Sven Botman has jetted into Newcastle Airport before, you know. In fact, the Dutchman even stayed in Newcastle back in 2019 when Heerenveen were preparing for a pre-season friendly against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light.
None of those 6,645 supporters present that night could have imagined that Botman would go on to complete a big-money move to Newcastle United less than three years later - and that is not a reflection of his second-half performance by the way.
Rather, Botman was only at the start of his journey at the time. Although Botman had come through Ajax's academy, and represented the club's reserve side in the Dutch second division, the youngster was even a relative unknown to some of his new team-mates at Heerenveen when he arrived on loan that summer. In fact, they had not even met the 19-year-old before that 1-0 win against Sunderland as goalkeeper Warner Hahn remembered.
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"The funny thing was we stayed in Newcastle," Hahn told ChronicleLive. "That was actually the first time I met him. He was 19 back then. Very stable, very calm on the ball already because of his history in the youth academy in Ajax. He already had all the skills. The only thing he needed to do was show it in the highest league in Holland - and that's what he did."
Botman had offers from other Eredivisie clubs, but the defender's decision to move to Heerenveen proved an inspired one as he got the game time and experience he needed in the Dutch top-flight. Lille soon dispatched scouts to watch the centre-back and the rest was history as Botman went on to win a Ligue 1 title and play in the Champions League after securing a permanent move to the French side.
Now, with a £31m-plus switch to Newcastle to be announced, Botman has clearly come a long way since being tasked with keeping Will Grigg quiet during an uneventful friendly at the Stadium of Light. However, as easy as it is to say now, that night offered a glimpse of what was to come for Heerenveen manager Johnny Jansen.
"I don't think Sven had trained with us," he told ChronicleLive. "He just came over from Ajax and we went to Sunderland.
"We played that match and our central defender [Ibrahim Dresevic] got injured and he came in and he never went out. He showed us that, physically, he was very good.
"He was good with his passing. He was good at defending but you could also see he was young and he had to play matches to get more experience. You could tell if he played matches, he would grow up and become better and better. He had the talent and that's what he showed us in the match."
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