How Tottenham's thunderbolt Micky van de Ven became the Premier League's fastest EVER player... and the club who said he wasn't quick enough

Time spent getting to know the thunderbolt of Tottenham revealed a rise equally as rapid, though Micky van de Ven’s sprint to stardom was not without the odd stumble, a particularly painful one arriving at 16 years old when told he lacked the speed to succeed.

It is a ludicrous tale — how a club in the Dutch second division came so close to discarding the defender now testing the shutter speeds of photographers’ cameras at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. 

Today, he holds the Premier League record as its fastest-ever player, previously clocked at 23.23mph. Back then, he supposedly smuggled lead in his socks, a story which Van de Ven’s father, Marcel, related to Mail Sport this week.

‘When the Volendam trainer said, “You’re not fast enough and not good enough”, I understood that a kid who’s 16 might think, “That’s it. I’m done. I have to go”,’ Marcel said, speaking from his native Netherlands. 

‘But I told him, “This is the best message they are ever going to give you. You know you can play, so play. If you think they are going to send you away, just play. And if they send you away, I will bring you to the club where you can play with your friends. But for now, go on. Do what you like. Do what you love. Do what you want. Live your dream”.

‘When he had that message from the trainer, he was disappointed. At the time, if he wanted to go to the cafe with his friends, I’d say to him, “OK mate, if you want to be the king of the cafe this evening, you can do that. But when you go on with training and you follow your dreams, later you will be the king of all the cafes in Holland”. He began to smile.’

Tottenham are the beneficiaries of this smiling sprinter’s resolve, with one club insider revealing that they beat Liverpool to sign the 22-year-old left-sided centre back when he was being perceived as a long-term successor to Virgil van Dijk.

It helped that this whizz-kid from the village of Wormer had a father as supportive as Marcel when setbacks occurred. Calm amid chaos, he is also blessed with powers of persuasion, perfected by years of working as a negotiator for the Netherlands Police Agency as well as an undercover agent for a secret unit.

Above all, though, he is a loving father who saw how his son never wavered in his determination to succeed when others suggested he seek an alternative career.

‘We got tickets to go to England, for Liverpool versus Arsenal,’ Marcel said. ‘Amazing game, 5-1 to Liverpool, December 2018. After, we’re going to the hotel when I thought, “You know what? I’m going to ask him”. I said, “Mick, what are your plans if you don’t make it? In the weekends, you’re training, training, training. It’s OK if I give you €10 to go have fun at the weekend. But what do you want to do? Do you want to go to work?”

‘He told me, “Dad, I don’t want to work. I’m going to train. I’m going to fight. Give me six months, take care of me, and it will come”. I said, “OK man, I will take care of you. I hope you get your dream”. And you know what? After six months, he got his first contract at Volendam. A huge contract. After that, he went directly into the first team.’

Volendam went on to sell Van de Ven to Wolfsburg in Germany for £3million in 2021. Tottenham signed him for £34.5m, rising to £43m, in 2023, their scouts having noted how his speed would be crucial when balls inevitably fly over Ange Postecoglou’s high line.

Van de Ven had not forgotten that father-son conversation in Liverpool when he signed for Tottenham, as Marcel added: ‘I picked him up from Germany. We were sitting in the car and he said, “Dad, are you going to do something with your life and do I have to take care of you?” I looked at him, smiled, and we laughed for five minutes in the car. It was a dream come true that he was going to that club. I’m very proud. I’ve got so much respect for him.’

Volendam soon came to their senses, though it took Wim Jonk arriving as the new head coach alongside Jasper van Leeuwen as sporting director for Van de Ven’s fortunes to change in June 2019.

As the former leaders of Ajax’s famed academy, they attended an Under 19s game and saw Van de Ven and his speed. In the words of one former colleague, Jonk and Van Leeuwen thought: ‘Holy s***.’ They handed him the ‘huge contract’ mentioned by Marcel within the week of their arrival and promoted him to the Under 21s where he became captain. The first team soon followed.

Josh Flint starred alongside Van de Ven in the Volendam defence. ‘I played left back and he played centre back,’ Flint, now playing in the Eredivisie, told Mail Sport. ‘If any balls went over my head, I didn’t worry. He could be 10 metres behind the striker and still get there. It was lovely!

‘He was 18, 19, but you could see he was a step above. It was weird because, looking at him, you wouldn’t think he is that quick or strong, but when you get up against him, it’s different. He kept to himself and did what he had to do on the pitch. He’s not the kind of person that wants to be in the news, out partying. He’s a pretty focused guy.’

