Brighton's Jan Paul van Hecke pursues his path to the Holland Quad

When asked what he has to say now, he reluctantly admits that he is possibly the most famous person from Arnemuiden.

Well, either him or his uncle Jan, who played for Holland in a World Cup final.

“Yes. But it's not that difficult!” he says, laughing, when asked if he is really the biggest name to come from the small town (5,000 inhabitants) on the Zeeland peninsula between Rotterdam and the Belgian border.

But his fame may increase even further now that he has followed his mother's brother, Jan Poortvliet, into the Dutch senior national team.

Van Hecke's excellent form over the last and somewhat longer season was rewarded when he was called up by former centre-back Ronald Koeman for UEFA Nations League matches.

Holland will play against Bosnia-Herzegovina in Eindhoven tomorrow evening, with van Hecke replacing the injury-plagued Micky van de Ven in the squad.

He is not expected to be in the starting eleven, but he is part of it. The pride of Arnemuiden – together with Uncle Jan.

Van Hecke said: “My uncle doesn’t really live in the city anymore.

“Me neither, but I go back quite often. So yeah, it's him or me, I guess!

“It’s a small town. There aren’t really any big cities nearby.

“I come from a village and there is a real sense of community there.

“The people all grow up really well together.

“Now that I play football professionally, they are excited.

“In a few weeks they will come to our game with two buses, each carrying 100 people.

“My brother and a friend of his arranged this.

“He gets the tickets, the hotel, he arranges everything and everyone comes together.”

Van Hecke hasn't heard much about his uncle's career.

Poortvliet played more than 250 games for PSV when they were still rivals of the Johann Cruyff-inspired Ajax.

He was part of the Netherlands squad that reached the final of the 1978 World Cup in Cruyff's absence, but lost there in a controversial defeat to hosts Argentina.

When asked if Poortvliet had shown him any memorabilia from that time, Van Hecke said: “He was quite modest, so he didn't really show them to us.

“He had nice stories about other players, not about himself.

“The only thing he said to me was: 'I played against Johann Cruyff once and he had a tough game.'

“He was pretty big in Holland. He said they got robbed a bit in that game (the World Cup final).”

Van Hecke was aware of the potential pitfalls of trying to break into professional sport.

For this reason, he studied at the local college while playing amateur football.

He said: “Maybe I would have become a sports teacher if I hadn't become a footballer. That's what I trained for.”

“I lived the student life and played football in Goes, where I earned some money.

“On Thursdays I sometimes went to the pub.

“Then the opportunity came and I told myself and my family that this was the moment and that I would do everything I could.

“After a year I got a contract and then everything happened very quickly.”

This opportunity at NAC Breda led to him being spotted by Albion, after which he moved on loan to Heerenveen and Blackburn.

He recently spoke about how he was shown the loan route the Seagulls had in store for him, which was similar to that of Ben White, and how he was a little sceptical at first.

But it worked out perfectly and he could become the first man from the province of Zeeland to play for Oranje since Peter van Vossen in 2000.

He said: “When you see where I come from, this call to Oranje is something very special.”

“Six years ago I was still playing in the amateur team.

“I was in the Zeeland youth academy, but I realized that no clubs were coming.

“Then you have to make sure that you lead a normal life in case you don’t become a footballer.”

Now van Hecke hopes that these international trips will become the new normal.

On Tuesday he will face Pascal Gross when Germany visits the Johann Cruyff Arena, also as part of the Nations League.

Thanks to Gross, van Hecke knew roughly what to expect when Fabian Hürzeler took over the helm at Albion.

The defense attorney said: “I already knew who he was when his name was said because he was here a few times last year as well.

“He saw our games. He was in contact with Pascal at the time.

“So I already knew because I get along pretty well with Pascal and knew that he watches our games.

“He said that he is doing really well in the 2nd Bundesliga.

“I said, 'I love football', so I googled him then and then I knew who he was. But I didn't know he would come a year later!”