The goalkeeper spent much of his formative footballing years at NAC Breda, but he never got a look-in at the Dutch side - unlike team-mate Jan Paul van Hecke, who managed to cut his teeth there.
At the age of 18, he made the switch to Anderlecht, a move that raised a few eyebrows as it was a bigger club, and he was third choice there as well.
But his perseverance paid off, and in the 2022/23 season, he became the Belgian team's first-choice stopper. Albion came calling just over two years ago, and the rest is history.
He said in Albion's programme notes before the Manchester City win, "I didn't even play at NAC. I was the third choice, and I went to Anderlecht to be a third choice there. There were a lot of questions about that.
"People were asking, 'Why would you do that? Why would you skip a step?' You know, I wasn't playing for a team, so why would I go a step higher?
"There were a lot of people who questioned that move because there's this thing about going abroad at a young age, which some people don't like.
"But I always had a clear vision, I knew why I was doing it, I knew my motives, and just stuck by them and worked hard.
"Then everything went a little bit quicker than I expected myself as well. But everything worked out well because I ended up at Brighton in the Premier League."
Fast forward to the present, and the 22-year-old has 20 caps for the Netherlands and is being linked with Barcelona and Bayern Munich, among others.
Verbruggen added that there are similarities with his journey and compatriot Van Hecke's. The defender had loan spells at Heerenveen and Blackburn Rovers but is now flying at Albion.
"It's the same for JP [Van Hecke] - obviously, when he was playing, everybody could see his quality, but I think to see how good he is now, maybe some people wouldn't have expected it at the time because they didn't really see him as someone destined for the top," he said.