Michel Vorm

Michel Vorm

Vorm in 2007
Personal information
Full name	Michel Armand Vorm[1]
Date of birth	(1983-10-20) 20 October 1983
Place of birth	IJsselstein, Netherlands
Height	1.84 m (6 ft 0 in)[2]
Playing position	Goalkeeper
Club information
Current team	Tottenham Hotspur
Number	13
Youth career
	JSV Nieuwegein
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
2005–2011	Utrecht	136	(0)
2005–2006	→ Den Bosch (loan)	35	(0)
2011–2014	Swansea City	89	(0)
2014–	Tottenham Hotspur	8	(0)
National team‡
2008–	Netherlands	15	(0)
Honours Representing  Netherlands Men's football FIFA World Cup Runner-up 2010 South Africa Team 2014 Brazil Team
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 28 August 2016. ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 12 July 2014

Michel Armand Vorm (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈmiʃɛl ˈvɔrm]; born 20 October 1983) is a Dutch footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for English club Tottenham Hotspur and the Netherlands national team.

Vorm began his professional career at FC Utrecht in 2005, spending his first season on loan at FC Den Bosch. He transferred to Swansea City in 2011, playing three Premier League seasons and winning the League Cup in 2013. Vorm joined Tottenham for £3.5 million in 2014.

A full international for the Netherlands since 2009, Vorm was included in their squads for two World Cups and Euro 2012, as back-up in all three tournaments.

Club career

FC Utrecht

Born in IJsselstein to a Dutch mother and a Surinamese father,^[3] Vorm began his career at FC Utrecht. In order to gain more experience, he spent the 2005-06 season on loan to FC Den Bosch. He made his debut on 12 August 2005 against FC Emmen, the first of 35 appearances that season.

In August 2006, Vorm made his debut for Utrecht against Willem II. Although he joined FC Utrecht as the third-choice goalkeeper, behind Franck Grandel and Joost Terol, his pre-season performances impressed manager Foeke Booy, and saw him promoted to first choice 'keeper at the start of the league season. During this first season Vorm played 33 out of 34 games, and his position as number one at the club remained unchallenged thereafter. Vorm missed a handful matches during the 2007–08 season due to knee and shoulder injuries. He left Utrecht at the start of the 2011–12 season, having played 136 games in the Eredivisie.

Swansea City

In August 2011, Vorm joined Swansea City for a fee of around £1.5 million.^[4] He took the vacant number 1 shirt and made his debut for the club against Manchester City on 15 August 2011 in a 4–0 defeat.^[5] Although he conceded four goals, he also made eleven saves – more than any other Premier League goalkeeper, in a single game, in the whole of the 2011–12 season. In his second match for Swansea against Wigan Athletic, on 20 August, Vorm saved a 72nd-minute penalty from Ben Watson, to give Swansea their first ever point in the Premier League.^[6] On 6 November 2011, Vorm arguably saved Swansea from defeat against Liverpool and earned them the draw at Anfield by pulling off two outstanding saves to earn the clean sheet. On 10 December, he was instrumental in Swansea's 2–0 win over Fulham as he saved Clint Dempsey's 87th-minute penalty, with Swansea 1–0 up.^[7]

During his first season with Swansea he helped keep 13 clean sheets in 37 league appearances.^[8] His performances were so impressive that he won three awards at the club’s end-of-season dinner – Supporters’ Player of the Year, Players’ Player and the Away Player awards.^[9]

On 27 September 2012, Vorm signed a new four-year contract with Swansea.^[10] On 28 October 2012, he was ruled out for up to eight weeks due to a groin injury picked up in a game against Manchester City.^[11] On 3 November 2013, in the South Wales derby against Cardiff City, Vorm was shown a straight red card by referee Mike Dean for a stoppage-time foul on Fraizer Campbell. The game ended 1–0 to Cardiff City.^[12]

Tottenham Hotspur

On 23 July 2014, Vorm announced via Dutch radio that he would sign for Tottenham Hotspur to compete with Hugo Lloris.^[13] He signed on a four-year deal costing Spurs £3.5 million after three years at Swansea, joining on the same day as Swansea's Ben Davies made the same move and Gylfi Sigurðsson was exchanged as part of the deal.^[14] The transfer was disputed by Utrecht, who complained to FIFA that they were contractually due 30% of the fee received by Swansea.^[15] FIFA rejected Utrecht's claim, and the case was heard in the Court of Arbitration for Sport in January 2016.^[16]

