Bergwijn: Tragic team-mate is my inspiration
Spurs’ £27m signing tells Sam Wallace of pain after Ajax prodigy Nouri suffered heart attack on the pitch
Even now in halting English there seems to be a tremble in the voice of Steven Bergwijn when he discusses the life of his former Ajax academy team-mate Abdelhak “Appie” Nouri, who is never far from the minds of Holland’s current golden generation.
Tottenham Hotspur’s new
£27 million Holland international is chatting on the sofas overlooking the entrance hall of his club’s training ground and although we are here to discuss his life and his debut goal against Manchester City, nothing moves him like talking about “Appie”. Nouri was a friend and team-mate to Bergwijn, as he was to Chelsea’s new signing Hakim Ziyech, when they were at Ajax as teenagers together, and now, as careers develop, “Appie” lies in his hospital bed.
“We were like brothers,” Bergwijn says simply. “I have known Appie all my life, from when we were seven years old. We met then. We were in the same squad [at Ajax]. Since then we are best friends.”
He still speaks to Appie’s younger brother Mohammed every day, and he did so on the day of the game against City two weeks ago. “He told me, ‘You’re going to score for Appie,’” Bergwijn said, “and I said, ‘OK, watch me, I’m going to score.’ I did it.”
It is hard to overstate the significance of Nouri in the lives of his generation of Dutch players, among whom he was once considered the greatest prospect of all. He was an astonishing talent whose highlights reel reveals a diminutive playmaker who sees the game five seconds in advance of anyone else. His touch and improvisation are unconventional and thrilling. When he strikes one of his extraordinary passes, suddenly the phase of play makes sense. He made his first team Ajax debut at 19, although the club’s fans were singing his name before then.
During a pre-season friendly in July 2017 in Austria, aged 20, he collapsed on the pitch with a heart attack and suffered permanent and serious brain damage. He has been in a hospital bed since, his family taking turns to keep vigil. The son of a Moroccan heritage family, and a kind boy who took pride in his neighbourhood and his Muslim faith, he has become symbolic of modern multicultural Amsterdam, his home town, while those who love him try to make sense of his fate.
Bergwijn, 22, the age Nouri is now, can still recall where he was when he heard the news. Bergwijn had left Ajax’s academy aged 13 to join their rivals PSV Eindhoven, but the two had continued to represent Holland together at junior international level. “We played [that day] against RKC [Waalwijk] and I scored two. I was happy and after the game the team manager came to me and said what had happened. Yeah, my world collapsed. It was like this. I went inside …”
His voice begins to fail him. “I just waited for the calls from my manager [agent], because he went there … [to see Appie]. Then I heard two or three weeks later that he had brain damage.
At that time, I didn’t sleep so much and things like this. The first weeks I was scared to play, to go on the pitch, because a young boy, out of nowhere [had suffered]. This was also in my head. I thought like this. It was difficult. It’s still difficult. I speak to his brother every day, but it’s still difficult.”
Bergwijn, of Surinamese heritage, comes from the town of Almere, east of Amsterdam, and his departure from Ajax was the defining decision of his academy career. He had been one of the standout talents in a cohort that included Nouri, Ziyech, Frenkie de Jong and
Donny van de Beek – all bar Ziyech born in 1997. It is not clear why he left Ajax other than that there seemed to be disagreements. One report recounts Bergwijn’s father, Jurgen, falling out with coaches at the club, although the player is reluctant to go into details.
“I am a person who if I have ‘no feeling’ [for a club] when my heart [isn’t in it]… I didn’t have the feeling there any more, and if that’s gone you have to leave.”
It was, nevertheless, a big decision. Bergwijn shrugs. “When we played against PSV, I would say to the Ajax boys, ‘I want to play at PSV.’ They would say, ‘No, you’re staying here.’ I said, ‘Watch, one day I am going to be there.’ And it happened.”
He commuted for two years from Almere to training at PSV because the family preferred he did not move into digs there, a three-hour round trip driven by his father. When the time came to leave PSV in January, it was sudden again. “My father called me and he said, ‘Pack your stuff, you’re going to London.’ I said, ‘OK.’ It was like this.” He had played against Spurs in the Champions League group game at Wembley in November 2018, a 2-1 defeat for PSV, and watched the semi-final against Ajax unfold last season with mixed feelings. “Honestly, for Donny and Frenkie … I play with them in the national team. For them, it’s beautiful to be there. But I was jealous. I wanted to be there with PSV. I was happy that Lucas [Moura] scored a goal. For them I was sad, but I was happy.”
Now he finds himself a Premier League player with considerable expectation on his shoulders after that flying start, as Spurs face Aston Villa today in the race for the Champions League places. At PSV, he was coached by some of the club’s former greats, including Ruud van Nistelrooy, who worked on his finishing, and Bolo Zenden, who would go through his video clips and discuss how he might improve.
You get the impression of a determined young man, although he is shy, too. Across his knuckles is tattooed “Fear none”, but when asked about it there is a general bashfulness as he glances down at the words. There is one more question about his friend Appie. What was he like to play with? Bergwijn smiles – this is the memory that he can cherish. “Ahhh, fantastic player. This guy? He can do everything with the ball. If you ask him, ‘Try to do this,’ he will say, ‘Wait.’ The next day he will do it.”
‘I heard he had brain damage. My world collapsed. The first weeks I was scared to play. It’s still difficult’