With only a few days to go until the new Premier League season starts, Tottenham are busy finalising fresh arrivals to bolster Ange Postecoglou’s squad. They’ve agreed a deal for Dutch defender Micky van de Ven who, subject to passing his medical, will arrive from VfL Wolfsburg. Below, we’ll look at the full details of the deal, including the Micky van de Ven transfer fee.
The 6 foot 4 inch centre-back is already in London and was spotted at Spurs’ weekend charity match against Shakhtar Donetsk. He is undergoing medical tests along with young Argentine forward Alejo Veliz and both players should be formally confirmed as new Tottenham Hotspur players in the coming days, almost certainly before Spurs travel across London to play Brentford in their Premier League season opener.
Micky van de Ven transfer fee
🚨| Tottenham Hotspur will pay an initial €30M for Micky Van de Ven. Wolfsburg will be due another €20M if various clauses are met within the contract.
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The full Micky van de Ven transfer fee that will see the defender move to North London could rise to as much as €50m, around £43m. However the initial fee will be considerably less than that with Spurs only set to pay €30m up front according to The Times with the remainder consisting of various add-ons which depend on how well Van de Ven settles into life in the Premier League.
That makes it a more favourable deal from a Spurs perspective than an outright €50m transfer which would have been a lot of money for a player who enjoyed a major breakthrough season at Wolfsburg last term, but was far from an established starter prior to that.
The deal is expected to be a five year contract. That would keep Micky van de Ven at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium until the summer of 2028, by which point he should really be coming into his prime as a central defender.
Is Micky van de Ven worth €50m?
Micky van de Ven has enjoyed a terrific twelve months, establishing himself as one of the best young defenders in the Bundesliga where he started 33 of Wolfsburg’s 34 games last term. That represents a meteoric rise for the 22 year old who had only started 2 matches in top flight European football before last summer.
His early years were spent in the Dutch second tier with FC Volendam and credit must go to Wolfsburg’s recruitment team for spotting his talent with the German club paying €3.5m for his services in the summer of 2021. A frustrating first season in Germany restricted Van de Ven to just 189 minutes of Bundesliga action but he more than made up for that last term with some composed displays in the heart of the Wolfsburg defence.
Having never played in European competition or for the Dutch national team, it’s fair to say that Micky van de Ven is still relatively lacking in top level experience. That helps explain why there are so many add-ons built into the deal as there is clearly an element of risk involved in this transfer as we wait to see how the centre-back adapts to the demands of playing for a big club in the Premier League.
The initial €30m fee is perhaps a fairer reflection of Van de Ven’s current market value but that could rise rapidly if the Dutchman hits the ground running in England. Spurs will most likely be relieved to finally be on the brink of closing out a deal for a central defender given their lack of convincing options in that area.
The plan will most likely be to pair left-sided Van de Ven with Argentina international Cristian Romero in central defence this season. At 22 and 25 years old respectively, Van de Ven and Romero could potentially develop into a long-term central defensive pairing for Spurs.
