The striker and his mother, who was a Dutch world champion swimmer, discuss his upbringing and the strong-willed attitude that has made him one of Europe’s most wanted players

Vincent Janssen was 21 when he became the Dutch Eredivisie’s leading scorer. At that age his mother, Annemarie, had quit as a top swimmer. Five years earlier, in 1982, she had become the sport’s first Dutch world champion, in the 200m freestyle, under her maiden name Verstappen. She was crowned sportswoman of the year.

In talking with Annemarie and Vincent, who on Tuesday joined Tottenham Hotspur from AZ, for the Dutch paper de Volkskrant a couple of months ago, it immediately became clear where their mentalities overlap and differ.

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In Vincent’s near-empty living room in Haarlem some of his individual trophies catch the eye. The striker is proud of them and motivated by them. His mother could scarcely be more different. “Her swimming medals are in the attic somewhere,” Vincent says. “Only the Jaap Eden trophy [for sportswoman of the year] is in the living room but she would prefer to put it behind the curtain.”

“I’m not one for the centre of the attention,” Annemarie says.

“I would have made a special altar for such a prize,” admits Vincent.

Annemarie was so fed up with her sport that for years she did not swim. “My youngest son, Sebastian, only found out I could swim when I was knighted some years ago,” she says, smiling.

She enjoys herself more in the football stadiums watching Vincent play than she did in the pool when all eyes were on her. “I look back on my swimming days in a very positive way,” she says. “But I felt too much pressure. I was so young, just 16, when I became world champion.”

Her performance was extra special because she swam in the era when East Germans reigned in the pool, although suspicions of doping surrounded them. “It was clear to me they were using [drugs],” she says. “In the locker room you heard all male voices but you knew the men put their clothes on at the other side of the building. Their arms and legs were hairy. That was frustrating, because you could not win.”

She managed to do so once, at those 1982 world championships in Ecuador. “They did not know me. I had a kind of suicide tactic: I made an extremely fast start and tried to keep it up till the end. By doing that I surprised them. But also myself.”

A boycott by communist countries of the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles gave her the ideal opening but she failed to win a gold. “I was glad I made it [to the Olympics],” she says. “I felt the pressure constantly. My stomach was upset because of the tension. Everybody looked at me constantly, even when I went to get groceries. Sport psychologists weren’t common in those days, unfortunately.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Vincent Janssen’s mother, Annemarie, right, at the medal ceremony after finishing third in the 100m freestyle at the 1984 Olympic Games. She competed under her maiden name Verstappen. Photograph: AP

The swimming bug got hold of her daughters. Frederique hopes to qualify for the Olympics in four years. Like her mother, she specialises in short-distance freestyle.

Vincent spent time in the pool only on holidays and, his mother says, was “just fooling around”. Vincent says. “I found it really boring. I still do. Thirty seconds and it’s over. I try to support my sister but I can’t stand being in a hot swimming hall for too long.”

Annemarie reflects: “He swam like a dog – he just wanted to play football. When he returned from school, he had already played soccer on two fields. Totally hooked. His father is football-mad as well.”

The sports are not comparable. “Swimming you do individually, you make controlled movements, you train a lot harder and more often,” Annemarie says. “When Frederique comes out of the pool for the first time, Vincent is still lying in bed. But he is definitely not spoiled or lazy. For football training you’ll never have to encourage him.”

Vincent says: “I sometimes train extra till four or five o’clock at the gym if I feel that I have to do something extra. You have players who will only do what the coaches ask from them and then go home. Football has become more physical, which the Dutch teams noticed in recent years in Europe. You have to be strong if you want to have a chance against defenders of international clubs.”

He is benefiting from the work he has done. Last season was his first in the Eredivisie but he got better as it unfolded, scoring 21 of his 27 goals after the winter break and making his Holland debut at the end of March. He worked his way up to become the national coach Danny Blind’s first-choice central striker, scoring three times. “My body is strong,” he says. “And I have a strong will.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Vincent Janssen tussles with Chris Smalling, right, during Holland’s friendly win against England in March. The striker equalised with a penalty. Photograph: Michael Regan/The FA via Getty Images

Annemarie smiles: “Other boys in the street did not want to be in his team because he got very angry when he lost. If it took too long before he had the ball, he moved back to pick it up.”

He is a strong striker, she was a slim technician. “I will never do fun tricks, I just want to score that goal,” he says. “I’m always looking for it. More in [Luis] Suárez-style than Neymar-style, you could say.”

Annemarie says: “He knows exactly what he wants. I was different. When I was still in the lead at that golden world championships with 50 metres to go, I thought: ‘What’s this? I can become world champion? Who, me? I’d never thought of that. I was only 16. The road of Vincent and Frederique is more gradual, which is the best route, I think.”

At the age when his mother peaked, Vincent experienced a difficult phase in Feyenoord’s academy. “At my first clubs, TOP Oss and NEC, I was the one everybody looked at and talked about but at Feyenoord I was one of many good players. If you trained badly there, you got to hear it from everyone. I had to get used to that; also I picked up some injuries. In my last year at the youth academy everything finally went well. I scored a lot, we were champions. But I didn’t get a contract.”

A setback. “But I thought: ‘It’s not finished.’ I immediately thought of the next step.”

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Annemarie says: “He was never in doubt whether he would make it or not. I can get quite worked up over a silly piece about him. He says: ‘Just don’t read it.’” Vincent adds: “When I did not score a lot at AZ in the beginning, many people said: ‘He can’t do it on this level.’ But I knew that, if I scored one goal, more would follow.”

He calls himself a self-made player. After Feyenoord he went to the second-tier club Almere City and not to his local club TOP Oss, because at Almere he could train twice a day. “That I’m so calm in front of goal is a matter of training. Finishing, finishing, finishing; all the time. I was always the last one in the dressing room after training and on my day off I asked if there was a goalkeeper who wanted to train with me. Sometimes other guys were complaining that they didn’t get a chance. I am not one for apologies. You have to make your own destiny.” Annemarie says: “That’s a difference with swimming. You cannot hide yourself – everything is clearly measurable.’

There are not many strikers in the Netherlands who play like Janssen. He is a one-man army, a team player and a goalscorer rolled into one. Ruud van Nistelrooy seems the best comparison. Vincent says with a smile: “He’s from the town of Oss, just like me. Well, I understand that comparison, although clearly I’m not at the same level as he was at his best, of course. He was also not supertechnical but tremendously focused and driven. I’m going to do everything for a career like he had. Even if I have to put my hand into fire.’

And he adds with a laugh: “Just don’t make me swim.”

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