‘He’s human’ – 6ft 8in Dutch goalkeeper Andries Noppert backs up to stop Lionel Messi after surprise World Cup inclusion and jokes about being the team’s lowest-paid player after the first yacht trip

Netherlands’ surprise first-choice keeper Andries Noppert backs up to stop Lionel Messi, despite being hilariously honest about his World Cup status.

Heerenveen’s Noppert was a surprise in Louis van Gaal’s Qatar 2022 squad, and the story became an even bigger shock when he started his opener, his first ever for the national team.

The gigantic 6ft 8in stopper was previously only called up for September’s Nations League fixtures as a back-up option but has now made his Oranje debut on football’s biggest stage.

And it’s been going pretty well too, with the Dutch claiming three wins and drawing in one of their World Cup matches, 28-year-old Noppert keeping a clean sheet on his debut against Senegal.

Only two goalkeepers in the tournament have made more saves than his 15, and that could quickly change in the quarter-finals on Friday when he easily takes on the best player he’s faced in his low-key career, Lionel Messi.

The Dutch take on Argentina in the quarter-finals at Lusail Stadium, live on talkSPORT, but Noppert manages to keep things cool.

“It’s new to me. But it’s just fun,” he said. “I just have to be myself. I’m trying. The boys and the staff accept it too.

“It’s the most important thing for me. I try to do it my way. It’s a different world for me, but it won’t make me behave differently.

“When you’re a little boy, you dream of being at a World Cup. When you see my career, you put that dream aside. But I kept fighting for it.

“There’s only one national coach who could have brought me here and that’s our national coach. I’m proud to be here and I have to keep working hard. That’s the most important thing .

Asked about playing in an 89,000-capacity stadium, the biggest of his career, he said: “It’s something to look forward to. You play for a lot of people. I’m certainly not scared. You You can feel the tension when the game is coming. But that’s normal. If you don’t have any more tension in the competition, you better stop.

And on the possibility of facing a penalty from Messi: “I’m always ready for that, and he can also miss, we saw that at the start of this tournament, so he’s like us – a human. sure he’s good, but sure I can catch the penalties.

Noppert comes across as a cool, calm figure despite his surprisingly quick rise to the top of the game, and maybe that comes with his rather amusing humility.

After knocking the United States out of the World Cup in the round of 16 with a 3-1 victory, the Dutch team took a trip on a yacht to Qatari waters, a normal experience for many of their players, but not for Noppert.

“I’m afraid I’ll never get on a boat like that again,” he laughs. “In the sense of such a luxury thing.

“It’s normally not my world at all, you have to stay close, don’t you?”

But with laughter rolling in, the AD reporter felt comfortable enough to ask Noppert about his status relative to other players, especially financially.

When told that he might be the lowest paid player on the team, he replied: “Yes, 100%. Don’t hesitate to ask people. No problem. It seems quite logical to me.

Despite his self-effacing attitude, if Noppert manages to stop Messi on Friday and guide the Netherlands to the World Cup semi-finals, he may well have to get used to luxury yachts and big salaries quickly.