Daughter Mark van Bommel looks back on transfer with father: "That was our home"
1 min readAfter six years at PSV, Mark van Bommel left in 2005 for FC Barcelona, before in 2006 following the World Cup joining FC Bayern Munich. There, in the summer of 2008, Van Bommel was appointed the new captain after goalkeeper Oliver Kahn ended his career.
With FC Bayern, the former PSV captain won the league title twice and the DFB-Pokal twice. In 2010, under Louis van Gaal, they also reached the final of the Champions League in which Internazionale was too strong with a 0-2 score.
A clash with the same Van Gaal midway through the 2010/2011 season caused a rift between Van Bommel and the Rekordmeister. After that, the former midfielder decided to leave for AC Milan, only to return to PSV again in the summer of 2012.
The transfer to AC Milan initially caused a lot of pain for the entire Van Bommel family. ''We really liked it in Munich; everyone was in the right place there. And we left there actually very quickly and vaguely. Suddenly we were in Milan. My parents said: 'We’re moving to Milan.' We all thought something like: it’ll be fine, we’ll be back again,'' daughter Renée tells Mixed Zone in an interview.
Because social media was lacking at the time, the family also couldn’t keep in touch with the friends and acquaintances they met in Munich. Nevertheless, they quickly adapted in Milan and formed new friendships.
Even so, Munich was still their home. ''In Milan we also built friendships again and after a year and a half we left there again too. At the time we thought we would go to Munich, because that was home for us. Then my parents said we were going to the Netherlands to live there. My father then went to PSV, which was a bit of an end station. It's very strange, but it also brings with it beautiful moments and things'', said Renée.
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If your dad joined PSV as an "eindstation", it explains the emotion around the transfer. It was not just career, it was family and belonging. ❤️
The whole part where they thought they would go back to Munich... you can see why PSV still felt like home later. Also wild that Mark went from Bayern break up to AC Milan, then straight home to Eindhoven again 🚀.
So basically, Bayern was hun thuis, AC Milan was een tussenstop, en PSV werd het "eindstation". Maar voor ons supporters voelt dat nog steeds als een terugkeer van een legende. 💯
"We verhuizen naar Milaan." bruh, imagine one day you are in Munich, then suddenly Italy. Honestly respect to Renée for saying it straight, that move must have hurt hard 💀.
Not gonna lie, the Bayern-van Gaal situation sounds like peak football drama. Still, Van Bommel as captain and then winning the league twice and Pokals twice, you cant ignore that resume.
Tbh it says a lot that they basically had no social media to stay in touch and still adjusted in Milan. Different era, different pain, but they found new people fast.
Tactisch gezien was Mark in die tijd echt meer dan alleen een kapitein. Hij kon tempo breken en direct schakelen, en dat Louis van Gaal frictie gaf later maakt het verhaal ook wat extra scherp. Toch jammer van die breuk.
That quote about "dat was ons thuis" hits. Milan felt like a detour, but getting back to PSV was the real comfort zone for their family.
Renee zegt dat ze eerst in Milaan alles "heel erg naar ons zin" in München hadden. Ik snap die pijn wel, maar eerlijk, terug naar PSV is natuurlijk ook een soort storybook einde. 👀
Dat "dat was ons thuis" stukje raakt wel tbh. Mark kan vertrekken zijn, maar die PSV DNA blijft bij de familie hangen. 🔥