Micky van de Ven is determined to help Tottenham end their long wait for a trophy, with strong support from his father, a former undercover agent.
The Dutch defender is preparing for tomorrow`s Europa League final in Bilbao, where Spurs face Manchester United, hoping to clinch their first piece of silverware in 17 years. His dad will be in the stands cheering him on.
Micky`s father, Marcel van de Ven, is a former undercover police agent who later gained fame on the Dutch television series “Hunted.”
Despite his demanding career fighting crime, Marcel always found time to attend his son`s football matches from a young age.
Micky, 24, shared: “Every game he was there, even when I was younger. You have to ask him how he managed that! Midweek, most of the time he was gone because he had a job to do and couldn’t tell us everything about it. But at the weekend when we had to play, the most important part, he was always there.”
He added: “Literally until today, he’s everywhere. Every home game, every away game, he wants to be everywhere. He always tries to be there. It was my dad, my mum and my sister who were the ones who kept pushing me. Because even when you’re younger, every year you get a new gaffer. Then the people around you are the ones you are close with. Even now, these days after a game they help me. They’re like, ‘You could do this better or that better’, they are still the people who help me.”
While his family always believed in him, Micky didn`t always receive such encouragement from the professional coaches overseeing his early development. At his first club, Volendam, there were doubts about whether a teenage Van de Ven had what it takes to succeed as a footballer.
His breakthrough came when former Sheffield Wednesday player Wim Jonk became his manager at the second-tier Dutch club. This paved the way for a move to Wolfsburg in 2021 and then to Tottenham in the summer of 2023.
Now a Netherlands international, Van de Ven uses the doubts he faced as a teenager as motivation to keep improving.
Reflecting on those who doubted him, he said: “That’s crazy. At Volendam there were people who didn’t have the trust in me and now I am standing here. I proved them wrong.”
Van de Ven`s Spurs defensive partner, Cristian Romero, also faced significant doubts early in his career, even considering quitting football at his first club, Belgrano in Argentina. Romero, known as Cuti, went on to win the World Cup with Lionel Messi in 2022.
The Tottenham defender continued: “There are a lot of players in their careers who get doubts from multiple people. It depends a bit on how late in your career you are getting doubts, of course. I was getting doubts when I was 17, 18 years old. Then you might have to think about something different. Then it’s all down to yourself and the people around you to keep pushing.”
“That’s what Cuti probably did and that’s what I did, and now we are both standing here. And Cuti won a World Cup. I am now in a European final. It’s a beautiful thing.”
Van de Ven is now focused on helping Tottenham shed their `Spursy` label and win the Europa League final against Manchester United.
He stated: “It would be a big thing, of course. Everybody knows that when you join Tottenham you get, ‘Ah, you’re not going to win a trophy’, people saying you will be trophyless for the rest of your career. All the guys that came up here were like, ‘We’re going to change something about this club’.”
“It was the gaffer and it was the whole squad who said, ‘We’re going to come here and change something’. For us, it’s the job now to make this happen in Bilbao.”
In Bilbao, Van de Ven might come face-to-face with his compatriot Matthijs De Ligt, 25, if the Manchester United centre-back is fit. Despite being only a year older, De Ligt was a hero to a younger Van de Ven, who watched him play for Ajax from the stands.
Interestingly, the Tottenham match that stands out most in his memory is Spurs` incredible comeback win against Ajax in the 2019 Champions League semi-final, featuring Lucas Moura`s second-half hat-trick.
Van de Ven explained: “The first thing that pops up in my head is the game against Tottenham. I was in the stadium. He was playing that game. These games I can remember are more from the Champions League when Ajax went to the semi-final. He was playing unbelievable.”
“When you’re a young kid, you’re looking up at him — captain at 18 years old, doing an unbelievable job. Then you think, ‘I want to be like him’.”
Despite a league campaign that saw Tottenham record 21 defeats, Van de Ven believes manager Ange Postecoglou has proven his quality by leading the club to only its second European final in 41 years.
He added: “We have all been standing behind the gaffer since day one, since he joined here. He showed his quality, he brought us to a European final.”
“Of course, he’s getting a lot of doubt from the media and we see these things. But I think he proved all you guys wrong and we’re standing in a European final, so hopefully we can lift the trophy. Not only for us but also for him.”
