Mark van Bommel is happy with the arrival of Micky van de Ven to VfL Wolfsburg. The twenty-year-old defender made the much-discussed switch from FC Volendam to the Bundesliga club this summer, which ultimately paid 3.5 million euros for the talent and agreed to a still unknown resale percentage. “Micky has been on the list here for much longer”, Van Bommel assures on Saturday in The Telegraph.
“He is a player with a lot of qualities, but only twenty years old and of course comes from the Kitchen Champion Division with FC Volendam. Micky will have to get used to it, but that is also part of the philosophy of the club: let players grow. In a few years, such a player would no longer be affordable for a club like Wolfsburg,” emphasizes the trainer, who has not yet let his compatriot make his debut. The defender stayed on the bench against Lille OSC (0-0) last week.
“They are not going to pay crazy amounts here anymore. Wolfsburg has had to fight against relegation and has now been stable for a few years. They want to stay that way.” Wolfsburg initially wanted to take over Van de Ven for two million, but FC Volendam thought that offer was too low.The defender and agent Mino Raiola then initiated an arbitration case to enforce the contract termination. However, the North Holland club won the arbitration case, after which both the parties reached an agreement at a later stage.
“We are very pleased that we have succeeded in signing Micky van de Ven,” technical director Marcel Schäfer said on the club’s website at the end of August. “As a young player who is highly motivated and hungry for success, he fits our profile perfectly. We are convinced that he is far from the end of his development. He has great potential and we look forward to seeing him walk that successful path with us.”
The KNVB recently released the verdict of the arbitration case filed earlier by Van de Ven and Raiola against FC Volendam. This shows that the defender logically did not want to leave the Keuken Kampioen Division club and sign with VfL Wolfsburg solely for sporting reasons. The verdict released the exact monthly salary at both FC Volendam and the Bundesliga club and the differences are immense. Van de Ven was on the payroll at FC Volendam for 4,500 euros gross per month and would go to a monthly fee of 5,000 gross next season, 2022/23.
The defender’s monthly salary at VfL Wolfsburg is not sickening, assuming that club and player have shook hands on the basis of the first agreement. Van de Ven is now on the payroll of the Van Bommel and Wout Weghorst club for 80,000 euros gross per month. The center defender annex left back went through the youth academy of FC Volendam and broke through in the first team in 2019. In total, he made 48 official appearances for the club, producing 2 goals and 2 assists. Van de Ven was voted Best Talent of the past year in the Kitchen Champion Division, in which he finished sixth with his team. In the play-offs they lost to NAC Breda.