Club love leads Van den Brom back to Vitesse in the darkest of times: ‘Hope gives life’

NOS Football•today, 06:13

John van den Brom’s club heart started beating harder and harder when it turned out that his great football love was on the verge of death. And so Van den Brom, knowing that it might not happen at all, offered his help to Vitesse.

“Club love still exists, even in professional football.”

His presentation on Wednesday morning in Arnhem as the proposed new head coach seemed almost incidental. The appointment of clubman Van den Brom was canceled due to the announcement of a crowdfunding campaign to save the club from its dire situation.

After years of wrangling with lenders, it is now up to supporters to lend a helping hand. And so to Van den Brom, who becomes the face of the crowdfunding campaign.

Clubman Van den Brom face of crowdfunding Vitesse: ‘Hope gives life’

“This is more than just my club,” Van den Brom explains his arrival. The former midfielder started his professional career at Vitesse and played more than three hundred matches for the Arnhem formation over two periods. “This is the club where it all started for me. This feels like coming home.”

So coming home. The question is whether that is definitive settle down means, or that it only concerns temporary accommodation. Because it is far from certain whether the club will still exist next season due to the acute licensing problems.

“I was of course aware of the problem,” says Van den Brom. “It was clear from the first second that everything is subject to change. I hope that this will become clear soon.” Did club love play a role? “What is going on here is close to my heart.”

That club love goes far, as evidenced by crowdfunding. Because Van den Brom actually doesn’t like being so prominently the face of a unique campaign. “But it is a starting signal. Despite, or perhaps because of, all the problems, we have to look ahead. We are all frugal Dutch people, but every little bit helps.”

Van den Brom teaches: “If you think in terms of solutions, they will come.” But is wisdom also truth? He doesn’t know for sure – and it will remain that way for a while. “But hope gives life, I say.”

“Because come on, no one can imagine that Vitesse no longer exists?”

In the video below, Vitesse director Edwin Reijntjes sounds the alarm for the survival of the club from Arnhem.

Is it five to twelve at Vitesse? ‘No, much further, we are really on the edge’