In 2010, the Netherlands reached the World Cup Final only to narrowly lose out to Spain courtesy of a 116th minute moment of magic from that man Andrés Iniesta which most of you readers of age will remember as being an outstanding tournament in South Africa. In the middle of the park for Netherlands that day was a man named Mark van Bommel, a combative but highly intelligent and technical ball winning midfielder who earned 79 caps for his national side as well as having an illustrious career spanning across the 90’s and 00’s wherein he featured for the likes of PSV, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and AC Milan.
Interestingly - the Netherlands manager at the time was a man named Bert van Marwijk who also enjoyed relatively successful spells at the likes of Feyenoord, Dortmund and various national team roles. What is interesting is that not only was van Bommel one his manager’s most relied upon and experienced players - he is also Bert van Marwijk’s son-in-law having married his daughter way back in 2001.
Mark van Bommel & Bert van Marwijk
Why is this important? Well - fast forward to the year 2023 and it’s Mark’s son (and Bert’s grandson) Ruben van Bommel who is grabbing headlines across Dutch football enthusiasts, largely due to his blistering start to the 2023/2024 season at his new club AZ Alkmaar, wherein at the time of writing he has already picked up 3 goals and an assist in just 340 minutes of first-team football.
Van Bommel originally came through the PSV academy alongside his brother Thomas before moving on to MVV Maastricht in the Dutch 2nd Tier. After impressing last season where he bagged 15 goals and 5 assists largely from the Left-Wing position, AZ Alkmaar saw an opportunity and it took them €550k for MVV to part ways with van Bommel. A naturally right-footed player who likes to cut inside from the left-flank, van Bommel is lightning quick with an innate explosiveness and athleticism on the turn, which combined with his confidence and good ball control make him very tricky for opposition defenders to handle. He rotates between being the creator and a direct goal threat throughout games, and as a result has already been capped for the Netherlands U20 side.
In action for Netherlands U20’s
In FM23 van Bommel (still at MVV) is reasonably highly rated for what is still only a 17-year-old with his 18th birthday arriving just after we start a new save in-game. Decent physical and mental attributes with promising technical ability make him a good and relatively high potential option for any mid to lower level club particularly if you are looking to bolster your underage sides and create pathways to the first team.
With FM24 on the horizon, we will likely see a rejuvenated and upgraded van Bommel at AZ Alkmaar who have a legacy of developing high quality and high potential wonderkids - in recent years they have produced and sold the likes of Teun Koopmeiners (Atalanta - €14m), Tijani Reijnders (Milan - €19m), Calvin Stengs (Nice - €15m), Owen Wijndal (Ajax - €10m) and Myron Boadu (Monaco - €17m) so it’s safe to say this club has quite the pedigree in identifying and developing top talent. If van Bommel continues his early season form, that €550k transfer fee may turn out to be quite the bargain for AZ. Remember the name 👀.
Thanks for reading.
Thanks for reading - let us know if you have crossed paths with van Bommel and if you would like us to review any other potential wonderkids as part of our new “Adventures in Wonderkid-land” segment - drop us a line in the comments below or @5StarPod on Twitter 👌.
