Wesley Sneijder exclusive: what Liverpool’s Real Madrid win means for Arne Slot, why England may suffer more World Cup heartbreak, and the true value of the Ballon d’Or

Dutch football legend Wesley Sneijder has backed Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius Jnr to bring the Ballon d’Or back to Real Madrid in 2026 and 2027 in an exclusive interview with Adventure Gamers.

The former Inter Milan playmaker also named the three former teammates he’d most like to see get involved in a future series of the Celebrity Traitors, and the one player he thinks wouldn’t last five minutes in the castle.

Read the full interview below.

What have you made of Florian Wirtz’s tricky start at Liverpool?

I always say this about players with the German or Dutch mentality. It is the same. You can play good in your own country but they can have problems adapting in different countries. The Dutch and the German players are like that and I see the same happening now with Florian Wirtz.

He felt comfortable in Germany. He was in the right spot. Now he made a big step and that’s difficult because at big clubs you don’t have the time to adapt. You already need to be there. 

If you come to the club as a big star then you have to show them immediately why they signed you and if you don’t show them they don’t care for you.

Wirtz is a big star in Germany but you have to be a big star on the pitch at Liverpool immediately and I felt like he had quite a problem in the beginning with this adaptation. Slowly, he is getting there but it needs to be faster and it needs to come quickly now, otherwise he’s done.

Have you been surprised by Arne Slot’s second season struggles at Liverpool?

It’s funny. A couple of months ago he was the king of Liverpool. He was the coach to make you forget about all the previous coaches, even Jurgen Klopp. After four weeks they are saying he wants to turn Liverpool into Feyenoord, he’s not winning games in the last minute anymore. He’s out of luck.

Come on. Stop this. He’s still a great coach. What he did there is something amazing in the first season. He has needed to adapt as well and he adapted very quickly and brought his own style to the club and to the team.

Liverpool have been in a bad period but you know what is the most beautiful thing in football? You only need one game, and that game can be Real Madrid. They beat them, Arne Slot is back. Come on, guys!

Will we ever see Jurgen Klopp return to management and if so which of your former clubs would suit him best?

I don’t think Jurgen Klopp is coming back as a manager. He was quite sure about it. I would love to have him here at Ajax. They are struggling. They are in a difficult moment. It’s my former club and it would be amazing to have him come to Ajax.

Did you ever look to move to Bayern Munich or another club in the Bundesliga like Arjen Robben did?

No, not at all.

I’ll tell you the story of my grandfather that I have never mentioned before. It’s not always on my mind but it’s the last thing he said to me when he was about to die.

It was when I had just started my career. At that moment he told me: “Wes, you are going to become a big player. I can feel it. But please, never sign for a German team.”

And I was never in the position to sign for a German team anyway but maybe had that moment come up directly I would never have signed.

Were you ever tempted to play in Brazil or Argentina like Memphis Depay and Clarence Seedorf or Danielle De Rossi?

If I’d have had the chance to do it I would have done it. I like these kinds of experiences. I went to Qatar because I wanted to see the culture out there and I loved to be part of the project. 

It was not about the money because believe me the money was less than I was earning in Europe. I went there to add something different to all the luggage I already had from my career. I wanted to see what it was like so if there had been a possibility to play in Argentina or Brazil I would have done it.

Corinthians are always great. São Paulo, everything like that. Those kinds of teams. They are amazing.

Can you sympathise with Mbappe and Vinicius over both players still not having won a Ballon d’Or given how you were overlooked?

They are looking at the Ballon d’Or differently now. They are now looking at the season that has been played. Back in my day, it was just who is the best player in the world? It was quite normal that it went to Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi every day. Nowadays they judge it more on the season, what was achieved, and for me that makes more sense.

This way there are more possibilities for other players to win it but I’m quite sure that Mbappe will win it next season, 100%. Vini will win it maybe the year after that. They both have the qualities. 

Maybe Vinicius could have already won it two years ago. He deserved it at that time but it’s not a shame. For me, and I don’t know how they are thinking about, but I was more happy with raising the Champions League trophy than winning a Ballon d’Or and not having a Champions League trophy that season.

What do you think about the idea of playing Barcelona vs Villarreal in Miami?

As a player, I would have always said no, definitely not. It’s stupid. But I understand the clubs nowadays. They have to pay high salaries. The money needs to come. If they can earn a lot of money by doing it, why not? 

We football players always complain. No, I don’t want to play in the United States. We won’t go there. We should do something. We have to organise a strike so in the first five minutes we won’t play. 

But when the club still decides to go ahead with it and we are on that plane and we arrive in the dressing room, the moment we get on the pitch, you forget about everything and you just want to win your game, and you just play the same as you play in Spain.

Then you fly back after, you continue complaining on the way back, and when you’re back home, everything is back to normal. 

So on one side, I understand it if I have to be in the shoes of the club directors but if I have to be in the shoes of the players, I would say no.

Given they are now playing NFL games in London, Berlin and Madrid, is it only fair that the Premier League and Champions League play games in the USA in exchange?

They should never consider that. 

Americans like to make this big show around it and we are not used to that here in Europe so forget about it. The NBA, NFL, all these games they will never get the same feeling. It doesn’t make sense to me.

We keep the Champions League in Europe. Exactly.

What was the 2010 World Cup like to play in and experience?

Only in Africa do you play with the vuvuzelas! It was a great experience. The fans seemed like they were so close they could have been here, next door to you. It had an amazing vibe and was very well organised. It was perfect.

