Why Tottenham’s ‘rock’ Jan Paul van Hecke is being compared to Bobby Moore and Stuart Pearce: ‘Releasing the beast’, a ‘Zeeland Army’ watching his every move and how high-risk passing is paying off

With his roots in a humble fishing community, World Cup pedigree in the family and glowing comparisons to a couple of England legends, it is perhaps no surprise to find Jan Paul van Hecke emerging as Tottenham’s anchorman after a turbulent start to the season.

Van Hecke’s strength of character shone through when things went badly awry and Spurs sank to the bottom of the Premier League, winless in the first five games, then rose from the depths with 10 points from the next four.

His ability and influence would never have been in doubt as far as Spurs boss Roberto De Zerbi was concerned, having worked with Van Hecke for two years at Brighton. The 26-year-old Dutch centre-half leaves a positive impression wherever he plays.

‘JP is a real force,’ says Peter Maas, technical director of NAC Breda, where Van Hecke began his professional career. ‘He is a rock. He will never back off. He will never let his team down. Never, never. He is truly one of a kind. A good lad with a good heart.

‘I’ve always compared his presence and commitment to Stuart Pearce, “Psycho” back in the ’80s and ’90s. He was crazy, eh? Every now and then, JP will release the beast and let everything out.

‘But he can play football, too. He can defend in an old-school way, but he can also build play in the modern way and is certainly more composed now.’

Van Hecke’s uncle Jan Poortvliet was a defender in the Netherlands team which made it to the World Cup final in 1978, and 30 years later had a brief spell as Southampton manager in the Championship. Jan Paul needs one more cap to match Poortvliet’s tally of 19 for his country.

Blackburn boss Tony Mowbray, a fearless centre-half as a player, compared Van Hecke to another blond England legend after luring him to Ewood Park on loan from Brighton in 2021. The Seagulls had signed Van Hecke for £1.8million the year before and sold him to Spurs this summer for £54m.

‘I’ve got to be careful I don’t overbuild him as he’s not our player,’ said Mowbray at the time. ‘But he looks like Bobby Moore out there sometimes. It’s amazing to watch how composed, how calm he can be, yet he has the fire of a warrior in his belly.’

Van Hecke’s vision and passing range combined with his natural aggression and appetite for sporting conflict appeals to the modern coach.

He meets the physical demands of the Premier League with relish, hailing from Arnemuiden, an isolated town of 5,000 in the province of Zeeland with a deep-rooted fishing history and a reputation for resilience through times of hardship.

It is now home to an army of devoted Van Hecke fans who cross the North Sea to watch him play at every opportunity. One hundred made the journey to see him score against Crystal Palace last Saturday.

Another element of Van Hecke’s early impact in N17 has been his readiness to accept the ball, often in difficult areas, and search for forward passes through the lines.

It has led to mistakes which irritated some Spurs fans during their terrible start to the campaign, but De Zerbi demands this high-risk style and Van Hecke to his credit resisted the temptation to play with greater caution even though it would have spared him some of the criticism.

His impact is clear from his data. Van Hecke has played every minute of the Premier League campaign, starting the game at Manchester United last month despite returning from international duty with stitches in a wound on the top of his foot.

He has completed more forward passes (258) and more line-breaking passes (150) than any outfielder in the Premier League. Only Arsenal duo Martin Odegaard (197) and Declan Rice (177) have made more successful passes into the final third than his 174, only Manchester City’s Ruben Dias (819) has played more passes than his 809, and Van Hecke leads the Spurs ranks for clearances and duels won. For good measure, he is also the club’s top scorer – albeit with only two goals.

His desire to shoulder responsibility even in difficult times is exactly the type of leadership by example Spurs have lacked in recent years.

‘He excelled in one-on-one defending but above all in his mentality,’ Maas tells Daily Mail Sport as he reflects on Van Hecke’s early development after joining NAC from amateur team VV Goes at the age of 18.

‘What struck me was that when faced with setbacks, or a kick or a blow to the head on the pitch, he always got back up with even greater determination. It was as if the adrenaline helped him become unbeatable.

‘That’s where he channelled his energy. First at NAC in the second tier, then at Heerenveen in the Eredivisie. At Brighton, too. Step by step, he gets 10 per cent better every time because he adapts easily to his surroundings.’

There were times when the teenage Van Hecke might display frustration to be on the fringes of the team at NAC. Competition for places at the back included Colin Rosler, a graduate of the Manchester City academy where his father Uwe was a hero and who now plays in Denmark for AGF.

‘Until the winter of 2019, JP was mainly a substitute and clearly struggling with that,’ recalls Maas, who left the head scout’s role at NAC for the same post at Heerenveen in 2021 before returning as NAC technical director two years later.

‘He felt it was unfair that he wasn’t playing and went through a rough patch and was showing it. He actually lost the will to play, and I held a mirror to him once during a chat in the players’ lounge and told him he had to prove himself.’

Helped by a change of head coach, Van Hecke broke into the first team and became integral to second-tier NAC’s run to the semi-finals of the Dutch Cup, beating PSV Eindhoven and AZ Alkmaar before losing to Feyenoord.

His success came to personify the fighting spirit of NAC and he became the poster boy for their prolific youth development programme, with Bart Verbruggen, Van Hecke’s team-mate at Brighton, also a graduate.

‘It was impossible to predict he would make the upper echelons of the Premier League and the Dutch national team,’ says Maas. ‘But you could certainly see he had great potential and he will continue to improve because his immense drive will take him further.’