'Micky van de Ven is better than William Saliba'

Tom Weber

Updated: 1 Oct 2024 16:08 BST
3 min read

Micky van de Ven is currently the best defender in the world, according to former Premier League player Jamie O'Hara.

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The Dutchman has been nothing short of a major success for Tottenham since joining the club in the summer of 2023. Van de Ven arrived from Wolfsburg with the reputation of being one of the Bundesliga's standout defenders and he has certainly lived up to the hype.

The powerful 23-year-old is an absurd athlete and regularly puts up some of the highest sprint speeds for a centre-back in Europe. He illustrated all of his quality against Man Utd on Sunday when he stole the ball off Marcus Rashford, stormed through the Red Devils' half and teed up Brennan Johnson for the opening goal in a 3-0 mauling.

Van de Ven has been lavished in praise in the wake of his Old Trafford performance and former Spurs midfielder Jamie O'Hara has now gone so far as to suggest that the Dutchman is currently the best defender in the world.

Van de Ven vs Saliba

Speaking on talkSPORT, O'Hara waxed lyrical about Van de Ven and took a shot at north London rivals Arsenal and their star defender William Saliba, who stated last month that he is believes he is "one of the best in the world."

“He is unbelievable," O'Hara said. "I’ll go as far as to say that probably the best centre-half in the world right now. He is better than Saliba. He has got way more than Saliba.

"Saliba is brilliant, he's fantastic. Don't get me wrong, he's a great centre-half...Van de Ven is better than Saliba right now. Van de Ven is the best centre-half in the world right now. Right now, on form, he walks into any team in the world."