Earlier on Tuesday, we covered a Toby Alderweireld interview where the Tottenham player discussed the fact he’d missed so much of his family events over the past 12 years or so that it was started to weigh heavily on him.
The Premier League defender left his home in Belgium when he was 15 to join Ajax’s academy, and has never returned since, playing in both Spain and England as well as the Netherlands.
However, as is the case with a lot of footballers, Toby Alderweireld is also a big fan of tattoos.
Among those, the player has a depiction of the Antwerp cathedral, as well as the name of his brothers, and Humo asked him whether this was a way of keeping his home city and family close to him.
He explained: “Look at it this way: if I’d always been in Antwerp, maybe I wouldn’t love it so much. Our father always said: ‘Being homesick will go away’. That’s right, I have no longing for him, but I miss Antwerp. That’s never left me, even after 12 years, and it will never go away.
“As for the names of my brothers, I always get asked: ‘What if you have a fight?’ That will never happen. I know what they mean to me. We don’t see each other a lot, but when it does, it’s instantly boom-boom-boom!”
Alderweireld also has a quote tattooed on him, which reads “Each day I come closer to the home where I was born”.
The reasoning behind it? “Everyday I come closer to the moment when I return home. It’s the summary of my life story.”
The Tottenham defender also has a depiction of the Sistine Chapel fresco on his body, which he decided to get tattooed on him to demonstrate how he is a believer ‘in his own way’.
At least each tattoo has a meaning, unlike Amato Ciciretti, who got his Twitter handle etched onto his body after he promised he would do it if a video he posted on the social media site got over 500 RTs.
✅ Promessa mantenuta!!! ✍️🐥
😅😅😅😀😀😀🤣🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/TwVWyzEqyo— Amato Ciciretti (@Ciciretti) February 6, 2017
