A sound Dutch goalkeeper, who enhanced his reputation with a move to Swansea City, Michel Vorm surprisingly signed for Spurs to under-study Hugo Lloris, but his move was not without controversy.

Starting his career for youth side JSV Nieuwegein, close to his home near Utrecht, it was a logical progression that he joined the local Eredivisie club in due course.  Initially put out on loan at Den Bosch to gain experience in a first team, Michel returned and forced his way past two established keepers to take the first team gloves and remained a fixture in the side, except for some missed matches with knee and shoulder injuries in 2007-08, until he left for Swansea City in 2011.

Signing for £1.5 million, Vorm immediately won over fans by keeping the score down on his debut against Manchester City, earning himself a reputation for saving penalties with two in his first season at the Liberty Stadium, along with 13 clean sheets.  At the end of the season, he swept the board for Player of the season awards for the Swans.

Missed out on a large part of the 2012-13 season with a torn groin muscle and then  in the following season's South Wales derby with Cardiff City, he was sent off in injury time.

In 2006, Michel was in the Holland squad that won the UEFA Under-21 Championship in Portugal and went on to make his senior debut in 2008, making the squads for the 2012 European Championship and the World Cup in 2010, when his girlfriend Daisy gave birth to a son Jaivy Waylon, for which he returned home for two days before going back to South Africa.  Michel was third choice keeper for Holland in Brazil and was given a couple of minutes playing time at the end of the the 3rd/4th place play off against Brazil in the 2014 World Cup by manager Louis van Gaal.

Before the start of the 2014-15 season, with Swansea having signed a new keeper to allegedly be their number one, Vorm chose to move to Spurs for a reported £5 million (but may have been £3.5 million), as part of a double deal that included Ben Davies moving to Spurs and Gylfi Sigurdsson going the other way.  An agile goalkeeper, with good reflexes and good speed off his line, Michel ahs a reputation as a good shot-stopper, with his handling and decision making usually very good.  It was no doubt these attributes that persuaded Spurs to move for him as a capable (and younger) deputy for Lloris and to challenge him for the role as keeper in the first team.  However, the size of the fee was questioned by Utrecht, who were owed 30% percent of the fee from a sell-on clause in the contract when he was sold to Swansea.  Details were emerging that Vorm actually joined on a free transfer, thus Utrecht were owed nothing.  This infuriated the Dutch club and they made a complaint to FIFA.