and the national coaches of Curaçao and the Netherlands are competing for his favors.

Tonight Hartman plays Feyenoord in the quarterfinals of the KNVB Cup against sc Heerenveen. But Friday may be even more exciting: then national coach Ronald Koeman will announce his preliminary selection for the Nations League matches against France and Gibraltar. Is he ready for Orange?

“He is a talented left-back with attacking qualities, a nice kick, a decent cross and reasonable speed,” analyzes Jan Everse, former coach and former footballer who was left-back at Feyenoord in the 1970s.

Hartman, born in Zwijndrecht, was plucked away from his club VVGZ by Feyenoord at the age of eight and transferred to Excelsior’s youth training program. A year later he moved to Varkenoord, where the left back was immediately seen as one of the greatest talents.

When Tyrell Malacia moved from Feyenoord to Manchester United last summer, there was a sudden vacancy for the left-back position in Rotterdam-Zuid. Feyenoord shopped abroad and attracted Peruvian Marcos López and Norwegian Fredrik Bjørkan as possible replacements. But coach Arne Slot also brought Hartman into the squad during the preparations.

The young defender himself, who had been out for months with a serious knee injury, was still very cautious at the time. “I felt I was not yet ready enough to show myself at the highest level,” he said, referring to his physical condition. “But I knew there were difficulties at my position and that there were opportunities.”

He has seized those opportunities very convincingly. In August he made his official debut against RKC Waalwijk, in November he scored his first goal against SC Cambuur and now he is a regular base player on the left wing.

Everse is enthusiastic about Hartman, but also sees some areas for improvement: “Defensively it could be a bit better, tactically and in 1-on-1 situations. But through experience, playing a lot of matches and recognizing situations, you get better. A defender is normally at his best at 27, so he still has a long way to go.”

Hartman’s injury susceptibility also causes Everse some concern: “He has been injured a lot in his young career. Now it’s going well, let’s hope it stays that way.”

In eighteen official games this season, in addition to a goal, he has already accounted for two assists. Hartman has been called a biter, a pit bull, and even already a sensation. But more often they call him “Q. And that’s not because the technically proficient Hartman provides his teammates with new gadgets, like the Q from the James Bond films.

It’s just a simple abbreviation of his non-common first name. His name Quilindschy has no particular meaning, he told supporters’ magazine Hand in Hand last year, “My mother actually wanted to call me Lindschy and my sister’s name is Quirine, so she stuck those two names together.”

The Feyenoord shirt is now firmly around his shoulders. The Rotterdammers broke open the contract with Hartman in November and extended it by two years until mid-2025. But the dark blue shirt of Curaçao and the orange shirt of the Dutch national team also suddenly glow on the horizon.

In September, Hartman, who holds dual citizenship, was called up by Curaçao for a practice placement in Indonesia. That trip fell through: Feyenoord did not want to let him go because he had not recovered from his cruciate ligament injury for very long.

Last week, Dutch national team coach Koeman reportedly also contacted him. Is Hartman already capable of competing at the left-back position at Oranje with men like Daley Blind and Malacia?

“Blind is a bit over in my opinion, he also plays very little at Bayern Munich,” Everse stated. “But you don’t have so many options in the Netherlands. There are a lot of young left backs, but most of them are defensively vulnerable.”

“You have Owen Wijndal at Ajax, but he’s not better defensively than Hartman. At PSV you have Patrick van Aanholt, who I think will be higher up the order than Hartman. And of course there is Malacia, but he is also far from playing at Manchester United,” stated the former Feyenoord player.

“It would be an incentive if Hartman is already called up, though, so he can get a sniff of Orange and the coach can see him busy.”