Stekelenburg Signs
Wednesday 5 June 2013 17:00
Fulham Football Club is delighted to announce the signing of Dutch international goalkeeper, Maarten Stekelenburg, from AS Roma on a four-year deal for an undisclosed fee which will see the player at the Club until at least the summer of 2017.
The 30-year-old began his senior career at Ajax, having progressed through the Dutch club's youth system.
Stekelenburg made over 280 appearances during 11 seasons at Ajax, winning two league titles, three Dutch cups and four Dutch super cups before moving to Serie A and the Italian capital in 2011. He worked with current Fulham Manager Martin Jol at Ajax during the 2009-10 campaign.
Stekelenburg has 54 caps for the Netherlands and became first-choice goalkeeper following the retirement of Edwin van der Sar, having been understudy to the former Fulham man earlier in his career and at Euro 2008.
He reached the Final of the 2010 World Cup with Netherlands, narrowly losing out 1-0 to Spain in extra-time, and he represented his country at last summer's Euro 2012.
Speaking from a central London hotel, Maarten Stekelenburg said: "I am very happy to be joining Fulham, and to have everything sorted out so early in the summer, so I can really focus on preparations for playing in the Barclays Premier League next season.
"It's good that I'll be joining Martin again, he knows my capabilities very well, so I am just looking forward to joining up with the team in pre-season and enjoying some time with them prior to the new season starting."
Manager Martin Jol added: "Maarten Stekelenburg is a fine quality goalkeeper who I know well from my time working with him at Ajax and of course as the Dutch international goalkeeper I have always had an additional interest in his career. I am sure that he will do well here at Fulham in the Barclays Premier League.
"He is a player of great quality and technical ability whose distribution and ability to react quickly and read the game is exceptional; he will be a fantastic addition to the talented team of 'keepers that we already have. I am delighted that he was so keen to come to join us and am very happy with the way that the summer is shaping up in terms of our signings, so on the whole I'm ever so pleased."
YYYYYYEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!
Finally
Bye bye Schwarzer and Bye bye Stockdale
NEW KEEPER KIT... well, only the back of it, but we can see the stripes!
(http://www.fulhamfc.com/-/media/PlayerActionShots/2012-13/Players/stek-shirt.ashx?w=300&h=400p)
Brilliant! With the long running goalkeeper saga done and dusted we can really switch our focus to the outfield.
It's shaping up to be a good summer.
How should we call him now? Steks? :022:
"He is a player of great quality and technical ability whose distribution and ability to react quickly and read the game is exceptional"
Looking forward to seeing the exceptional distribution after a few seasons of moaning about Schwarzer's inability in that area!
And finally the new signings are posing with adidas gear.
Steks between the schticks
big stek as hes 6''6
Woho!! :clap_hands:
World Class keeper. Really enjoying this transfer window so far. (And so early!)
3 International class players in already.
Will be interesting to see what we look to address next.
Need to teach him how to smile :-D
Nice polo shirt too, that is a new design by addidas, the others have been one colour with stripes. Hopefully kit has our own tweaks to it as well
Defence alot stronger now with the recent signings. I am still not happy with riise and richardson on left side, but defence overall now looks good.
We now need to focus on getting 2 quality midfielders. Left winger would also be good, i think kaka is not up to it despite his late season form.
Quote from: ffcbulcolor=maroon][/color]garia link=topic=30733.msg397094#msg397094 date=1370448811]
"He is a player of great quality and technical ability whose distribution and ability to react quickly and read the game is exceptional"
Looking forward to seeing the exceptional distribution after a few seasons of moaning about Schwarzer's inability in that area!
And finally the new signings are posing with adidas gear.
My thoughts as well...
Nice to finally get the confirmation. A wonderful signing hope he lives up to his former self 076.gif :wine:
3 down(4 if you count Riether), and I guess 3 to go. Impressing window so far and so early - so unlike us but we needed that.
Spare a thought for Schwarz though... He has been a great servant for us, best of luck to whatever he moves on to.
Quote from: Ordar on June 05, 2013, 05:20:29 PM
World Class keeper. Really enjoying this transfer window so far. (And so early!)
3 International class players in already.
Will be interesting to see what we look to address next.
:plus one:
A "stekel" in Dutch means a prickle. Burg, obviously refers to a city (like the word "burgher" which you knicked from Dutch). So literally his name means "city of prickles"
Quote from: Burt on June 05, 2013, 05:33:40 PM
Spare a thought for Schwarz though... He has been a great servant for us, best of luck to whatever he moves on to.
