Ruben van Bommel (born 3 August 2004) is a Dutch professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as a winger for club PSV.

Club career

MVV

Van Bommel progressed through the PSV academy, before moving to

MVV MVV may refer to: Groups, organizations, companies *Malaysia Vision Valley (MVV), an economic corridor, see Malaysian National Projects * (MVV GmbH; ), German city works of Mannheim * Militaire Voetbal Vereniging (M. V. V.), a military soccer team ...

in 2020. He made his debut in the

Eerste Divisie The Eerste Divisie (; ) is the second-highest tier of football in the Netherlands. It is linked with the top-level Eredivisie via promotion/relegation systems. It is also known as the Keuken Kampioen Divisie due to sponsorship reasons, while ...

on 8 August 2022 away at

Jong AZ Jong AZ is a Dutch association football team, based in Wijdewormer in the Zaanstreek. It is the reserve team of AZ, based in Alkmaar, and plays in the Eerste Divisie The Eerste Divisie (; ) is the second-highest tier of football in the Net ...

appearing as a second-half substitute for Koen Kostons. His brother Thomas van Bommel started the game and they were playing alongside each other for 20 minutes until Thomas was subbed off late in the second half. On his first appearance at Maastricht's home ground

De Geusselt Stadion de Geusselt () is a multi-use stadium in Maastricht, Netherlands. It is currently used mostly for association football, football matches and is the home stadium of MVV Maastricht. The stadium is able to hold 10,000 people and was buil ...

, a week after his professional debut, van Bommel scored his first professional goal in a 3–1 win against

NAC Breda NAC Breda (), often simply known as NAC, is a Dutch professional football club, based in Breda, Netherlands. NAC Breda play in the Rat Verlegh Stadium, named after their most important player, Antoon 'Rat' Verlegh. They play in the Eredivisi ...

. Van Bommel received some notoriety in September 2022 when he was one of two players, along with Jaymillio Pinas in a match between MVV and

Dordrecht Dordrecht (), historically known in English as Dordt (still colloquially used in Dutch, ) or Dort, is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Western Netherlands, lo ...

who were booked for

diving Diving most often refers to: * Diving (sport), the sport of jumping into deep water * Underwater diving, human activity underwater for recreational or occupational purposes Diving or Dive may also refer to: Sports * Dive (American football), ...

inside a minute of each other. On 10 February 2023, he scored a

brace Brace (formerly known as ''Brace For War'') was an Australian mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion. Brace was founded in 2005 by Kya Pate. In an interview with MMA Kanvas Kya Pate detailed what it is like to be the promoter of Australian MMA. Si ...

and provided an assist in a 5–1 league win over

TOP Oss TOP Oss (), is a professional association football club based in the town of Oss, North Brabant, Netherlands, that competes in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of the Dutch football league system. Founded in 1928 as T.O.P., a Dutch abbrevia ...

. His second goal was a beautiful chip over opposing goalkeeper

Thijs Jansen Thijs Jansen (born 29 November 2001) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for club Cambuur. Career Early years Born in Lisserbroek, Jansen played initially as an outfield player as a youngster at FC Lisse and played i ...

. After the game he stated that he intended to extend his contract with MVV.

AZ

On 1 July 2023, Van Bommel officially signed a four-year contract with

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; "Honour Division" or "Premier Division") is a professional association football league in the Netherlands and the highest level of the Dutch football league system. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start o ...

club AZ, agreeing to a commitment to the club until 2027. Van Bommel scored his first goal in the

on 13 August 2023, scored the 3–0 in the 51th minute, the match ended with 5–1 home win against Go Ahead Eagles. On 18 August, he scored his first European goal in a 2–0

UEFA Conference League The UEFA Conference League (UECL), usually known simply as the Conference League, is an annual football competition organised since 2021 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It is the thir ...

home win against

FC Santa Coloma FC Santa Coloma is an Andorran professional football club based in Santa Coloma, parish of Andorra la Vella, that competes in the Primera Divisió. It is the most successful team in both Primera Divisió and Copa Constitució, having won b ...

. On 25 February 2024, he scored two goals in a 2–0 home win against

Ajax Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * Ajax (play), ''Ajax'' (play), by the an ...

, marked his first time to score two goals in a Eredivisie match. At the end of February 2024, he received the Johan Cruyff Talent of the Month, his first individual Eredivisie award. In October 2024, Van Bommel was nominated for the Golden Boy Award, ranked 82th.

PSV

On 11 July 2025, fellow

club PSV announced they signed Van Bommel a five-year contract with the club.

International career

Van Bommel was called up for the Netherlands under-20 team on 17 March 2023 by national team manager

Martijn Reuser Martijn Franciscus Reuser (born 1 February 1975) is a Dutch former professional association football, footballer who played top-flight football in both the Netherlands and England as a midfielder. He made one appearance for the Netherlands natio ...

. On 25 March 2023, he made his international debut for the under-20s in a 2–1 friendly win against France U20.

Style of play

left winger In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

, Van Bommel is known for his acceleration, skillset, and for his runs into the box. He has been compared to

Ángel Di María Ángel Fabián Di María (; born 14 February 1988) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a right winger for Primeira Liga club Benfica. Widely regarded as one of the greatest Argentine players of all time and one of the best pl ...

by Hans Kraay Jr.

Personal life

Van Bommel's father is

Mark van Bommel Mark Peter Gertruda Andreas van Bommel (born 22 April 1977) is a Dutch Association football, football coach and former player who played as a midfielder. His FIFA World Cup profile describes him as "a tackling machine and expert ball-winner, but ...

, and his brother is Thomas van Bommel, while his maternal grandfather is

Bert van Marwijk Lambertus van Marwijk (; born 19 May 1952) is a Dutch Association football, football manager who is a member of the supervisory board for MVV Maastricht. As a player, he played for the Go Ahead Eagles, AZ Alkmaar, AZ, MVV Maastricht, MVV and For ...

. His father played for the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

in the 2010 FIFA World Cup final, in which van Marwijk was the manager.

Career statistics

Honours

Individual *

Talent of the Season:

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

* Eredivisie Talent of the Month: February 2023-24

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bommel, Ruben van 2004 births Living people People from Meerssen Footballers from Limburg (Netherlands) Dutch men's footballers Netherlands men's under-21 international footballers Netherlands men's youth international footballers Men's association football midfielders MVV Maastricht players AZ Alkmaar players PSV Eindhoven players Eredivisie players Eerste Divisie players 21st-century Dutch sportsmen