Almost ten years ago, starting football professional Robin Pröpper visited a home match of FC Twente with his father. ‘Against Schalke. Great, that atmosphere. Twente was a really top club in those years.’ Although football crazy, it was not that the current Twente captain thought: one day I will play there. ‘No absolutely not.’
Pröpper had just lost weight at Vitesse, where his older brother Davy was highly regarded. He went to De Graafschap, then to Heracles and last summer to Twente, in recent years struggling to recover after financially and sportingly bad years.
This season, Twente, which will play against PSV on Saturday, will even return to the top 3. The easternmost football stronghold is only one point behind Feyenoord. “It was a few times good at the start of the season in terms of results. You grow as a group, even if it is well put together. Since the public has been allowed to join again, we feel completely strong. This is a top 4 environment, in terms of stadium and atmosphere.’
The 28-year-old Arnhemmer is a fixed value at the center of the defence. The fact that he came from regional rival Heracles was quickly forgotten in Enschede after a tough match against Ajax. In Almelo it was more difficult with his transfer. Pröpper, an ’emotional person’, deliberately did not look at social media for a period of time. ‘Then it’s okay. The football world is volatile. There are always new people coming up. But I understand the sentiments, the choice for Twente would have been easier if I hadn’t come from Heracles.’
Stable guys
At Heracles he became captain at the age of 23, at Twente he also got the band immediately. It makes him proud, but actually he is ‘more of a fan of a bundle of captains’. ‘Wout Brama has been around here for a long time, Lars Unnerstall and Ricky van Wolfswinkel have come. Stable guys who want to work hard, but also create an atmosphere and have an eye for others. It is much easier to influence processes together than alone. But they’re all nice guys, you know.’
He tells about the Wheel of Fortune that is turned when someone has to be ‘punished’. ‘For example, does it get to the box that the trainer’s car needs to be washed. Are we all jumping for joy.’
Good atmosphere is necessary for him. ‘At Vitesse I was in a less friendly team, it was more every man for himself. De Graafschap was a world of difference. It was really warm there, familiar, I always tried to look that up afterwards. Then I will blossom completely.’
For a long time he was ‘Davy’s brother’. The breed talent of the family became an important player at Vitesse, PSV, played in the Premier League and was a basic player for the Orange squad for a while. “I was quite jealous of Davy. I also dreamed of Orange. But I couldn’t be such an easy footballing, technically gifted midfielder like Davy. I was no longer to follow his path, but my own; trying to climb up with small steps.’
He worked ‘hard’ and became a centre-back, also benefiting from his assertiveness, his control instinct. Besides football, he also tries to develop by following courses and doing internships, currently at the commercial department of Twente, and he co-founded a book club for professional football players.
Yellow-blue captain’s armband
A month ago against Cambuur, he demonstratively showed his yellow-blue captain’s armband after a goal, as a statement of support for Ukraine. ‘It happened suddenly. I actually didn’t realize it affected me so much. Of course you see the images every day, you hear things that really bother you. I suddenly had the intense feeling that it is actually too bizarre for words that we are here playing football and being happy while elsewhere in the world people die because of a few crazy people who want war. That contradiction gripped me.’
Don’t get him wrong, he thoroughly enjoys the Grolsch Veste, is looking forward to Saturday evening’s battle with PSV. “When you’re in the stadium, when you win, what that feels like, to celebrate with such large numbers, they literally want to fly around your neck.”
Yet brother Davy surprisingly left that world during the winter break when he was thirty, he handed in his contract with PSV. Robin saw it coming. ‘From the age of ten he has lived constantly, always training, always focus, no weekends off. Being a professional footballer is a nice existence, the earnings are good. But it is sometimes underestimated that you have to be working on it 24/7. Sleep, nutrition, strength training, fixed schedules. He came to the conclusion: I am not made for this. A very nice, courageous decision.’
His brother is doing well. “Now he has time for his family, his environment, he has a farm that he is renovating.” He himself is far from tired of football. ‘Especially if that’s the case. Then you want to play every day.’