Jan Vertonghen special Q&A | Part 4 | Mousa and Toby

In partnership with

Tottenham Hotspur

·16 February 2026

Jan Vertonghen special Q&A | Part 4 | Mousa and Toby

One of our great players of the modern era, Jan was back in N17 for a weekend of nostalgia with his family that included a trip up the Dare Skywalk, speaking to his adoring fans at half-time and watching us come back from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 against Manchester City - and an exclusive interview for us with presenter and Spurs fan, Ben Haines.

One of only 17 players to reach 200-plus appearances for us in the Premier League and one of only 10 to make over 50 appearances for us in Europe, Jan is also Belgium's record appearance maker with 157 caps between 2007-2024, including winning bronze at the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

OneFootball Videos

Forming a formidable central defensive partnership with compatriot Toby Alderweireld, Jan made 120 appearances of a possible 152 as we finished third, runners-up, third and fourth in the Premier League between 2015/16 and 2018/19. He also started 10 of 13 matches as we reached the UEFA Champions League Final against Liverpool in 2019, producing one of the great performances topped with a goal as we beat Borussia Dortmund 3-0 in the Round of 16, first leg at Wembley.

Jan signed off with appearance 315 against Newcastle during the Premier League's return in the 2020 COVID pandemic at St James’ Park on 15 July, 2020. Sadly, there were no fans at his final matches in Lilywhite – making his appearance at half-time with Paul Coyte all the more special.

After Spurs, he had spells at Benfica - where he won the Primeira Liga title in 2022/23 - and Anderlecht, where he played for two seasons before retiring at the end of 2024/25.

Part 3 | Mousa and Toby

We speak about Mousa Dembele all the time - how much fun was he to watch when you were on the same pitch together?

Jan: “Yes, it's a luxury now, everyone has tactics - how we can find the spare man and everyone presses 1v1? We would just give it to Mousa! We didn't have to think about tactics. Just give it to Mousa, he'll beat his guy, then we'd have an extra man high up the pitch, so it was quite easy to play, defensively and offensively!"

Mousa joined in 2012, the same year as Jan, and made 250 appearances for us in all competitions, scoring 10 goals until departing in January, 2019...

People speak so often about your relationship with Toby - what made you two so good? That defence - what made that special?

Jan: “Toby and I, we came from the same education. We played together in Ajax, we played in the national teams together. We knew our strengths and weaknesses. The combination there was... we didn't even speak that much on the pitch, we just knew by growing up together what we expected from each other, and then, obviously, not just the two of us. Again, I'm going to start dropping names, but the full-backs, and then if you have Mousa Dembele, Victor Wanyama, Eric Dier, Ryan Mason, all these guys in front of you, Harry Winks later, then there's not a lot of work that needs to be done. Of course, everything started up front with Harry Kane. If you see what he does for a team, the superstar that he is, he's probably the most humble superstar I've ever met. It all started there.”

Jan (157 caps, 2007-24, Belgium record), Mousa (82 caps, 2006-19) and Toby (127 caps, 2009-23) were all together at Spurs for four years (2015-2019) and were part of Belgium's squad together for 10 years, finishing third at the FIFA 2018 World Cup...