I wanted to post something like this, but I still don't know how to phrase it. Wherever Schwarzer goes this summer, that club will still have one of the most consistent keepers in the League on their hands. Terrific professional; he didn't leave when the interest was there from bigger clubs, and he's been a crucial part of our success over the past five years.
Quote from: Burt on June 05, 2013, 05:33:40 PM
Spare a thought for Schwarz though... He has been a great servant for us, best of luck to whatever he moves on to.
:plus one:
fantastic signing, let the pre season commence
Stuff it, I'm gonna say it.
FULHAM FOR THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE!!!
Great stuff, cant wait to see him in action.
Has anyone on here seen alot of him? As most of my football-watching is only really restricted to England and the odd champions league match, I'll admit to only being pleased of this signing based only on reputation of his name and not from actually watching his performances.
Quote from: Jamie88 on June 05, 2013, 06:08:10 PM
Great stuff, cant wait to see him in action.
Has anyone on here seen alot of him? As most of my football-watching is only really restricted to England and the odd champions league match, I'll admit to only being pleased of this signing based only on reputation of his name and not from actually watching his performances.
Not too much action, I hope !
Great signing! Very happy with this! I guess it means the end of Schwarzer though. He has been a great servant for the club over the years.
So this deal was the last one Franco Baldini did as sporting director for AS Roma.
http://www.asroma.it/en/news/franco_baldini_june_5 (http://www.asroma.it/en/news/franco_baldini_june_5)
Quote from: Burt on June 05, 2013, 05:33:40 PM
Spare a thought for Schwarz though... He has been a great servant for us, best of luck to whatever he moves on to.
:plus one:
Well said, sir!
Quote from: Jamie88 on June 05, 2013, 06:08:10 PM
Great stuff, cant wait to see him in action.
Has anyone on here seen alot of him? As most of my football-watching is only really restricted to England and the odd champions league match, I'll admit to only being pleased of this signing based only on reputation of his name and not from actually watching his performances.
I've seen a reasonable amount of Serie A this season and he's looked ok. But he's been in and out of the squad so much particularly early on that its hard to gauge. He never settled in Rome so a fresh start is exactly what he needs. I cant see why he wont get back to his very best in the next couple of years.
Amid the general euphoria I had forgotten that, in several threads this year, I had poured a certain amount of scorn on the idea that we would be signing Stekelenburg.
I am pleased, therefore, to publicly apologise and congratulate Fulham FC on making me look an idiot (by no means for the first time). I shall be happy to eat a large portion of Humble Pie, should go down OK with a liberal dosing of Levi Root's Reggae Reggae Sauce. In fact I am listening to 'The Sad Bag of Shaky Jake' as I type this while trying to watch England playing football and cricket (multi-tasking ain't just a woman thing when it comes to sports watching.)
Great signing by us here great keeper, glad to see it's a 4 year deal
Yes..we got him! Stekelenburg is one of the best goalkeepers in Europe. Good work Jol!!
Quote from: EJL on June 05, 2013, 05:10:22 PM
NEW KEEPER KIT... well, only the back of it, but we can see the stripes!
(http://www.fulhamfc.com/-/media/PlayerActionShots/2012-13/Players/stek-shirt.ashx?w=300&h=400p)
great news
erm... reckon thats close to the rear template of the Stoke electriCity monstrosity
Quote from: mangoputney on June 05, 2013, 09:44:54 PM
Quote from: EJL on June 05, 2013, 05:10:22 PM
NEW KEEPER KIT... well, only the back of it, but we can see the stripes!
(http://www.fulhamfc.com/-/media/PlayerActionShots/2012-13/Players/stek-shirt.ashx?w=300&h=400p)
great news
erm... reckon thats close to the rear template of the Stoke electriCity monstrosity
Give the new kit a chance
Quote from: westcliff white on June 05, 2013, 05:22:53 PM
Nice polo shirt too, that is a new design by addidas, the others have been one colour with stripes. Hopefully kit has our own tweaks to it as well
The polo is just a standard Adidas polo with our badge on it. Hopefully, its just our training gear that's the stock Adidas gear.
Cracking signing though...to get a keeper who a year or so ago was mooted as one of the best in the world is a steal. Class is permanent and hes had an injury hit year so hopefully with a good pre season and run in the team, he can recapture that form.
Schwarzer has been fantastic lets not forget. Probably kept us up last season and has been top quality ever since he signed. All the best for the future
That's a new deign by Adidas this year tho so it bodes well, stokes new training gear is last yearsdesigns as is west hams. But they both don't have a long term deal just 3/4 year deals.
