Our Stadium at five: Super Jan on a 'once in a generation moment'
Jan Vertonghen was ‘honoured’ to step onto the pitch in the first Premier League game at our new home.
It has been five years since our players first set foot on the pristine pitch at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium - and it was a moment that Jan Vertonghen will forever cherish.
A modern-day great in Lilywhite, with us for eight years in which he made over 300 appearances for us before departing for Portuguese side Benfica in the summer of 2020, Jan will always be a revered face and presence in N17, and this will always be a place he thinks of at home.
One of our leading figures throughout a period of regeneration for the Club as we first moved into a new training centre in the summer he arrived before moving from White Hart Lane to our temporary home of Wembley before into the new Stadium on 3 April, 2019, the Belgian centre-back saw it all, which made lining up in our opening game there against Crystal Palace that bit more special for the now 36-year-old.
Here is how the man from Sint-Niklaas reflected on that opening night five years ago...
“The opening night was very special because it had been such a long time to get in there and a new stadium for a club is something that only happens once in a generation, both for players and supporters, so everyone is very pleased and honoured to have been there,” Jan explained.
“It’s definitely up there with the best in the world. If you look at the infrastructure, the pitch, the stands and the screens and everything, it’s up there.
“As a player travelling to games, the first thing you think about is ‘what players am I going to be up against?’ and then it is, ‘what stadium am I going to be playing in?’
“But if you look at iconic stadiums like the Bernabeu, the Maracana in Brazil, the Camp Nou, the San Siro, we need time to build this history, but if you look at the way it looks, it is right up there."
