Dutch forward Janssen measured against a famous predecessor

Vincent Janssen was born on 15 June 1994 in Heesch in the Netherlands. At 15 he took the first big step in his development as a footballer, moving from NEC Nijmegen’s academy to Feyenoord’s U17 side. It is hard to understand how Feyenoord let such a talented striker go, but they simply released him. Almere City, in the second tier of Dutch football, took advantage and signed the forward on a free in 2013.

The striker quickly won a place in his new team’s starting eleven and became a crucial part of Almere City’s attack. In his first season of professional football, Janssen scored ten goals in 35 league matches, 25 of them as a starter. The next season, 2014/15, was even more successful for the youngster. He found the net 19 times in 34 league games, helping Almere City finish 11th in the Eerste Divisie. On 11 April 2015 Janssen scored the first hat-trick of his career to secure a 3-2 win over Sparta Rotterdam, and he also scored twice in a remarkable Dutch Cup victory over ADO Den Haag.

His excellent club form quickly earned him a call-up to the Netherlands U22 squad, where he made three appearances and scored twice.

That was enough for AZ Alkmaar to sign the talented striker. The Cheeseheads paid €400,000 for Janssen, a fee that turned out to be one of their best pieces of business. The forward scored 27 goals in 34 Eredivisie matches to finish as the league’s top scorer. He hit a hat-trick against his former club Feyenoord, making them regret letting him go, and went one better against PEC Zwolle, scoring four goals in a single match.

Janssen also played ten Europa League matches for AZ Alkmaar, scoring three times. His remarkable form won him a place in the Netherlands U21 squad, where he scored six goals in five games.

A call-up to the senior national team was the only logical next step, and Vincent Janssen showed that it was the right decision. In only his second game for his country he scored against England at Wembley. He had two goals in four games for the Netherlands and was eager for more.

He has excellent positioning and good finishing skills. By then the youngster was a complete striker with more than 70 goals in official matches in his career.

Janssen was valued at €6m at the time, and it would have come as no surprise if one of the biggest clubs paid AZ Alkmaar to sign him.

The move to Tottenham

The big transfer duly arrived. On 12 July 2016 Tottenham Hotspur signed Janssen from AZ for £17 million on a four-year contract. His 27 league goals in 2015–16, which made him the Eredivisie’s top scorer, had also earned him the Johan Cruyff Trophy as the Dutch league’s talent of the year in 2016. In England goals proved harder to come by: in 2016–17 he scored two Premier League goals and six in all competitions.

He spent the 2017–18 season on loan at Fenerbahçe, where he scored four Süper Lig goals, and in July 2019 he joined Monterrey in Mexico on a permanent deal. In June 2022 he moved to Antwerp in Belgium and won the 2022–23 Belgian Cup there. For the Netherlands he won 22 caps and scored seven goals between 2016 and 2022.

The van Nistelrooy comparison

The benchmark in the headline was a demanding one. Ruud van Nistelrooy, whose style was often compared with Janssen’s, was the Eredivisie’s top scorer for PSV Eindhoven in 1998–99 with 31 goals and in 1999–2000 with 29. Manchester United paid £19 million for him in 2001, and he scored 150 goals in 219 appearances for the club, winning the Premier League Golden Boot in 2002–03 with 25 goals. He later played for Real Madrid, Hamburger SV and Málaga before retiring in 2012, and he scored 35 goals in 70 matches for the Netherlands.