Gjivai Zechiël named Johan Cruyff Talent of the Month
FC Utrecht’s Gjivai Zechiël has been recognised as one of the league’s standout young players this season, earning his first Johan Cruyff Talent of the Month award for October.
Two goals
The 21-year-old from Rotterdam began his football journey at RVV Swift Boys, later joining XerxesDZB, before being spotted by Sparta Rotterdam. At 13, he made the move to Feyenoord’s academy. After a successful loan spell at Sparta last season, Zechiël is now making his mark at FC Utrecht.
He has seized his opportunity, starting nine of the first ten league matches. Last weekend, he came off the bench in the 4–1 defeat to AZ and scored a fine goal — his second in successive away games, having also found the net against Feyenoord (3–2 loss).
With those strikes, Zechiël became the youngest Utrecht player to score in consecutive away matches since Sébastien Haller (2015). He has scored as many goals in his last three matches as in his previous fourteen combined.
In total, Zechiël has recorded nine shots (six inside the box), five interceptions and a passing accuracy of 87%.
Following Fraulo and Aaronson
It’s Zechiël’s first monthly award, making him the third FC Utrecht player to win in the past year, following Oscar Fraulo (October 2024) and Paxten Aaronson (November 2024).
As part of the award, Zechiël receives a €2,000 donation from VriendenLoterij for his former amateur clubs XerxesDZB and €500 for Swift Boys, while an additional €5,000 will be donated to the Johan Cruyff Foundation to support social projects.
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