Candid interview with Micky van der Hart, well-deserved winner of the Hondsrug Cup: “FC Emmen’s artificial turf will cost you years of your career”

It’s Thursday morning, around ten o’clock. Mickey van der Hart has a cup of coffee with two of his acquaintances, including PEC Zwolle goalkeeper Jasper Schendelaar, in a shop on the corner of Deserportenplas and Torbekegracht in Zwolle, his current residence. “It’s definitely not small, is it,” Van der Hart says with a wide smile as the Hondsrug trophy is brought out. Of course, he would have loved to have exchanged the cup with the club Emmen to survive, but the shiny silver award is another confirmation of the generally excellent performance he had between the posts last season.

“The cup is tangible,” says Van der Hart. “It would be the fact that I got the player of the season award. Luckily, that goes with how I feel about my performance. That I did well overall and was able to make my contribution, except for that mediocre game against AZ. That’s why it’s such a shame we didn’t finish “The season on a positive note and you don’t leave with a good feeling. Because of this deterioration, that feeling goes from eight to six, so to speak. It has nothing to do with the club, because I had a good time there, but with the result. It’s a double feeling.”

evaluation

It took some time to process the initial disappointment with the landing. Van der Hart went on vacation to the United States with his girlfriend and traveled through cities like New York and Boston. Once back in the Netherlands, he looked back on his time at FC Emmen with a somewhat fresher outlook. “At first, my transition felt like a slight letdown. I had envisioned it a little differently last summer. I’d wanted to go abroad, but some things fell through. That’s why it was kind of a switch for me at first. Thankfully, Dick moved up.” Lookin’ for me a mirror. Like, “Why are you whining like that? You’re not here for nothing, are you? ”

Nothing but a good thing about Lukkien. Van der Hart quickly felt the confidence of the coach, who now leads FC Groningen. So it wasn’t long before he gave way to rival Erik Oelschlagl, who until then had been first choice under the crossbar. “Before, when I was still sitting on the bench, the audience sang my name. I liked it so much. Why did they do that? I really still don’t know. Maybe because I’m an extroverted person, I don’t smile at words and always say them as they are? I think that’s appreciated. Support And feeling appreciated definitely benefited me.”

The 29-year-old goalkeeper has played 32 matches for FC Emmen, including cup and play-off matches. Seven times he managed to keep a clean goal, which is quite an achievement for a team in need. “Of course, landing still tastes bad,” Van der Hart says with a contorted face. “For myself and the whole club. But I can only say that the combination of colleagues, staff and fans was absolutely fantastic. There was seldom a day when I pushed him so reluctantly into the club. In that respect I have a lovely feeling about my time at Emmen. So I will follow the club always “.

artificial grass

It may sound strange, Van der Hart says, but last season made him realize once again how much fun his job actually is. “I still remember the first leg against SC Heerenveen. We won it at the last minute. I was sitting on the bus on the way back and thought: What a beautiful game. As you lost 0-1 against Fortuna Sittard a few weeks ago, head home and think: jeez, what kind of rock game is this? You go from high to low and vice versa. Aside from the end result, I also enjoyed the playoffs for example. That tension, that atmosphere. Lovely.”

It wasn’t all cake and egg, Amstelvener continues. In his view, FC Emmen was not relegated for nothing. “There wasn’t enough quality in the selection. That plus several injuries was disastrous. The starting setup has been changed a lot. When you get into the dressing room, Jeroen Veldmate and Lorenzo Burnett’s shirts are ready, but they’re not playing. These are important forces. They might be replaced by youngsters Talented people like Julius Dirksen and Dennis Vos, but they sometimes make mistakes in judgment. That’s what youth is. You can get away with that in a well-functioning team. That wasn’t the case with us.”

Van der Hart largely attributes the injuries to FC Emmen’s artificial turf field. “This field is just a 2 out of 10. For me a real reason to leave the club. Had I stayed another year, it would have cost me two years of my career. I couldn’t practice properly from January to April because my hips were constantly hurting from falling, despite wearing Padded shorts. The court is very hard, no cushioning. And the spray doesn’t help much, it dries up after 5 minutes. Physically, it’s affected many players. Take Darvalo, Burnett, Feldmite, Hosen, Zivkovic; you name it. It wasn’t Antonis can also train.”

fee

“At 29, I’m not young anymore, but I’m not that old either,” Van der Hart continues. “Hopefully I can go on for at least another eight years. But this field only takes years out of your career and isn’t worth it. Just before the play-offs there was talk of coaching at an amateur club. Dick Locken was in favor, even the field was checked, But in the end the policy makers didn’t want that. The existing field had to be tackled first, but that hardly helped. Shame. That other field would have produced less tonnage. Not entirely unimportant at a crucial stage where you play many games in Shortly “.

“Don’t underestimate it, though. You just start training more carefully. I also slacked off. I haven’t participated in finishing forms since January. If I move to the left five times, my shoulder hurts again. It wasn’t laziness, it couldn’t be.” He did. Thankfully, Dick understood that. But I wouldn’t exactly describe it as a normal situation that you have to back out of during the week so you can only play one game in the weekend. We as players had been pointing out all season that this wasn’t practical, but it wasn’t done. did anything to it. Now we will never know if it will help the fight for survival.”

After that, the damage is done. The piling up of things, including the pitch, the sometimes silly way of playing (“Football doesn’t always have to be pretty, throw the ball forward”) and the lack of players who set the tone through kick distribution (“If Michael Kieftenbeld had been fit, he would have done it”) , according to van der Hart, led to the drop. “Partly because of this, he always fell the other way in important matches. I think the best example of that was Jeremy Antunes’ shot into the crosshairs, during the play-offs in Almere. It doesn’t go in… That was typical of our season.”

Like many other players who have left the club, Van der Hart has been looking for a new club these weeks. Preferably outside. He was already close to a new adventure, but it didn’t happen at the last minute. Meanwhile, he maintains his physique. goalkeeper training, strength training, golf, paddle board; The days will be filled. Wherever he plays next year, Hendsrogul will go with him. “I have a cupboard that also contains the figurine I received when I was elected Talent of the Future at Ajax in 2012. That is where this trophy comes in. At least, if it is appropriate, ha ha.”