Friday, May 7, 2021 at 12:38 PM• Last update: 12:42

Bart Vriends is not only a defender of Sparta Rotterdam, but is also active in the media landscape. He has a weekly talk show feature Eve and has been making the weekly Cor Potcast with fellow footballers Maarten de Fockert and Thomas Verhaar. In the podcast ‘where peripheral issues, side issues and a little football intertwine’, various politicians were guests in the run-up to the parliamentary elections on 17 March. Vriends does not have good memories of the conversation with Thierry Baudet, he says in an interview with de Volkskrant.

Vriends calls the broadcast with the Forum for Democracy leader ‘very tough and uncomfortable’. “I found him unpleasant, disinterested and provocative from the start. He wanted to shake our hand. When we refused, he said, ‘Do you believe in that nonsense?”, Says Vriends. “He says crazy things, and then it is not very strange if you argue against that. Immediately the reflex came that we were framing him. As if we were seasoned journalists or politicians who had been looking for him for years, instead. of three curious professional footballers. “

Vriends, who obtained a bachelor’s degree in Communication from the University of Amsterdam and then a master’s degree in Journalism at Erasmus University, is known in football for his general knowledge and social involvement, among other things. “Ever since I took part in De Slimste Mens and a video went around on the internet in which I mention all kinds of capitals all over the world, I have sometimes been portrayed as the smartest player in the Eredivisie. But that’s not the case,” he winks.

In the interview, the 29-year-old Spartan is presented with a dilemma: ‘deep thinker or drowsy doer’? “I choose deep thinker, although as a football player you can only think: I am simply the best. I find those confident types, like Memphis Depay, immensely fascinating. Such a mindset helps a lot. Doubting is a bad idea. in top sport “, Vriends realizes. “It is not the case that, if you are highly educated or can learn easily, you also do the smartest things on the field. You can see that in my game, haha.”