{"id":169597,"date":"2024-04-08T17:19:55","date_gmt":"2024-04-08T17:19:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/04\/08\/micky-van-de-ven-on-path-to-becoming-the-worlds-most-overpowered-player\/"},"modified":"2024-04-08T17:19:55","modified_gmt":"2024-04-08T17:19:55","slug":"micky-van-de-ven-on-path-to-becoming-the-worlds-most-overpowered-player","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/04\/08\/micky-van-de-ven-on-path-to-becoming-the-worlds-most-overpowered-player\/","title":{"rendered":"Micky van de Ven on path to becoming the world\u2019s most overpowered player \u2013"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><strong>FROM TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR STADIUM \u2013 The left-footed centre-back is treated like an ultra-rare trading card in the footballing world.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Clubs desperately search far and wide to find one capable of bringing balance and an equilibrium to their backline. Sure, there are plenty of decent right-footed centre-backs out there \u2013 just like there are flair midfielders who need a tough-tackling partner in order to be \u2018unlocked\u2019, or right-footed left-wingers who average around six or seven goals a season, or fans in stadiums with obnoxious signs asking for a player\u2019s shirt \u2013 but potentially elite lefties are tougher to find.<\/p>\n<p>Tottenham struck gold last summer with the signing of Micky van de Ven from Wolfsburg, bringing him in at the end of a month-long saga in which they were also in negotiations for Bayer Leverkusen\u2019s Edmond Tapsoba (who is, notably, right-footed).<\/p>\n<p>The need for Spurs to bring in a defender was pretty evident after a 2022\/23 season in which they conceded 63 Premier League goals and their marquee centre-back signing the previous summer had been Clement Lenglet on loan.<\/p>\n<p>During his relatively short time in north London so far, Van de Ven has proved an almost perfect signing. In his 20 Premier League games,\u00a0Tottenham\u00a0have lost only twice \u2013 and one was that ludicrous 4-1 defeat to Chelsea in which he was substituted early on with a hamstring injury.<\/p>\n<p>The full range of Van de Ven\u2019s capabilities were on show in Sunday\u2019s\u00a03-1 win at home to Nottingham Forest, cementing his status as one of football\u2019s only centre-backs to be a headline act for something other than tackling, someone worth the price admission for his utterly freakish abilities.<\/p>\n<p>Van de Ven\u2019s recovery pace has been the key to Spurs playing with a high line this season, and here he brought fans to their feet before earning generous applause and cheers for sweeping up when Forest looked to counter. With the scores level at 1-1 in the second half, Van de Ven came up with a thunderbolt to put the hosts back in front, rattling the net\u2019s stanchion with such ferocity you\u2019d be desperate to hear it back again and again in ASMR format.<\/p>\n<p>Pedro Porro clinched the win for good with a delectable half-volley soon after, but the evening belonged to Van de Ven, who was serenaded by Tottenham fans and players alike at full-time with a rendition of Give It Up by KC and the Sunshine Band \u2013 a song formerly reserved for former Dutch favourite Rafael van der Vaart.<\/p>\n<p>Van de Ven is an absurdly gifted footballer an athlete. Earlier this season, he clocked the fastest sprint time in the entire Premier League, coming in at 37.38 km\/h, a new record since such data started being collected in 2020\/21. But he also has the footballing brain to ensure his tackles are timed \u2013 he is yet to be at fault for a goal in Tottenham colours nor has he been anywhere near as careless in possession as some of his more erratic colleagues \u2013 and is just as confident galloping away with the ball at his feet out from the back.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to\u00a0<em>90min<\/em>\u00a0post-match, James Maddison gushed over his 22-year-old teammate, admitting he\u2019s been taken by surprise in part because he hadn\u2019t heard of him until last summer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMicky is a top, top player. He is unique in the fact that he is the quickest thing I\u2019ve ever seen and he\u2019s a good defender and he\u2019s good on the ball,\u201d he began.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShooting is not his forte if you see him in training every day but we\u2019ll take them ones that go flying into the top corner! He is a special player.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo be fair, he is top level and credit to the recruitment team because I had never heard of him before we signed him. The joke is on me really because a player of that calibre I should probably have heard of in Europe.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA brilliant player, a brilliant trainer, a brilliant lad and a really good guy, which is just as important as the player. Maybe not to the people from the outside but when you are with them day to day, it is just as important and he\u2019s very humble.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI love him to be fair, he\u2019s a great lad.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!-- AI CONTENT END 1 --><\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>FROM TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR STADIUM \u2013 The left-footed centre-back is treated like an ultra-rare trading card in the footballing world. Clubs desperately search far and wide to find one capable of bringing balance and an equilibrium to their backline. Sure, there are plenty of decent right-footed centre-backs out there \u2013 just like there are flair midfielders [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":169598,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-169597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Micky van de Ven on path to becoming the world\u2019s most overpowered player \u2013 - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2024\/04\/08\/micky-van-de-ven-on-path-to-becoming-the-worlds-most-overpowered-player\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Micky van de Ven on path to becoming the world\u2019s most overpowered player \u2013 - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"FROM TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR STADIUM \u2013 The left-footed centre-back is treated like an ultra-rare trading card in the footballing world. 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