Micky van de Ven has enjoyed a good start to his life at Tottenham Hotspur since he joined them from VfL Wolfsburg this summer.
The centre-back has made five starts for Spurs and his fine displays helped him earn his first call-up from Netherlands manager Ronald Koeman.
NU have a published a lengthy chat with the Tottenham player, where he reveals things weren’t easy for him earlier in his career.
The 22-year-old came through the ranks of FC Volendam’s academy, where he initially started as a striker, before being moved to defence. Van de Ven has now revealed he had even considered playing in an amateur league for a year.
“Fortuna Wormerveer were doing quite well at the time. The idea was: I would take a year off, in the hope of then making the step to a professional club again. At that time, I sometimes thought: what am I still doing this for? My father pushed me to keep going for my chance. He pulled me through that difficult time. Fortunately,” he said.
Wim Jonk’s appointment as Volendam’s manager in 2019 helped the player rescue his future at the Dutch club, and two years later, he moved to the Bundesliga.
“Sometimes you need a bit of luck to make it as a footballer. One trainer thinks: I can’t do anything with this boy. But Wim thought: I can do something with him,” he explained.
The Spurs defender admits things weren’t easy for him in Germany but his fortune changed after Niko Kovač’s arrival at Wolfsburg in 2022.
His displays convinced Tottenham to invest in his services this summer. Van de Ven opens up about the chat he had with Ange Postecoglou before joining the Premier League side.
“At my age it’s important that you get a lot of playing time. I spoke about this in detail with the Tottenham coach. He said: ‘I am bringing you in to play. And that may not go well right away, but then I know you have the quality’,” Van de Ven explained.
“It is so much fun playing football at Tottenham. The assignment is: play from the back and if things go wrong, it is the responsibility of the trainer. The manager literally said: ‘You can make a mistake. Better that than shooting the ball outside the stadium three times in a row’.”
