Georginio Wijnaldum remembers standing in the club canteen at Feyenoord when a woman he had never seen before suddenly approached him and delivered the most unexpected of introductions.

Ushered forward was another boy, a little younger than himself, maybe ten years old, small and quiet. The moment was initially awkward and Wijnaldum, who had just finished playing a youth game for the visitors Sparta Rotterdam, stood and stared. Here before him was the half-brother he had heard about, but had never previously met.

“Growing up I was with the side of my mother, and my grandmother, and not a lot with the family of my father, so that is why we didn’t see each other,” Wijnaldum explained. “I knew I had another brother, but I