Mitchell Dijks Admits Weight Struggles After Vietnam Stint

Mitchell Dijks doesn’t bother with the usual clichés. Live on ESPN’s Transfer Deadline Show, the 33-year-old wing-back calmly admits what most players would bury.

He let himself go. Badly.

“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,” says Dijks, currently without a club after his stint at Nam Dinh FC in Vietnam.

In the studio, jaws drop.

Presenter Milan van Dongen initially thinks he’s being pranked. A former Ajax, Vitesse and Fortuna Sittard left-back confessing to turning up 12 kilos over his playing weight? It sounds like a punchline.

“No, it's serious. I really was quite chubby,” Dijks insists, half-laughing at himself, half-owning the damage.

Vietnam, pasta and seven kilometres

The surprise doesn’t stop there. Analyst Hans Kraay junior wants to know what on earth he was doing in Vietnam if he came back like that.

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

No excuses. No attempt to dress it up as culture shock or tactical instructions. Just a blunt picture: less intensity, good food, and not nearly enough running.

The honesty lands like a grenade online.

Social media backlash and raised eyebrows

Clips of the interview quickly circulate on X. Reactions are ruthless.

“Hilarious, man, a player throwing away his own career,” one user writes, summing up the general disbelief that a free agent would so openly admit to losing control of his conditioning.

De Telegraaf reporter Jeroen Kapteijns echoes the concern, albeit in more measured terms. “It's honest and sincere, but whether this is the wisest interview when you're looking for a club now?” he wonders.

That’s the crux. Football loves authenticity, but clubs pay for reliability. Dijks offers the first in spades; the second is now under scrutiny.

A new chapter, far from home?

At 33, Dijks stands at a crossroads. No club, a public confession about his weight, and a reputation built at some of the Netherlands’ biggest sides.

Yet he isn’t talking about a return to the Eredivisie. He’s eyeing another move abroad, ideally back to Asia. The defender makes it clear he doesn’t feel any urgent pull towards home.

The question now is simple and brutal: will a club out there buy into his honesty – and trust that the next “fitness test” doesn’t end at 104 kilos?