Crysencio Summerville's true feelings about Leeds United as 'fighter' answers Jesse Marsch — Leeds Live 23/5/24
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By Ciaran Kelly
The Leeds United dressing room fell deathly silent. The
shock of relegation was still setting in when captain Liam Cooper stood up and
told those around him who did not want to stay and fight to do one. Among those
listening on that painful afternoon at Elland Road was an unused substitute:
Crysencio Summerville.
There would be interest from elsewhere that summer, but
there was ultimately only one thought in the 'calm' Dutchman's mind as the
window progressed: getting Leeds back to the big time. This was a club that had
long left its mark as close friend Melayro Bogarde explained.
"He has always been positive about Leeds and the
fanbase," Summerville's former Feyenoord team-mate told Leeds Live.
"If you do well like he is doing now, you will of course enjoy it."
You can tell Summerville is enjoying life at Leeds ahead of
the biggest game of his career on Sunday and the numbers tell their own story
in that regard: 20 goals, nine assists and 120 chances created. Summerville was
always a highly-rated prospect, but the Championship's player of the season has
hit new heights under Daniel Farke.
In a play-off final with such high stakes, against a side
like Southampton, Summerville is one of a number of genuine game-changers at
Leeds' disposal who the Whites will hope can help take them back to the
promised land rather than potentially bidding farewell in defeat. So what is it
about Summerville that makes him a little different? Let's ask Wouter Berger,
who has known Summerville for a decade after also coming through the ranks at
Feyenoord.
"Cree is a player who's really good one against
one," the Stoke City midfielder told Leeds Live. "He's always someone
who's really dangerous. You just have to play him the ball and he makes
something special out of it."
It is worth noting that Southampton have kept Summerville
quiet in both of the previous league meetings this season. However, Wembley
feels like a stage tailormade for Summerville to step up when it matters most -
and the 22-year-old certainly does not need any added motivation.
Summerville once told his brother that he would one day play
in the Premier League; the forward was 12 at the time. When Summerville
realised that dream, in 2021, the prospect could not help but burst into tears
when he got home. Yet that was not necessarily Summerville's lift-off moment.
Nor was a stunning winner at Anfield for that matter.
The reality is that Summerville has made more appearances in
one season in the Championship than he ever did in the Premier League. Former
boss Jesse Marsch repeatedly spoke of 'discipline, professionalism and work
ethic' being a 'big factor' with Summerville, whether it was getting to
training early enough, putting the work in the gym or paying attention in
analysis sessions. Farke, in contrast, has talked of a more mature player who
is 'on it more or less each and every day on the training pitch'.
Clearly, for all Summerville's well-documented flair, there
is a steeliness, too, to get to the top as former Feyenoord academy director
Damien Hertog explained.
"He is really brave," Hertog told Leeds Live.
"He's a fighter. He wants to be the best and when you grow older, you
stand up for yourself, which is a good thing. You need this to survive and to
make it."
Summerville has long needed that quality. The Dutchman has
always been one of the smallest players in his age group, but his intelligence,
technical ability and explosive speed meant that did not matter.
Summerville was always able to wriggle out of a tight spot
or change direction at the last minute after seeing a challenge coming. This
was a youngster who once even put Real Madrid to the sword at youth level in
the Mladen Ramljak International Memorial Tournament in Zagreb.
Richard Grootscholten, who was the academy director at
Feyenoord at the time, was among those watching on that afternoon in 2018 and
still sees that 'same boy receiving the ball and dribbling past three players
who are trying to kick him'.
"It doesn't matter if there are thousands of people in
the stadium or people are negative towards him - he will do the same
again," he told Leeds Live. "That's a special talent."
Just as Summerville was fearless on the field, the same was
true off it when the forward left Feyenoord and all that he knew in Rotterdam
behind at the age of 19 to move to Leeds. It was a difficult adjustment at
first, but Summerville did not give up.
"I always admired that he is really doing what is in
his head," Berger added. "How he sees things is his truth. That's why
he follows his plan and that's a really strong quality."