I reckon it's a keepers top he is holding not something similar to stocked god awful electricity thing
Quote from: westcliff white on June 05, 2013, 10:46:31 PM
That's a new deign by Adidas this year tho so it bodes well, stokes new training gear is last yearsdesigns as is west hams. But they both don't have a long term deal just 3/4 year deals.
I reckon it's a keepers top he is holding not something similar to stocked god awful electricity thing
+1
am liking a lot of the new adidas kits.... except that Stoke thing
How do we pronounce it?
Stek Len Burg? Three syllables.
Ste Kel En Burg? Four syllables.
Any idea?
Quote from: Wimbledon_White on June 05, 2013, 11:37:41 PM
How do we pronounce it?
Stek Len Burg? Three syllables.
Ste Kel En Burg? Four syllables.
Any idea?
Four syllables.
I think I'm actually gonna miss the daily "Stekelenburg set to sign" stories all over Twitter :(
Quote from: KP_FFC on June 05, 2013, 05:14:43 PM
big stek as hes 6''6
It's a long way for him to get down to the daisy cutters.
Quote from: EJL on June 06, 2013, 12:03:02 AM
Quote from: Wimbledon_White on June 05, 2013, 11:37:41 PM
How do we pronounce it?
Stek Len Burg? Three syllables.
Ste Kel En Burg? Four syllables.
Any idea?
Four syllables.
The Stek.
Two syllables.
Quote from: Fulham1959 on June 05, 2013, 06:16:28 PM
Quote from: Jamie88 on June 05, 2013, 06:08:10 PM
Great stuff, cant wait to see him in action.
Has anyone on here seen alot of him? As most of my football-watching is only really restricted to England and the odd champions league match, I'll admit to only being pleased of this signing based only on reputation of his name and not from actually watching his performances.
Not too much action, I hope !
This is inevitable - after all, most of our attacks end up with a pass to our goalkeeper. ;)
You build from the back
Theres a video interview on the site with him now. Says maybe he will follow EVDS's career path. Already thinking about Utd! Sell him! Bring back Tony Warner
Good to hear him say he's signed for the long term. Another one of Jol's old players signing his praises. It is likely the English players who apparently fell out with Jol have attitude problems (we know Bobby Z does for sure), its notable that none of the international players who have played under him bare him any bad blood. Why do we think this is? Unwilling to change ideas? Want an easy ride? System too complex for them?
I really hope this is the window where we put Jols vision into fruition. I still have doubts over Ruiz and Berbatov's ability to function as a forward partnership, but there must surely be a way to get them both being effective the same team. (Although they said that about Lampard and Gerrard for years)
Here's a link to his first interview:
http://www.fulhamfc.com/news/2013/june/06/stekelenburg-speaks (http://www.fulhamfc.com/news/2013/june/06/stekelenburg-speaks)
Quote from: rusty shackleford on June 06, 2013, 10:51:47 AM
Theres a video interview on the site with him now. Says maybe he will follow EVDS's career path. Already thinking about Utd! Sell him! Bring back Tony Warner
I guess that has been talked up by Dutch press. Their career path is strikingly similar. Starting off at Ajax, becoming a regular national goalkeeper, going to Italy, finding your club and international career in a slump (not that many opportunities to play games), go to Fulham at 30, become a regular, get your place back for the Dutch side...
I bet he spoke to VDS to find him out.
Quote from: sipwell on June 06, 2013, 01:04:04 PM
Quote from: rusty shackleford on June 06, 2013, 10:51:47 AM
Theres a video interview on the site with him now. Says maybe he will follow EVDS's career path. Already thinking about Utd! Sell him! Bring back Tony Warner
I guess that has been talked up by Dutch press. Their career path is strikingly similar. Starting off at Ajax, becoming a regular national goalkeeper, going to Italy, finding your club and international career in a slump (not that many opportunities to play games), go to Fulham at 30, become a regular, get your place back for the Dutch side...
I bet he spoke to VDS to find him out.
CONSPIRACY!
It might be a fairly standard sort of club interview, but you can't help being impressed by the Dutchies' command of our lingo, especially as this bloke has never been based anywhere except Holland and Italy.
Reminds me of listening to the radio as I was driving somewhere some years back. As a build up to an England v Netherlands match they interviewed Dick Advocaat, Ronnie Koeman, Frank Rijkaard, Dennis Bergkamp and our own Ian Wright. No prizes for guessing which one was not articulate, informative and easily understood!
MAARTEN. I haven't been as happy a Fulham fan in a while.
