In the last summer window, following long talks between Tottenham Hotspur and Ajax, Steven Bergwijn joined the Eredivisie side on a €31.25m deal.
It took a while for the Dutch club to accept paying that fee, with Spurs fighting hard not to give away big discounts following the investment they had made to sign him from PSV a couple of years earlier.
It turns out that Tottenham did a good job by selling Bergwijn then, because his exhibitions in the World Cup were far from enough to increase his market value.
As De Telegraaf columnist Wim Kieft wrote today about the attackers the Netherlands had in the World Cup, there’s some criticism towards the former Spurs player, with comments saying he had no impact during the tournament.
“Steven Bergwijn was completely invisible this World Cup,” wrote Kieft (via Voetbal Primeur).
“Last autumn he had a very short good period with the Orange against mostly small opponents in meaningless matches.”
Bergwijn made four appearances for the Netherlands in the World Cup, and left the tournament with no goals or assists, following the elimination to Argentina on penalties.
Since his departure from Tottenham, though, he’s been having a decent campaign for Ajax, with 11 goals and three assists in 21 appearances for the Eredivisie giants, although a lot of that impact came early on in the season before dwindling as we edged towards the World Cup.