That’s what makes the World Cup so special. In every country it’s something different but there are always doubters beforehand.

In 2014, everybody was doubting Brazil but it was amazing. Qatar was great. It was maybe the best World Cup experience for fans because it was all in one place. They played a match in one stadium and then it’s five minutes by metro to the next one. 

What are you expecting from the 2026 World Cup across the USA, Canada and Mexico?

In Europe, if you play a World Cup in three countries it’s just around the corner but in 2026 it is not like playing in Holland, Belgium and Germany. If you have to move from New York to Mexico City then good luck. 

They will manage it and it will be a great World Cup with a great experience of its own kind, I have no doubt.

Are there any African teams you are expecting to cause upsets at the 2026 World Cup?

Morocco did a great job in Qatar reaching the semi-finals and they still have a great team but if I have to pick one African team it is Cape Verde. They have a great team as well. I think they can be one of the surprises of the tournament.

Who will be in the final four at the World Cup?

Portugal, Spain, France and Brazil.

I didn’t mention England but that’s what I mean. The competition is so much bigger now. They’re all so close to each other. It’s going to be crazy.

England also have an amazing team. So do the Netherlands. They’re good too. But I have to pick four teams for the semi-finals and this is what I think.

England can get to the semi-finals. Argentina too with a bit of luck. If Germany get back on track you just never know.

Will any player dominate football after Messi and Ronaldo are gone?

Once Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo retire then people will start talking more about Mbappe, Vinicius, Lamine Yamal like how we talk about Ronaldo and Messi now. It’s all about generations. When Diego Maradona quit, other players came through.

In 100 years, people won’t talk about Mbappe, Vinicius or Yamal the same. There will be a new generation who has replaced them but when they retire, we will start talking about Mbappe, Yamal and Vinicius the same way we talk about Ronaldo and Messi.

Is there a player who reminds you of your own game active today?

The Number 10 is gone. I was a real Number 10 like the way a Number 10 always existed. Now it’s gone. It’s all about having running midfielders. They all train to be box-to-box. You would have no chance of training me to be a box-to-box midfielder.

I was a midfielder who was there to give the assists to the strikers, not going from box-to-box, so the Number 10 for me is completely gone. I cannot say there’s one team in Europe now who plays with a proper Number 10.

Cole Palmer? He mostly comes in from the side, or at least drops to the side. He doesn’t play in the centre. 

Maybe in the international game we can see a Number 10 but you see a lot of coaches now wanting to play with one defensive midfielder and two in the 10 position. It’s so different.

Could we ever see you step back into the game as a manager like Zinedine Zidane?

I don’t know. It would be difficult. Unfortunately I have to do a coaching course here in Holland for four-and-a-half years and that is too long.

Ronald Koeman said if he had had to do a four year course to become a coach he wouldn’t be the national team coach now.

Back in the day there were retired players who could take a year but they changed the rules and now the Dutch federation insists on a four-and-a-half year coaching course and it doesn’t make sense. 

I will not lose all that time to be a coach. If they change this rule and bring it back to one year then I would consider it. It would be amazing to manage some of the clubs I played for to get back into the game with them but I don’t really care. I would want to be successful. I am a winner if I became a coach I’d want to win.

Could we see Florentino Perez return to his promise to unite Mbappe with Erling Haaland at Real Madrid some day?

I think Real Madrid did a great job by not signing Haaland.

There was a moment where they still believed in putting Mbappe down the left with Haaland as the striker but I think the way now is much better because for me Mbappe has become a real striker. 

The way he takes up positions as a striker, it’s very unique, and I believe he’s much better now as a striker than from the left side so it doesn’t make sense to sign Haaland anymore. That’s good news for Man City!

Do you still think Rafael Benitez is the worst manager you had in your career?

I think it was also the worst moment when he joined the team. It was after Jose Mourinho. Everybody was sad that he left. Benitez came into the worst moment for the club. So I have to be fair. It was not easy for him to work with us and we also gave him a hard time. We didn’t make the right connection. 

I met Benitez a couple of months ago and we had a good chat. He’s not a bad guy. I didn’t say he’s a bad coach because he achieved big things also in football. But it was not the right combination at that moment.

If you could pick any of your former teammates to enter Celebrity Traitors and win, who would you pick?

You know, actually we wanted to do the show with ex-football players. It hasn’t happened yet but we are still talking about it. 

It would be its own complete thing with ex-football players but it’s also hard because a lot of them would know each other. If I was on the show with Rafael van der Vaart for example, I’ve known him since we were little kids and I would know directly if he was a traitor or not.

It’s a nice TV show but it’s also a mindfuck! They made you crazy and I love that. They asked me to go on the Dutch Celebrity Traitors by the way many times but I always said no but I’m keen on a version with ex-football players.

I think Mark van Bommel would be very good at it. I also think Sergio Ramos with his poker face would be a strong player. But Didier Drogba would be like the general in there. He would be making everyone go crazy. These are the kinds of players, I think. Maybe we should do an international version!

Could Max Verstappen become a bigger star in the Netherlands than the best Dutch footballers?

To be honest, Formula 1 does nothing for me.

It’s beautiful what they do as drivers and Max Verstappen is always very interesting with his comebacks. Of course, as a Dutch I hope that he will win but I still don’t feel it because for me the fastest car wins and that’s not fair. 

I will watch it every weekend because I love the ambience, I love the atmosphere and I love all the things around it but the day before the race they can say no my car is not fast enough so don’t count on me. What is that? Come on! Give them all the same car and let them drive.