“Instead of loyalty, I have a dagger in my back”

Lars Veldwijk made the move from Sparta Rotterdam to Jeonbuk Hyundai in the winter transfer period. The striker had already set his sights on a lucrative foreign adventure for a long time and got away with it in January when the Rotterdammers cooperated in their departure for South Korea. Almost three months later, he recalls his last months at Het Kasteel and discusses his relationship with coach Henk Fraser, who deteriorated this season.

Last summer Veldwijk participated in the Africa Cup with South Africa, so he was absent for much of the preparation for the current Eredivisie season. Fraser initially didn’t have a basic spot reserved for the 28-year-old forward. “I understood that I would not play the first games, because I had missed five or six weeks of preparation.” That was not the problem. But the way the coach treated me was very different from the previous one, “says Veldwijk in an interview with International football.

“He no longer had any respect,” continued Veldwijk, who noted that the conversations between him and the coach were no longer good. “I scored as a substitute against Feyenoord. The next three games I did it twice. Conditionally, I had also maintained myself very well all the time, because I had only had five days of vacation. So it seemed normal to regain my place. That did not happen. “Veldwijk last season with 24 goals, a large participation in the promotion to the Eredivisie. This season he had a minor role in Rotterdam.

Veldwijk played fifteen times, only started three times from the base in the competition. Last summer he already felt pushed to the exit by the club. “The transfer fee that I had to pay was a problem for other clubs. That Fraser suddenly seemed to have forgotten what we had accomplished together the previous season, how I helped him as a forward and as a captain, was my turn. Instead of loyalty, I have a dagger on my back. “

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