Heartfelt interview with well-deserved Hondsrug Cup winner Mickey van der Hart: ‘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 acquaintances, including PEC Zwolle goalkeeper Jasper Schendelaar, at a shop on the corner of Diezerpoortenplas and Thorbeckegracht in Zwolle, his current residence. “It’s definitely not a small one, is it,” Van der Hart said with a broad smile as the Hondsrug cup came out. Of course, he would have loved to trade the trophy for survival with FC Emmen, but the brilliant prize money is further confirmation of the generally excellent performances he delivered between the posts last season.

“The cup is something tangible,” says Van der Hart. “It will always be a fact that I was voted best player of the season. Fortunately, it corresponds to the feeling I have of my own performance. That I have generally reached a good level and that I was able to bring my contribution, except for that mediocre game against AZ. That’s why it’s such a shame that we didn’t end the season on a positive note and that you didn’t come away with a good feeling. Because of this degradation, that feeling goes from an eight to a 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.”

Assessment

It took time to process the initial disappointment of relegation. Van der Hart vacationed in the United States with his girlfriend, traveling through cities like New York and Boston. Once back in the Netherlands, he looks back on his time at FC Emmen with a slightly fresher look. “At first, I experienced my transfer as a slight disappointment. I had imagined it a little differently last summer. I wanted to go abroad, but some things got out of hand. That’s why it was a bit of a change for me at first. Fortunately, Dick Lukkien handed me a mirror. Like, ‘Why are you complaining like that? You’re not here for nothing, are you?

Nothing but good about Lukkien. Van der Hart quickly regained the confidence of the head coach, now at the helm of FC Groningen. It was not long before his competitor Eric Oelschlägel, until then first choice under the crossbar, had to give up his place. “Before that, when I was still sitting on the bench, the audience was chanting my name. I liked that very much. Why did they do this? I really still don’t know. Maybe because I’m an open person, I don’t mince my words and I always tell things as they are? I think it’s appreciated. The support, the feeling that you are valued, certainly made me feel good.

The 29-year-old goalkeeper eventually played 32 matches for FC Emmen, including the cup and the play-offs. Seven times he managed to keep his goal clean, a great feat for a team in need. “Of course that aftertaste of relegation still sucks,” says Van der Hart with a twisted face. “For me and for the whole club. But I can only say that the combination of teammates, staff and fans was just very nice. There was hardly ever a day when I went to the club reluctantly. In this regard, I have a good feeling about my stay in Emmen. So I will always follow the club.

Artificial turf

It may sound strange, says Van der Hart, but last season made him realize once again just how much fun his job is. “I still remember the away game against SC Heerenveen. We won it at the last minute. I was sitting on the bus on the way home and thinking: what a great game this is. When you lost 0-1 to Fortuna Sittard a few weeks earlier, drive home and think, ‘Damn, what kind of rock game is this? You go up and down and vice versa. Besides the result final, I also appreciated the play-offs, for example. This tension, this atmosphere. Beautiful.”

It wasn’t all cake and egg, continues the Amstelvener. In his eyes, FC Emmen was not relegated for nothing. “There was not enough quality in the selection. This, combined with the many injuries, was disastrous. The basic configuration has been changed too often. When you enter the dressing room, Jeroen Veldmate and Lorenzo Burnet’s shirts are ready, but they are not playing. These are important strengths. They can be replaced by talented young guys like Julius Dirksen and Dennis Vos, but they sometimes make mistakes in judgement. It’s youth. You can get away with it in a team that is running well. This was not the case with us. »

Van der Hart largely blames the injuries on the artificial grass pitch at FC Emmen. “This field is only a 2 out of 10. For me, a real reason to leave the club. If I had stayed one more year, it would have cost me two years of my career. I don’t have any just couldn’t train properly from January to April because my hips were constantly hurting from falls, despite wearing shock absorbing shorts.The ground is just hard, there is no cushioning. And the spray doesn’t help much, it dries after 5 minutes Physically it’s taken a toll on many guys Take Darfalou, Burnet, Veldmate, Hoesen, Zivkovic you name it Antonisse could barely stand train.

Design

“At 29, I’m not young anymore, but I’m not that old either,” continues Van der Hart. “I hope to be able to continue for at least another eight years. But this field just takes years out of your career and it’s not worth it. Towards the play-offs, we were talking about training in an amateur club. Dick Lukkien was in favor of it, the field had even been checked, but in the end the decision-makers did not want it. The current field needed to be processed first, but that didn’t help much. Shame. This other field would have given less charge. Not entirely unimportant in a crucial phase where you play many matches in a short time.

“Don’t underestimate him though. You just start training more carefully. I’ve held back too. I haven’t been on finishing forms since January. If I dipped left five times, I still had shoulder pain. It wasn’t laziness, it was just impossible. Luckily Dick figured it out. But I wouldn’t exactly call it a normal situation that you have to hold back during the week so you can’t play only one game on the weekend. As players we have indicated all season that this was not feasible but nothing was done with it. We will never know if it would have helped in the struggle for survival.

It’s after, the damage is done. The accumulation of things, including the pitch, the sometimes naive way of playing (“football does not always have to be beautiful, throw that ball forward”) and the lack of players who set the tone by giving a kick (“If Maikel Kieftenbeld was fit, he would have done that”), according to Van der Hart, led to relegation. “Partly because of that, it always fell the other way in the important matches. I think the best example was Jeremy Antonisse’s shot from the intersection in the Almere play-off. That he does not enter… It was typical of our season.

Like several other players who have left the club, Van der Hart finds himself looking for a new club these weeks. Preferably abroad. He was already close to a new adventure, but it didn’t happen at the last minute. In the meantime, he is keeping fit. Goalkeeper training, bodybuilding, golf, padel; the days will be full. Wherever he plays next year, Hondsruggoal will accompany him. “I have a cupboard which also contains the statue I received when I was voted Talent of the Future at Ajax in 2012. That’s where this trophy comes in. At least, if it fits, ha Ha.