Heerenveen striker Van Amersfoort is farmer Pelle one day a week

In association with

Omrop Friesland

NOS News•today, 12:21

At first glance it takes some getting used to. But it’s really him: SC Heerenveen striker Pelle van Amersfoort who is giving milk to the calves on the farm of farmer Bartele Holtrop near Rotstergaast.

Van Amersfoort (28) does an internship on the Frisian farm one day a week, he explains to Omrop Fryslân.

The footballer’s overalls feature a pompeblêd, which is also on the Frisian flag, with the print ‘Boer Pelle’ underneath:

Heerenveen striker Van Amersfoort helps on the farm

From the football field to the cowshed: it is not an everyday combination for a professional football player, but Van Amersfoort still took the step. The striker is also a fanatic hunter and regularly spends his hobby in a meadow near Rotstergaast, not far from Heerenveen. This is how he came into contact with farming, where he can now be found almost every week.

To milk cows, cut vegetables in the restaurant or help out in the shop. This training day he takes milk from the large tank and gives it to calves in a bottle. “Beautiful,” he laughs. “Isn’t this a nice thing to do? Such beautiful animals, that you can be part of them, I think is very nice.”

“Of course he remains a football player,” laughs farmer Bartele Holtrop when asked how his trainee is doing. “But a top athlete does have the mindset to perform and create something. I hope that during the time he spends with us, he will pick out the things that suit him. If we can give him that, that’s good enough for us.”

Van Amersfoort: “I don’t think I will become a real farmer in the future. I think you have to have grown up with that.” But sooner or later, setting up a similar farm, where others can join in, seems like something to him.

“It is not yet clear what exactly it will look like,” he says. “But I’m a fishing and hunting guy. So it’s clear that it will be something organic and sustainable.”

But first Van Amersfoort will be back on the field tonight, when SC Heerenveen plays against FC Twente (9 p.m.).

Who knows, maybe his teammates run extra fast, because Van Amersfoort sometimes brings them a piece of meat. “Goose sausage or venison steak from animals that I have shot myself. When they taste it, they always like it. That’s a good sign, I think.”