An unknown Dutchman and a 38-year-old Bosnian: the formula for Castellón, the highest scoring team in Spain

As if football or sports were mathematics, the numbers brought together two strong personalities, but with great adventurous capacity.. Thus, after the disappointment of last year, being on the verge of promotion, the owner of CD Castellón, the famous bettor and analyst Haralabos Voulgaris, convinced Dick Schreuder to join his project.. “I loved the team, the atmosphere of the public, the training fields…. and I wanted to help the club take another step,” Schreuder tells EL MUNDO.

Schreuder had just promoted modest PEC Zwolle to the Eredivisie with unprecedented offensive football. Before, he had only coached an English team in the fifth division, replacing Edgar Davids, and had been an assistant to several teams around the globe.. He was even the same for his own brother, Alfred, in German club Hoffenheim.. “It is not very common in Holland because they think it is very risky,” he explains about his sports bet..

Then, Voulgaris, a Canadian professional bettor of Greek origin, who amassed his fortune making predictions, decided, pardon the redundancy, to bet on him.. The owner of Castellón since 2022, who belonged to the Dallas Mavericks discipline as Director of Data and Development between 2018 and 2021, saw a winning horse in Schreuder. At the moment, he is at the head of the race.

CD Castellón is the highest scoring team in the five main categories of Spanish football with 34 goals in 13 games. The Castellón players beat the next one, Llanera de Tercera RFEF, by one goal. The podium is completed by Míchel's Girona with 31, leader of LaLiga EA Sports. These numbers have allowed them to add 9 victories in the last 10 games. “The team is doing well, we have to enjoy the moment,” says Schreuder.. Take care of the famous positive dynamics that coaches like so much in football.

Whether it was good or bad, the Dutch coach was not going to change his playing philosophy because “it's what I believe in,” he says.. “I told the footballers: 'Don't be afraid, if we score more goals than the rival, we will win,'” he says.. And that's what they're doing. But it's not just the goals, it's also the pressure in the rival field and the recovery. As Schreuder reveals, his team barely takes five passes from the opponent to recover the ball, also the leader in this statistic in Spanish football, and triples the average of the category with the highest number of passes in the opponent's area.. They don't play offensively, they harass their rivals.

It is often said in football that when you cover your head your feet are uncovered, referring to the fact that a very aggressive game tends to have defensive gaps but, as if it were the exception that complies with the rule, CD Castellón has barely conceded 11 goals , is in the top five of his group, so his total balance is +23. Only Llanera de Tercera RFEF, again, surpasses them with a +25 and one less goal scored, but it is also true that they do so with two games less.

The challenge for the coach and the club is not only to promote to Second, but to take it to First, a category in which it has played 11 times in its entire history.. To do this, he has a group of established and offensive players like his top scorer Jesús de Miguel, who has 10 goals, but also a couple who have followed their Zwolle coach. Among them is Haris Medunjanin. The Bosnian has coincided with his coach in three different teams: the American Philadelphia Union, the Dutch Zwolle and now CD Castellón.

Schreuder's followers

“I will play for you, no matter where it is,” the footballer once told his coach.. And, at 38 years old, he has kept his word and continues to perform as if he were 10 years younger. “It's good to bring him back, he has experience in Spain, at Deportivo, and he speaks Spanish,” Schreuder begins and then praises his physical ability by “taking great care of his body” and tactics: “When he retires I will have him on the staff,” indicates.

The other one who has followed Schreuder from Zwolle is defender Daijiro Chirino. He did it because of “the great evolution” he had under his leadership and because of his style of play.. Even after having been “upset” with him for leaving the team after achieving promotion to the Eredivisie. But they continued to keep in touch and their paths ended up coming together again.

It has happened in the third category of Spanish football, a category that “has a higher level than the second Dutch category”, according to Chirino.. And from which they hope to leave this year and, with luck, fulfill the dream of everyone who is in this team, which is to reach the First Division: “I want to reach the top. “My dream is to play in LaLiga and I hope it is with Castellón.”