Several Mail Sport sources were asked for the story behind Van de Ven’s speed and it turns out the secret is there is no secret. No sprint coach (Postecoglou loathes forcing his players to run). No specific diet (he likes a ham and cheese omelette at breakfast). No customised boots (he wears Nike Mercurials). No separate sessions at the training ground to turn him into even more of a blur.

Naturally, it helps that Van de Ven is a consummate professional, having never been one for spilling out of nightclubs or getting up to no good — a characteristic that also appealed to Tottenham’s scouting department. He is much more comfortable spending his downtime playing video games such as FC24 — on which he has an 85 out of 100 rating for pace which might need revising for the next Premier League season — or going shopping at Selfridges.

Those close to Van de Ven say his speed is natural, that he had it throughout his childhood and only briefly lost it when he went through a sudden growth spurt which took him closer to his current height of 6ft 4in.

He struggled to cope with that change as a lack of control invaded his limbs. Concerned, Van de Ven took it upon himself to practise until he had perfected the sprint that now draws appreciation from Tottenham supporters when he turns on those afterburners.

It was in the 3-2 home win over Brentford in January that he broke Kyle Walker’s record as the fastest player recorded in the Premier League, reaching 23.23mph. It was highlighted at the time that Usain Bolt set the 100m world record in 2009 with an average speed of 23.35mph.

Tottenham did not set up solo sessions to extract even more explosiveness out of his long legs upon signing him. One club source cited Michael Owen when explaining why overloading his schedule would run the risk of achieving the exact opposite.

With Van de Ven having already been sidelined by two hamstring injuries this season — and five of their seven Premier League losses were inflicted in his absence — they cannot afford to break him.

He is treated in the same way as everyone else at Tottenham, doing no more than any of his team-mates. Postecoglou likes to separate his squad into position-specific groups for sessions with his assistants — Chris Davies takes the attackers, Ryan Mason takes the midfielders and Matt Wells takes the defenders including Van de Ven, described by a colleague as someone who ‘trains like he plays’.

Before Volendam, Wolfsburg and Tottenham, Van de Ven played for his local team in Wormer called WSV’30 and back then, he was a left winger. He has never forgotten his roots, with some of his former coaches invited to London last week to watch the win over Nottingham Forest. Fittingly, Van de Ven scored a scorcher from the left side of the box, measured at 77.73mph.

With Amsterdam only a half-hour drive from Wormer, Van de Ven grew up watching Ajax alongside his father, often using those trips to study the left-footed centre back Jan Vertonghen.

Years later, Van de Ven was sitting in the stands of the Johan Cruyff Arena on the night when Tottenham reached the Champions League final courtesy of Lucas Moura’s hat-trick, yet to break through at Volendam and still admiring Vertonghen in spite of him now appearing for the visitors.

Like those stars of Ajax, Van de Ven was so sure he would make it as a footballer that he did not hide his dislike of schoolwork.

When told he had to sit a geography exam, for example, he said: ‘I do not have to learn that because the driver of the players’ bus knows where it is.’

When reminded that the chances of him making it were minute, he replied: ‘Don’t worry, I’m in the one per cent.’

Though he preferred the playground to the classroom, Van de Ven is no dunce. He speaks three languages — Dutch, German and English — and wants to add Spanish and French to his vocabulary.

Those at Tottenham’s training ground say he is hugely popular among the group and has developed a particular bromance with Timo Werner, the forward on loan from RB Leipzig, while he and James Maddison have bonded over their love of darts.

It is with regret that Mino Raiola, the super-agent who passed away in 2022, never got to see how seamlessly his client took to the Premier League. Nor will he get to see how many caps he wins for the Netherlands national team, the current count standing at two as he rivals Van Dijk, Nathan Ake, Matthijs de Ligt, Stefan de Vrij and more.

Raiola worked hard to secure Van de Ven that first move to Wolfsburg when Volendam were accused of pricing him out of the transfer, the dispute eventually ending in a £3m fee accompanied by a sell-on clause. Today, Van de Ven is represented by Raiola Global Management, whose data and analytics department this week published a treasure trove of statistics which show the extraordinary ease with which he has embraced English football.

Van de Ven’s father, Marcel, flies to England weekly to watch his son for Tottenham and will be in Newcastle for today’s lunchtime match. Warned that the St James’ Park away end is situated in the heavens, he said he would happily sit on the roof if he had to.

Spoken like any proud father of a player quickly making the Premier League his home and showing no signs of slowing down.