He made his debut for Tottenham on 24 September, in the third round of the League Cup at home against Nottingham Forest. Despite conceding first to Jorge Grant, Tottenham won 3–1.^[17] Vorm featured again in the next round on 29 October, keeping his first clean sheet for the club as Tottenham defeated Brighton & Hove Albion 2–0.^[18] Eight days later he played his first UEFA Europa League match for Tottenham, a 2–1 win away to Asteras Tripoli.^[19]

Vorm's first league appearance for Tottenham came on 21 March 2015, after Lloris went off injured in the fourth minute of a home match against Leicester City. Tottenham won 4–3.^[20] On 5 April he made his first league start, a goalless draw against Burnley at Turf Moor.^[21] Vorm made his first appearance of the 2016/17 season for Tottenham Hotspur in a 1-1 draw with Everton at Goodison Park, in which he replaced an injured Hugo Lloris after 35 minutes.

International career

In 2006 he was a member of the Netherlands squad that won the UEFA U-21 Championship 2006 in Portugal.

Vorm played his first match for the senior national team on 14 November 2008, replacing Henk Timmer at half time in a 3–1 home friendly win, conceding to Kim Källström within four minutes of coming on. He made his first start on 5 September 2009 in a friendly home match against Japan (3–0 win), followed up four days later by an impressive performance at Hampden Park during the World Cup qualifier Scotland – Netherlands, a match won 1–0 by the Netherlands.^[22][23] The match at Hampden Park was Vorm's first competitive game ever outside the Netherlands.^[24]

2010 World Cup

Vorm was included in the preliminary squad for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa.^[25] On 27 May 2010, Netherlands manager Bert van Marwijk announced that the player would be part of the final squad of 23 participating in the FIFA World Cup.^[26] Before the start of the competition he was allowed to fly back to the Netherlands. During the World Cup, Vorm's girlfriend Daisy delivered a son, Jaivy Waylon. The Dutch goalkeeper returned home for two days following his son's birth.^[27][28]

Euro 2012

Vorm was included in the Netherlands squad for Euro 2012. Maarten Stekelenburg was Bert van Marwijk's first choice in goal, playing all three games as the nation exited in the group stage.

2014 World Cup

For the 2014 FIFA World Cup, coach Louis van Gaal included Vorm in the Netherlands squad, alongside young Ajax goalkeeper Jasper Cillessen who was first choice in goal and Tim Krul. Despite his penalty-saving ability, Van Gaal opted to replace Cillessen with Krul in the penalty shootout during the quarter-final match against Costa Rica. Vorm came on for Cillessen in injury time of the 3–0 third place play-off win against Brazil in Brasília, thus ensuring that all 23 Dutch squad members played at the tournament.^[29]

Career statistics

Club

As of match played 13 August 2016^[30][31][32]

International

As of match played 12 July 2014^[33]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Michel Vorm.

• Michel Vorm profile at Soccerway
• ESPN profile
• Michel Vorm at Socqer.com

Netherlands squads
Netherlands squad – 2010 FIFA World Cup Runners-up 1 Stekelenburg 2 Van der Wiel 3 Heitinga 4 Mathijsen 5 Van Bronckhorst (c) 6 Van Bommel 7 Kuyt 8 De Jong 9 Van Persie 10 Sneijder 11 Robben 12 Boulahrouz 13 Ooijer 14 De Zeeuw 15 Braafheid 16 Vorm 17 Elia 18 Schaars 19 Babel 20 Afellay 21 Huntelaar 22 Boschker 23 Van der Vaart Coach: Van Marwijk Netherlands squad – UEFA Euro 2012 1 Stekelenburg 2 Van der Wiel 3 Heitinga 4 Mathijsen 5 Bouma 6 Van Bommel (c) 7 Kuyt 8 N. de Jong 9 Huntelaar 10 Sneijder 11 Robben 12 Vorm 13 Vlaar 14 Schaars 15 Willems 16 Van Persie 17 Strootman 18 L. de Jong 19 Narsingh 20 Afellay 21 Boulahrouz 22 Krul 23 Van der Vaart Coach: Van Marwijk Netherlands squad – 2014 FIFA World Cup Third Place 1 Cillessen 2 Vlaar 3 De Vrij 4 Martins Indi 5 Blind 6 De Jong 7 Janmaat 8 De Guzmán 9 Van Persie (c) 10 Sneijder 11 Robben 12 Verhaegh 13 Veltman 14 Kongolo 15 Kuyt 16 Clasie 17 Lens 18 Fer 19 Huntelaar 20 Wijnaldum 21 Depay 22 Vorm 23 Krul Coach: Van Gaal