At halftime in Austria, not even Liverpool raises Van de Ven’s head

• Thierry Boon

  reporter Jong Oranje in Austria

Stegersbach. A village in the hills, all the way in the southeast of Austria, close to the Hungarian border. It is quiet, dead quiet in fact. Pensionados enjoy the thermal bath or play golf on the golf course, while the crickets dominate the ambient noise.

At the bottom of the village, the main field of amateur club SV Stegersbach looks beautiful. Far too beautiful actually, this mid-June. Especially for a fifth division club. The orange boarding reveals why. This is where the Dutch Junior Team holds its training camp in preparation for the European Championships in Georgia and Romania.

“It is on the route towards Tbilisi,” national coach Erwin van de Looi explains the choice of the Austrian village. “Normally it is also a bit warmer here, just like in Georgia. We wanted to get used to that in advance. Other than that, the conditions here are perfect.”

There is not much time. Jong Oranje met in Zeist last Sunday, left for Stegersbach the following Monday and is already flying to Tbilisi six days later, where the European Championship begins Wednesday with the group match against Jong Belgium.

“Fortunately, it’s all very relaxed here,” says Micky van de Ven, one of the captains of the Jong Oranje. “In the morning we do a good, intensive training and after that you can work well on your recovery here,” the defender says from the outdoor terrace at the hotel.

He stood out in Wednesday’s practice game (0-0) against Japan’s peers. No one got past Van de Ven, who literally and figuratively grew last season at VfL Wolfsburg, where he was voted player of the year. After two years, he already seems to have outgrown the German club.

“His development does seem spectacular,” Van de Looi also believes. “Van de Ven is less known to the general public, because before Wolfsburg he played at FC Volendam in the first division.”

“He is a bit similar to Sven Botman, who also went abroad early on and developed there. Micky has many facets of a modern defender. He is fast, strong and can play good soccer.”

This has also been noticed in England. Liverpool are said to be interested. “Such reports are of course only positive,” Van de Ven admits. “Then you know that your year has not gone unnoticed.”

The 22-year-old North Hollander, such as he is, remains calm about it. “Of course playing in the Premier League is also a dream for me. But I’m not close to a transfer yet. I’m focusing on the European Championship now and after that I’ll see what will happen.”

NOS Sport gets an exclusive look behind the scenes during the EC. Follow it in the Youtube series “Young Oranje, class of ’23. In the first episode we get to know Quilindschy Hartman, Bart Verbruggen and Brian Brobbey better through youth photos:

Of course, Van de Ven is not the only one at Jong Oranje who is already being pulled before the European Championship. Will Ryan Gravenberch spend another year on the bench at Bayern Munich? Will striker Crysencio Summerville return to the Netherlands? And where does the future of goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen lie?

“It’s a utopia to say that no one here has contact with their business manager,” Van de Looi stated. “Of course that’s not possible. That will be the case in every team, with every country. Everywhere you have players for whom there is interest. But the guys really do know what they are here for.”

Getting each other ready for the European Championship, in other words. In Georgia it will soon be two hours later than in the Netherlands. To get used to that rhythm, the players in Austria go to bed early and then get out early again. Nothing is left to chance.

On paper, Jong Oranje has a fine selection. But on paper, Jong Oranje also has a leaden group. With Belgium and Portugal as two top countries and Georgia as host country. And only two teams can advance.

The big question is: how good is this Young Orange really? “You tell me,” Van de Looi responded. “Actually, we have yet to show that. We remained unbeaten in qualifying and practice matches. Only of course that was not of the level of at the European Championship.”

“My tournament is not successful until we stand with the cup,” Van de Ven says with bravado. “We have a lot of individual quality, but we also all want to work for each other. You need that, otherwise you go down.”

Watch episode two of “Young Orange, Class of ’23” below, where we look along during a photo shoot with the players:

Needless to say, Jong Oranje is aiming for the highest: the European title. “But so do Belgium, Portugal and countries like Italy, Spain and Germany. So there will be about seven countries disappointed in the end,” Van de Looi concluded.

“We just have to be able to say we did everything we could. If we are then beaten, then in a dignified way. With attacking soccer, not naive and with good energy.”