Mitchell Dijks Opens Up About Fitness Struggles in Vietnam

Mitchell Dijks doesn’t bother with the usual clichés. Live on ESPN’s Transfer Deadline Show, the 33-year-old wing-back simply lays it out: his time at Nam Dinh FC in Vietnam did his body no favours.

“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, with a bluntness you almost never hear from an active player, let alone one still looking for a club.

In the studio, presenter Milan van Dongen needs a second to process it. He suspects Dijks is joking, trying to wind him up. The former Ajax, Vitesse and Fortuna Sittard left-back quickly shuts that down.

“No, it's serious. I really was quite chubby,” he says, half-laughing at himself, but not dodging the reality.

The conversation then turns to Vietnam. Hans Kraay junior, eyebrows raised, wants to know what on earth Dijks was doing there if his fitness drifted that far.

“The intensity there is all a bit lower,” Dijks explains. “But you just eat good pasta there. And then during matches you only run seven kilometres.”

The image is stark: a modern full-back, in a league with a slower tempo, eating well, running less, and watching the scales creep up into triple figures.

The clip raced around social media. Some users on X reacted with disbelief, others with frustration. “Hilarious, man, a player throwing away his own career,” one comment read, summing up the mood of those who see honesty but also self-sabotage.

Within Dutch media, the reaction is more nuanced. De Telegraaf reporter Jeroen Kapteijns recognises the rare openness, 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.

That’s the tension around Dijks right now. His candour is refreshing in a sport that often hides behind media training and safe soundbites. It also paints a brutally clear picture for potential employers: here is a defender who let things slide, knows it, and is saying it on national television.

What he wants next is clear enough. At 33, Dijks is not chasing a romantic return to the Eredivisie at all costs. He is openly eyeing another adventure abroad, ideally again in Asia. A move back to the Netherlands is not a necessity.

Whether clubs in that part of the world see his words as a red flag or a sign of a player willing to own his mistakes will decide the next chapter. For now, Dijks has done something unusual in modern football: he has left nothing to the imagination.