Sunderland’s summer signing Robin Roefs admits he’s joined a different world with his move to the Black Cats. NU has remarks from the goalie today, as he joins the Netherlands squad for the international break. The 22-year-old has had a busy summer, having joined Sunderland for €10.5 million at the start of last month after impressing at Dutch club NEC Nijmegen. He only made 42 appearances for them after progressing through their youth divisions, representing the club at the U17, U18, U19, and U21 levels over the years.
He made his first-team debut in 2023 and is now a Premier League player, starting the season as Sunderland’s number one. Ronald Koeman has also summoned him up to the Netherlands squad, where he will be the third choice behind Bart Verbruggen and Mark Flekken. It’s a swift rise, to say the least, for the youngster, who is having to take a lot on board so quickly after such a hectic few months. Fortunately, Sunderland has aided him in this respect, and it appears that they go out of their way to make their new recruits as comfortable as possible.
Quality always rises to the top but sometimes in football you have to be lucky enough for everything to fall into place,” he said.
“That’s what happened this summer. It was such a great moment when I heard what clubs were interested in me. But it turned out to be Sunderland, a club in the best league in the world. And now I’m also with the Dutch national team. If you’d told me that three months ago, I wouldn’t have believed it.
“I don’t think they knew who I was in the dressing room. I also didn’t expect to go from NEC to a Premier League club. I’ve entered a different world.
“The club has three team managers to take care of everything for you. If there aren’t any more, that’s it. That allowed me to quickly focus on football, and that worked out well. From the first practice matches, things went well.
“It also made it easier for me, as an unknown player, to integrate into the new group of players. I couldn’t have wished for a better start.”
Leave a Reply