Tottenham Hotspur striker Vincent Janssen (#9). (Photo : Getty Images)
Vincent Janssen joined English top flight club Tottenham Hotspur this month on a dream £18.5 million transfer deal from Eredivisie side AZ Alkmaar and said that it was an "easy choice" for him to make.
The 22-year-old Dutch striker is the perfect example on the benefits of always giving your best every time you are on the pitch as a footballer regardless of where you are and who you are playing for. From playing for a team in the second tier division in his homeland to the English Premier League in just two years, no one would have believed it, except Janssen himself.
Janssen started playing football when he was 15 years old for top Eredivisie club Feyenoord, but was waived from the said youth academy after four years and winning the U19 Dutch national title.
Desperate to pursue his dream of becoming a professional footballer, the Heesch, Netherlands native almost quit the sport altogether as no club had offered him anything as a free agent.
Eventually, an offer from Eerste Divisie (the Netherlands second-tier association football competitions) team Almere City came and he decided to accept it and give himself a second chance on the game he loves most.
"When you play in the Dutch second division, it's not like you can live off that for your whole life," Janssen told reporters in an interview during Tottenham's preseason tour in Australia as part of the 2016 International Champions Cup, via Daily Mail Online.
"I said to myself: 'I'm going to invest, I'm going to try it one more time' and I got a really good club, a really good coach and pushed myself," Janssen said.
He pushed himself indeed as he scored 32 times in a total of 74 appearances in two seasons with the Sheepheads, as per Caught Offside, which is quite a remarkable feat for a teenager.
Janssen then moved to AZ Alkmaar, Feyenoord's Eredivisie rivals, who signed him to a four-year contract in 2015.
From there, determined to put his doubters wrong, he wreaked havoc in the Dutch top flight, unleashing an astonishing 27 goals in 34 contests for the Cheeseheads last term, making him the youngest player to score more than 25 goals in a single Eredivisie season since Brazilian legend Ronaldo did it during the 1994-1995 season.
And finally this summer his dreams are fulfilled when he signed a four-year contract with one of the big boys themselves, English club Tottenham Hotspur, in an Alkmaar transfer record of £18.5 million.
It is really unbelievable sometimes how things work out for good if you push yourself and don't quit.
"It's gone crazy fast," confessed Janssen. "For myself, I always trusted myself. I said I'm going for it and if it doesn't work I can say I did everything. It went very well at Almere and I could make my step in two years."
"For me the choice was an easy one. I told myself when I had choices that I would only pick the one that was 100 percent. And for me Tottenham was 100 percent the right choice," he added.
