Newcastle finally landed their main transfer target after a lengthy pursuit that started in January and, after weeks of speculation at the start of the summer, finally ended with Sven Botman signing on the dotted line and becoming a Magpie. But the Dutch defender’s career trajectory could have been a lot different.
The 6’4″ centre-back has been speaking to the Daily Mail and it was quite an eye-opening interview. The man, nicknamed “Robocop” in France may have to fight to keep that nickname at Newcastle with new youth singing Alex Murphy in the ranks (if you know, you know).
Botman was born into a family of Hockey players, but he quickly decided that it wasn’t the sport for him for a brilliant reason: “I was scared of the small hockey ball, It’s really hard. When people smash it, it hurts!”
Will Botman Go On To Be Our Vincent Kompany?
Definitely
Nah, We will sell him on
However, that wasn’t the only sport that Botman dabbled with before settling on football. It turns out that he was also pretty good at tennis and was courted (hehe) by the Netherland National Tennis Team. “I’ve never spoken about this, but I played tennis until I was nine. The Netherlands national tennis team wanted me to join. It could have been different, but I had to make a choice. I chose football.”
Botman goes on to talk about leaving Ajax and his relationship with new Manchester United boss, Erik ten Hag who sold him to Lille having never given him even a minute of first-team football. He also plays down the comparisons between himself and Liverpool centre-back, Virgil Van-Dijk. The man just oozes class and I can’t wait to see him out on the pitch bossing the defence for Newcastle.
THINK YOU KNOW NEWCASTLE? WHO IS THIS FORMER MAGPIE?