Brighton’s Jan Paul van Hecke: Football runs in my family – my father’s death made me stronger

Defender enjoys fervent support from an entire village back home in Netherlands, but he still feels loss of his parent and ‘best friend’

It was two years ago, just as Jan Paul van Hecke was breaking into the first team at Brighton, that his father, Guus, died.
“Before every game, I tell myself he is watching and I need to play my best game,” the 24-year-old says. “That helps me. He was my best friend. I always had chats with him. About football. About other things. When he was not there, it was hard.
“I was speaking to myself more. But then after a while, I found my way. In football, there’s a lot of [pressure on] mental health, so you need to always speak with somebody. But when there’s not really somebody? Of course, my mum was there. My [three] brothers. It’s a different relationship, a really good one. But I found my way.”
Van Hecke’s father died at just 55 after a long illness and the defender says the personal tragedy has made him stronger. “Sometimes it is tough,” he says. “When you have good moments or really proud moments, you’re always happy but you think ‘I wish he was here’. But then in the bad moments, you’re like ‘It always can be worse’.”
Football is in his blood. His uncle on his mother’s side is Jan Poortvliet, the former Netherlands full-back who played in the 1978 World Cup final defeat by Argentina. Guus, meanwhile, always encouraged his children in the game. “As long as Guus could, he stood on the sidelines on Saturdays to watch his sons,” the local club, VV Arnemuiden, posted in their tribute to the man who was a leader of the youth teams.
One of his other sons, Klaas, plays for VV Kloetinge in the Dutch fourth tier, while another, Huib, plays for Arnemuiden. Of his father’s playing career, Van Hecke says, “He wasn’t great – he told me he was!”
In a month’s time, around 100 Dutch – or rather Van Hecke – fans will attend the game against Nottingham Forest at the Amex Stadium. They will travel in two buses from Arnemuiden, where the Van Heckes are from, a small town with a population of 5,000 in the Zeeland province.
“I just come from a village, and it’s really, like, togetherness,” Van Hecke says. “So now that I’m playing professional football, they love it.”
Is he the most famous person from Arnemuiden? “Yeah. It’s not that hard!” he replies, laughing. All of his games are shown on a big screen in the village. 
It is not the first Brighton match they will have attended. A group, also organised by his eldest brother, also called Guus, travelled in January. On the bus was Coor Traas, an old friend of Van Hecke’s father. The two used to organise regular trips for the villagers to go to matches around Europe.
Such a sense of community is why Van Hecke – or ‘JP’ as he is known – is committed to working with the Brighton & Hove Albion Foundation, attending some of the disability sessions, playing football with the children. “They do an incredible job,” he says. “You see all the people with happy faces, smiling. For us, it’s just a little thing to be there and make them happy.”
He is very happy at Brighton, who are at home to Manchester United on Saturday having got their season off to a flying start with a 3-0 win away to Everton last weekend.
Van Hecke explains the detailed way the club went about signing him from NAC Breda in 2020. “Maybe, for me, the plan was perfect,” he says. “I remember when I was 18, they said to me: ‘First to the Dutch league, then to the Championship, then one year in the Premier League to adapt, and then being a player for us regularly starting.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, nice story, bro. How can you plan in four years?’ But to be fair, it worked out.”
Brighton presented Ben White’s career as a case study. He joined their academy, completed loan spells at Newport County, Peterborough United and Leeds United, before establishing himself at Brighton and earning a £50 million move to Arsenal.
Van Hecke explains: “The plan was there. That’s why I say now to young players: ‘Go to a club with a good plan and a good vision. They can show you if they did it before.’ When I was at that age, it was with Ben White. They showed me his plan.”
Van Hecke was loaned to NAC Breda in the Netherlands and then to Blackburn Rovers, becoming the first loanee to win the Championship club’s player of the season, following the 2021/22 campaign. “I played a lot, improved myself, and then two seasons ago, I came in on the bench to see how it is in the Premier League,” he says.
“Then last season I played almost everything. I had a good season and hopefully I can build on that. I feel better than ever now. I’ve got a lot of confidence. I’m happy with the new manager, he’s doing amazing.”
The highly rated new head coach, Fabian Hürzeler, has caused a stir. “It’s a Brighton appointment, for sure. It’s brave,” Van Hecke says, of the 31-year-old German, the Premier League’s youngest ever permanent manager, who replaced Roberto De Zerbi after taking St Pauli back into the Bundesliga.
“I already knew who he was. Because he was here last year a few times. He watched our games,” Van Hecke says, Hürzeler having travelled to Brighton, with De Zerbi’s approval, to observe how they trained and played.  
Van Hecke is also a friend of Pascal Gross, who left the club this summer for Borussia Dortmund. “He [Hürzeler] was in contact with Pascal at the time,” he says. “So I knew already, because I’m quite good with Pascal. I knew he was watching our games. He said he was doing really well in the second Bundesliga. I said, ‘I love football’ so I Googled him and then I knew who he was. But I didn’t know he was coming in a year later.”
There have been some changes in style under Hürzeler. “I think he is the perfect fit and, also, with the way the club is, with a lot of young players and then a few older ones,” Van Hecke says, pointing to a more “dynamic” way of playing. “It’s really counter-pressing, lose the ball, all compact, close to the ball. And you need to run. You need to have the energy to play for him. I think it’s good. We have the players to do that.”
The ambition this season is clear. “Everyone wants to go back to play in Europe. The aim is really high at this club,” Van Hecke says, having gone through a Europa League campaign last season.
Van Hecke does love football. He is a devotee of the game Football Manager. His greatest achievement on it? “Sunderland was my biggest one. I was quite successful. I went to the Champions League,” he says.
“I love football. Every game I try to watch. It’s the story behind it. Some clubs have nice histories. I try to do it with the game. I just try to follow clubs with nice histories.”
Growing up his idol was Dennis Bergkamp. His favourite English player was Steven Gerrard. “I started as a No 10. Eventually I went more down, and more down, and more down. Then they said ‘We’ve got a good goalie so you can stay at centre-back,’ Van Hecke explains. He even played No 10 and centre-half in the same game and believes the experience helped to develop him into a ball-playing defender.
“In Holland, it’s the Dutch school,” he says. “When I was younger, I was not allowed to kick the ball forward. They said you need to play from the back. That helped. Don’t do a kick and rush, otherwise you get subbed off!”
Now Poortvliet – whom Van Hecke says is modest about his own achievements: “the only thing he said to me is ‘I played once against Johan Cruyff and it was tough!” – is not the only family member with an international call-up. Van Hecke, an under-21 international, has been included in the provisional senior squad for the forthcoming Nations League matches against Germany and Bosnia & Herzegovina.
With Virgil van Dijk, Stefan de Vrij, Matthijs de Ligt, Nathan Ake and Micky Van de Ven, centre-half is his country’s strongest position. “When you see the names, they are good players but I think I am as well,” he says. “I think I can be in there.”
If so, it will be another cause for celebration back in Arnemuiden, and in Brighton, where the fans have taken him to their hearts. His brother has sent him their new song.
“They kept singing my name and I was, like, trying to listen to the song but I didn’t really know. And then Crofty (Andrew Crofts, Brighton’s first-team coach) came to me and he started singing. He knew the song and then he said, ‘They have a new song for you, it’s class’.”
One line claims he is even better than the legendary Italian defender Fabio Cannavaro. “I’m not sure about that!” Van Hecke says, laughing.
Even so, he is certainly making a name for himself.
BHAFC Foundation helps reduce inequalities in local communities across Sussex by delivering programmes offering inclusive opportunities for everyone to get active and play football.