BGL LEAGUE (MATCHDAY 19) Respectively 10th and 12th best players in DN, the two Niederkornois are done with injuries. And it shows!
No, but what a sensational entry! Since last weekend, Emir Bijelic has finally earned the right to enter the ranking of the best players in the championship by reaching the required number of matches. And he settled right in… 12e position with an average of 5.78.
For a boy who played too little (and too poorly when he entered) last season to apply, and who was not even in the top 100 in 2020-2021 with Pétange, this is a major change in standing! “It’s especially that it’s the first time in two years that I can continue without any injury and focus on my game instead of focusing on my body,” smiles the midfielder.
Ah yes, we forget it, pubalgia. Cherished pubalgia, which has too long thwarted her entry into the big world. The same as the one that slowed down the outbreak of Bilal Hend, who “too” long wondered, with his leaders and his staff, last season, whether he should have surgery. He moved on to billiards and after a relatively good first leg, he exploded the standards at the start of 2023 to the point of being, at 23, the best player on his Progress team. From Almeida? Net ? No, Hen.
And in the middle of his two goals and an assist, the followers of the BGL Ligue will remember especially from the small winger, at the heart of the Niederkornoise demonstration in Dudelange (1-4), this dizzying acceleration, this fantastic thrust, which cost his expulsion to Mehdi Kirch in the second period: “It’s fun to arrive before a guy on the ball, like that,” he still enjoys. Enjoyable above all… because we didn’t expect any of these two boys to reach such a level or to see them play such a role in a team that wants to hang on to the podium.
I take the yellow more easily than the defenders
The procedure to follow is simple: entrust the reins to the duo Bijelic – Hend. Especially to the first named since he has acquired the status of a lucky charm: when Emir is on the field at kick-off, Progress wins. Eight tenures? 24 dots! “I don’t know if I’m a lucky charm, but in any case, that’s what it says on the paper”, laughs the player, finally managing to win in the only sector where the competition has remained the same for the past two seasons. And he has fun with Jeff Strasser: “He has a very human and very professional attitude, an ideal mix like I haven’t experienced for a long time. And when he offers me something, he always explains everything easily. What he asks for is simple to implement.”
Same feeling of freedom with Hend, who swears to have “total freedom” to rezone on the attacking front and would now like to take the opportunity to increase his statistics a little more: “Before, if I had been asked what I preferred , I would have said to make assists, but today, the goal interests me more. The wingers, for me, have to score. For example, I really like Marcus Rashford, who has a bit of the same profile as me, all in speed, percussion, dribbling…”
This Sunday, against Wiltz, Progress will be able to count on its rabbit’s foot Bijelic, who has started a job “with children with specific needs” and has “no longer any objective of becoming a pro”, but without the Punisher (Editor’s note: the nickname given to him by Patrice Evra) from Fonds-de-Gras, suspended and “disgusted” to see his upward trajectory thwarted, even for one match:
“Since I was little, with my style, I’ve been used to taking hits and taking it upon myself. And sometimes… I also respond with violence with uncontrolled tackles. I take too many yolks. But I have the impression that I take the yellow more easily when it is me who tackles than the defenders when they hit me. And yet, these two can attest to it: it’s always better to have an opponent wipe their cleats on your ankle than to be nailed by pubalgia away from the spotlight.