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Scunthorpe United striker Kevin van Veen describes himself off the pitch as ‘honest’ in this week’s Sky Bet EFL Q&A. He couldn’t have used a more apt adjective.
The 27-year-old’s cupboard is positively rattling with skeletons. He admits he was a big-head as an academy player at PSV Eindhoven, has no problem saying he enjoyed working as a plasterer while he salvaged his playing career and couldn’t be more candid about the gambling addiction which controlled his life for the best part of a decade.
The Dutchman’s humanity shines through it all and the ‘Budget Bergkamp’, as he is affectionately known by Scunthorpe fans, is now back at Glanford Park for a second spell after leaving for Northampton a year ago.
Scunthorpe United striker Kevin van Veen describes himself off the pitch as ‘honest’
Describe yourself on the pitch in 3 words.
Creative and imaginative. A winner. A team player.
Describe yourself off the pitch in 3 words.
Chilled. Honest. Funny.
Best moment of your career so far?
I have had a few of them. I built myself up. I was in the PSV Eindhoven youth academy for nine years, but when they sent me away because they told me I wasn’t good enough, that I was too small, I started playing with my friends in an amateur team. My dream was crushed because I am a big PSV fan.
I started scoring goals and then every year I got more interest from teams higher up. Every time I made a little step upwards and before I knew it, I was back in professional football. That was quite a proud moment.
Then in the Netherlands, in the second tier league I was actually the top scorer. I scored more goals than Messi and Ronaldo that season, but obviously that was at a lower level.
When I signed for a Championship team, FC Oss, that was a really proud moment for me because I had worked my way the whole way back up.
I scored 18 goals in my first two-and-a-half months, then before I knew it, I had interest from Azerbaijan, Germany, England, France, Spain, Portugal, all sorts because I was the highest scorer in Europe at the time.
I also had a really proud moment for Scunthorpe in the FA Cup at Chelsea in a sold-out stadium (Chelsea won 2-0 in the third round in January 2016). Chelsea were struggling in the league, so they put a really good team out.
Guus Hiddink had just become the caretaker manager and he was actually my old manager from the youth team at PSV, so we wished each other good luck in Dutch before kick-off.
There was another moment a couple of years ago at Scunthorpe when we were top of League One and absolutely smashing the league, winning every weekend. Unfortunately we couldn’t keep it going and we ended up not getting promoted, but those kinds of moments always stick with you.
The 27-year-old admits he was a big-head as an academy player at PSV Eindhoven
Who is the hardest opponent you have faced?
I faced Cesar Azpilicueta and Branislav Ivanovic in the FA Cup. They were very fit and very smart, but the one who gave me the hardest games was definitely Virgil van Dijk when we were in the youth teams in Holland.
I played for PSV, he played for the Willem II academy. We played against each other for years. He was already a strong boy whereas I was really small and he always gave me a tough time.
I couldn’t tell at that time that he would definitely make it, though. Not like he has. He was still young and you could see his technical side, but I didn’t think at that moment in time that he would become the most expensive defender in the world.
I was extra small at that time, always the smallest on the pitch and he was way taller than anyone else. He was physical, strong. He had big Afro hair and he was really tall and big. He didn’t give me a yard of space, he was always on me. I remember that well.
Most embarrassing moment in football?
I haven’t had a really embarrassing one on the pitch, but being released by PSV wasn’t nice. When you are younger in Holland and you are a PSV player, you are treated differently at school and you’re always with the popular kids. I see that as a bad thing now because I’m mature, but that’s how it was back in the day. As a PSV academy player I got treated differently, but then when I left, I wasn’t a PSV player any more.
At that time, I thought I was better than some other children, but actually I wasn’t. I was just a normal kid again. Not embarrassing, but it was tough.
Which song gets you in the mood for a match?
Basically everything. I love almost everything, but not rock ‘n’ roll. There’s a Miami house mix track ‘(I’ll Bring You) Flowers (In the Pouring Rain)’ that has always been played at the clubs I’ve been at. It’s an up tempo mix and everybody enjoys that song.
