About

When entering the canteen of Chelsea’s training ground at leafy Cobham, José Mourinho stands in a corner with his assistants. On the wall at the background is a loud flat screen TV with Sky Sports on. When José notices me, he walks towards me and points towards two chairs where we can sit.

It’s April 20, 2006 and Chelsea has just won the Premier League for a second time in a row. In the months before I have been trying to set up this meeting, which in the end happened by a combination of perseverance, intuition, hard work and last, but not least, luck.

When I was 18 I decided to leave my native Holland and travel to London on spec, the football world’s capital par excellence. I had a few bags with me and jumped into the unknown. It was in London where I started to write about football and managed to get publications in English and Dutch newspapers. And then there was the meeting with Mourinho.

It was an invaluable moment in a very special season for me. After one year in London I returned back home as I was offered a role by TV-production company Eyeworks to work at their sports department. As a desk editor I was responsible for researching news, arranging interviews and helping with the production of live football matches for Dutch TV channels Sport 1 and SBS6. Later, I also gained experience at publishing house Media Planet, where I developed a newspaper theme-supplement about logistics, being responsible for both the content and the marketing. Those two jobs gave me an invaluable insight into the production-side of both print and broadcast media.

A few years later I started to travel around Europe, in search of human interest stories, which I managed to publish in several international media outlets. In 2015, I got the chance to do a Master’s degree in Journalism at the University of Westminster, who offered me a place based on my professional experience.

Since then I’ve stayed in London where I’ve been following English football in particular. In 2017 I started to work at Sportsweek, BBC’s main sports talk and news show at radio station 5 live, until the show stopped broadcasting in September 2019. As an assistant producer, I was responsible for creating and researching story ideas, putting features together, editing audio-clips and the weekly podcast.

Based in London, I keep on travelling across the world to report on sporting events, such as the 2018 World Cup in Russia and the 2019 Copa America in Brazil.

I have seen a few more places now, but like in 2006, I’m driven by my curiosity and try to use my heart as a compass in my life and work as a journalist.