Luciano Valente, Feyenoord’s 23-year-old midfielder, is playing the best football of his career in the same month he was surprisingly left out of the Netherlands squad. He spoke to NOS Sport before Feyenoord’s Champions League match against Como 1907 tonight and said the Rotterdam club now feels like home.
What happened
On Saturday against AZ, Valente played a through ball to Givairo Read that NOS Sport describes as the kind of pass you only attempt when you are full of confidence. No goal came from it, but Valente admitted he watched the move back a few times. “Nice ball. I love giving them and we train on that a lot,” he told NOS. “Read realised he had to start running, but my pass arrived a bit hard. In the end that gets you nowhere.”
His form has been noticed in Italy too. Valente has an Italian father, and ahead of tonight’s match the sports paper Gazzetta dello Sport ran a large profile of him. His father’s heart belongs to Lazio, but NOS reports that a game against Como still means something special to the Valente family. “I think it’s great that we’re playing an Italian club. Above all it’s great to experience it at the highest level. I’m looking forward to it,” he said. He described Como as “a very organised team, with a lot of discipline. It really is a collective, with a few exceptional players. It’s going to be a good game.”
His role has changed this season. NOS Sport says Valente and Gjivai Zechiël have come to symbolise how smoothly Feyenoord are running. The two started the season together in central midfield, but Valente now plays on the left wing. He says the change suits him. “I’m at left forward, but I still come into the midfield zones. I’m enjoying myself enormously. You get marked a bit less there than in midfield.”
The figures NOS cites back that up. Valente has already scored four times this season, as many as in his previous two seasons combined. He is also creating more chances than ever, shooting more often and getting into the opponent’s penalty area more frequently.
Feyenoord’s two campaigns are going in very different directions. The team is top of the Eredivisie but near the bottom of the long Champions League table, after losing 5-1 away to FC Barcelona. Valente insists the defeat at Camp Nou still did the squad some good. “I think at certain moments we showed some very good things, which gave us confidence and which we worked on,” he said. “We developed further in that respect, and it’s good that we showed it in the following matches with big wins.”
Why it matters if you live in Netherlands
If you have moved to Rotterdam or follow Dutch football from elsewhere in the country, NOS Sport points out how much has changed at Feyenoord. At the end of last season the mood was sour, and Robin van Persie eventually lost his job as coach. The side is now coached by Giovanni van Bronckhorst, and NOS says everything at the club currently feels cheerful and positive.
Valente links that atmosphere directly to how he plays. “Last year it was also in the mental side. At a certain point football becomes more than just the game,” he said. “Now the atmosphere is so positive that it’s logical the running gets easier. But the trick is to keep it up, because there will certainly be a period when things go less well.”
He also describes a dressing room that has stayed together through a slow start. “Everyone goes to the club with so much enjoyment. That sounds obvious, but even when we dropped a few points at the start, you felt we all had the same goal and kept it. We’re getting better and everything is becoming clearer. The dynamic is improving and that creates a good bond. We do a lot together and that makes us a big family.”
That explains the headline phrase, the “Groningen feeling”. Valente says his parents are starting to feel the way they did in Groningen again. “Feyenoord is a huge club, but that feeling of home is in small things, like a dinner or a game together. In any case, it’s a good sign that I’d like to be at the club for a long time.” Supporters worried about losing an in-form player will take that as encouragement.
Valente’s season also matters to anyone who follows the national team. NOS Sport says leaving him out of the Oranje squad this month was a surprise, and every strong performance makes the decision look harder to defend.
What to watch next
The first test is tonight’s home match against Como 1907, the club Valente calls a disciplined collective. After the 5-1 defeat in Barcelona, Feyenoord need a result to climb away from the bottom of the Champions League table, and Valente’s runs from the left will be central to their attack.
In the Eredivisie, the question is whether Feyenoord can stay on top. Valente expects a dip at some point and says the challenge is to keep the current momentum going for as long as possible.
Watch the next Oranje squad announcement as well. If Valente keeps scoring and setting up chances at this rate, his omission will be hard to repeat.
Source: NOS Sport
Sources
- NOS Sport: Voor uitblinker Valente is Feyenoord thuis geworden: 'Beetje het Groningen-gevoel', accessed 14 October 2026
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