Janssen is no stranger to recovering from big setbacks. A few months before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, he had suffered a blow to his eye during a Dutch league match, playing for SV Kampong.

“When I got hit by a ball in the eye, I lost my vision for a couple of weeks,” Janssen told The Indian Express. “I needed to sleep upright because there was a lot of blood in my eye, and it needed to settle lower. It was very scary and hard to live through.”

Janssen, who had to play with a face mask for a while afterward, is now one of the world’s foremost goal-scorers. He was part of the bronze medal-winning team at the 2023 World Cup in Odisha and is now also an Olympic gold medallist.

Janssen wasn’t even keen to play hockey, to begin with. His first love was football, and he played both as a forward and in goal – given his build from his early days. But his father Toon Janssen, who played hockey himself, wanted his son to make the switch. (HIL)

“The doctors couldn’t guarantee my vision would return. There was a lot of uncertainty about whether or not 1) I could see again and 2) play hockey ever again. It was a tough time. But it strengthened me,” Janssen said about the toughest phase of his life. “One of the most important things I learned is to take nothing for granted and take one step at a time. If the goal seems far away, just take the first step. That’s what I did. Live day by day and don’t worry too much about the future.”

At the Hockey India League in Rourkela, Janssen has been the rock in defence, along with Amit Rohidas, and the primary goal-scorer from penalty corners for the table-topping Tamil Nadu Dragons. He took a while to get going, but six rounds into the tournament, he is the joint-top scorer, with five goals to his name.

Accidental champion

Janssen wasn’t even keen to play hockey, to begin with. His first love was football, and he played both as a forward and in goal – given his build from his early days. But his father Toon Janssen, who played hockey himself, wanted his son to make the switch.

Tears were shed for a full week. “I really enjoyed football. I played for two years, and then my dad decided he preferred the environment of hockey. He told me, ‘Jip, you are not going to play soccer next year!’ I was like… ‘ugh! What, why?’ I was mad at him for a week, but in hindsight, it was a great decision. If he hadn’t done that, I wouldn’t have become a champion.”

Interestingly, Janssen also had to grapple with growing too tall too soon. “I grew faster than I would have wanted,” he joked. “He was big for his age,” Toon told FIH. “He had a lot of trouble managing it, so he stumbled… he knocked things off the table. It must have deeply frustrated him, and it did frustrate me.”

Janssen, who was picked up for Rs 54 lakh by the Dragons, is no stranger to the HIL. (HIL)

Funnily, that happened the first time Janssen tried drag- flicking. “I was first an injector for my club. Then our first drag-flicker in the Under-12s went to another club, and we needed a new one. The coach asked me to try it. And I promptly tripped over my own feet the first day. I stumbled and fell on the ground. It was a long process of trying until I could score goals. It required a lot of effort.”

But he is now a big part of the Dutch success story.

Janssen, who was picked up for Rs 54 lakh by the Dragons, is no stranger to the HIL. He remembered watching his Kampong teammates back in the previous iteration. He reeled off the names. Robbert Kemperman, David Harte, Sander de Wijn. “They played for Dabang Mumbai, and I think they reached the final, where they lost. But following HIL then was something I still cherish. That’s also why I applied for the auction; I found it so cool. It was a big compliment that so many teams wanted me.”

The camaraderie between Janssen, Aussie stars Nathan Ephraums and Blake Govers, and some of the Indian youngsters has been evident during the tournament. And unmissable is also the passion with which the 27-year-old plays. “It’s the only way I can play. If I step on the field, I really want to win. It might sometimes look a bit aggressive, but it’s just my passion for the game.”