You get good DJs and bad DJs at clubs. We have Funso Ojo as the DJ at Scunthorpe now. It was Tom Hopper, but he’s not here any more (now at Southend). He had really good music, very enjoyable.
What’s your guilty food pleasure?
Maybe a KFC. I do like one of those from time to time. I like chicken although obviously fried chicken is not really healthy.
Most footballers after a game do enjoy a can of Coke, those types of things.
Maybe if I have a good game and I score, then I might think of having a takeaway.
Which player in history would you like to play alongside – and why?
Dennis Bergkamp. He’s Dutch and he was an absolute magician – one of the best players there has ever been, I think. He was always so many steps ahead of other players and he already knew in his head what he was doing. And his touch was unbelievable. He could set me up for a few goals as well.
They call me the ‘Budget Bergkamp’ here at Scunthorpe. Obviously I’m nowhere near his level – I wish I had 10% of the quality he had – but sometimes I do some good things on the pitch.
Former Arsenal striker Dennis Bergkamp was the player he would have liked to play alongside
Which famous manager would you have loved to play for – and why?
Sir Alex Ferguson. He’s a legend, but what he did for Man Utd, no manager really comes near to what he achieved.
He’s got the status around him like he’s an absolute boss – in a good way like he owns everything, like someone you really look up to. There are the stats and then if you listen to his old players, the biggest names talk about how he managed them and you just think: ‘Wow.’
What would you be if you weren’t a footballer?
When I was in the lower leagues in Holland working my way back up, I was a plasterer. A semi-professional footballer and I worked. I worked from half-five or six in the morning. I finished around 1pm, I’d get my training stuff, go to training and then sometimes after the training session, I’d go back to the job. That was my rhythm until I became professional again and had a monthly income which could pay all my bills.
That was from 17 until about five years ago, so until I was 22. I had a lot of work going on because I was very clean as a plasterer, very precise and people liked me in the area, so I had a lot of jobs to do. But my football was going well, I kept scoring 20 goals a season everywhere and making a step higher and higher. It was when I could sign anywhere I wanted really that I stopped with the plastering.
I did enjoy it, but I had always thought I was going to make it as a footballer, so I didn’t really pay attention at school.
I know where I have come from. I worked really hard for a lot less money than I’m earning at the moment as a professional footballer, so I really appreciate everything.
I was working from six in the morning in buildings without windows and absolutely freezing to death for 30 or 40 Euros a day, so I take those life lessons with me. But if I needed to do it again in the next couple of years, I don’t feel too good or too big not to work and get my hands dirty. I wouldn’t mind it at all.
Van Veen would have liked to have played for former Man United boss Sir Alex Ferguson
Tell us a secret that fans won’t know…
It’s not really a secret and I think people already know, but I had a really big gambling problem since I was 18.
It was on the roulette table. It was since I was 18 but I carried it on over the years and when you earn more money, you lose bigger money. I started with £10 but before I knew it, it was a lot more. A year’s wages, I could waste that in a day.
I got help from a lot of people. My mum and dad sent me to a psychologist to try and overcome it. When you’re gambling, you keep it all to yourself.
I wasn’t allowed to go in a casino until I was 18. It just started as fun and before I knew it, I had got addicted to it and totally out of control for years.
I’ve been in rehab and clinics and been speaking to psychologists and help groups, everything. I had a fall back (relapse) a year and a half ago, a bad one, so it’s basically a year-and-a-half that I’ve not done any gambling.
It’s quite tough for people who don’t have an addiction to understand the feeling you get when you do want to gamble. I didn’t even care about winning or losing, I just wanted to see it, the bones in your body need it.
Over nine years, I literally lost everything, so I built my way back up. It’s in the past now but I will never forget it. You are addicted to gambling your whole life. I will be addicted to gambling my whole life. That’s what people in clinics and rehab tell me, but you need to manage it and have control over it. Don’t play board games because it sets you off, don’t let anything trigger your addiction.
A lot has happened in my life over it, but it’s all good now.
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