Mitchell Dijks Opens Up About Fitness Struggles in Vietnam

Mitchell Dijks doesn’t bother with the usual football clichés. Live on ESPN’s Transfer Deadline Show, the 33-year-old wing-back simply lays it out: his spell at Nam Dinh FC in Vietnam left him badly out of shape.

“I was testing my fitness. But that didn't quite go well. I weighed 104 kilos. When I'm fit, I normally weigh 92 kilos. There were quite a few kilos on me,” Dijks admits, almost matter-of-factly.

In the studio, jaws drop.

Presenter Milan van Dongen initially thinks he’s being pranked. A professional full-back, tipping the scales at 104 kilos? Dijks quickly shuts that down. “No, it's serious. I really was quite chubby,” he replies, with the kind of brutal honesty you rarely hear from an active player.

This is the same Mitchell Dijks who once bombed up and down the left flank for Ajax, Vitesse and Fortuna Sittard. A defender known for his power and engine, now talking openly about losing control of his conditioning.

Hans Kraay junior can’t hide his surprise either and goes straight to the point: what on earth was he doing in Vietnam?

Dijks doesn’t dress it up. “The intensity there is all a bit lower. But you just eat good pasta there. And then during matches you only run seven kilometres.”

That line hangs in the air. Seven kilometres. For a modern wing-back, it sounds closer to a pre-season jog than a full-blooded league match.

The clip travels fast online. His candour entertains some, alarms others. On X, one user snaps: “Hilarious, man, a player throwing away his own career.” The laugh is bitter, the accusation clear.

From the Dutch press, the reaction is more measured but no less pointed. De Telegraaf reporter Jeroen Kapteijns recognises the honesty yet questions the timing. “It's honest and sincere, but whether this is the wisest interview when you're looking for a club now?” he wonders aloud.

Because that’s the other part of the story: Dijks is currently without a club. A free agent, sitting in a studio, admitting he ballooned to 104 kilos and cruised through low-intensity football in Vietnam.

It is, at the very least, a risky sales pitch.

Yet Dijks does not sound like a man desperate to rewind his career back to the Eredivisie at any cost. At 33, he is clear about his next step. He wants another adventure in Asia. A return to the Netherlands is not a necessity.

Whether clubs in that part of the world embrace his honesty or recoil from it will say a lot about how much room football still has for players who refuse to hide behind rehearsed lines.