MICKY VAN DE VEN is out to crack the case of Tottenham’s trophy drought — with the support of his detective dad.
The Dutch defender will have his old man watching him in Bilbao as Spurs look to end 17 years without silverware by beating Manchester United in tomorrow’s Europa League final.
Marcel van de Ven is a former undercover agent who later became famous on the Dutch version of TV show Hunted.
Despite Van de Ven Sr’s busy schedule fighting crime, somehow he still had time to go to all of his son’s matches right from youth level.
Micky, 24, said: “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.
“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.”
Marcel may have always backed his son’s foray into football but Micky was not always so well supported by the professionals overseeing his development.
In fact, there was a feeling at his first club Volendam that a teenage Van de Ven did not have the ability to make it as a footballer.
It was only when former Sheffield Wednesday star Wim Jonk became his manager at the second-tier Dutch club that the young defender got his big break, which led him to Wolfsburg in 2021 then on to Spurs in the summer of 2023.
And Van de Ven, also a Netherlands international, still uses being written off in his teens as motivation to succeed today.
On those that believed he would not make the grade, he added: “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.”
We have all been standing behind Ange since day one, since he joined here.
Micky van de Ven
Van de Ven’s Spurs defensive partner Cristian Romero also once revealed he was so miserable at his own first club Belgrano back in Argentina that he considered quitting the game.
Romero, nicknamed Cuti, went on to win the World Cup in Qatar in 2022 alongside the iconic Lionel Messi.
Tottenham ace Van de Ven 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.”
Now Van de Ven is determined to change Tottenham’s trophyless ‘Spursy’ tag with victory over the Red Devils.
He said: “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.”
Van de Ven could come up against his compatriot Matthijs De Ligt, 25, in Bilbao — provided the United centre-back is fit to play.
De Ligt may only be a year older yet he is a hero to Van de Ven, who used to watch him play for Ajax as a supporter in the stands when both were teenagers.
Ironically, it was Tottenham’s unforgettable comeback win against Ajax in the 2019 Champions League semi-final — when Lucas Moura scored a second-half hat-trick and Spurs won on away goals — that stands out most in his memory.
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’.”
Spurs have had an awful league campaign, with a record 21 defeats.
Even if they beat United, boss Ange Postecoglou is expected to leave the club.
Yet Van de Ven reckons the Aussie has proved his worth by taking the club to just 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.”
Read the full article here