Lex Immers stops as a professional football player. The attacking midfielder, who turned 35 last month, has handed in his contract with NAC Breda and thinks it has been nice after fourteen seasons, as a former player of ADO Den Haag, Feyenoord, Cardiff City, Club Brugge, ADO and NAC again. The Hague’s contract with the Keuken Kampioen Divisie club continued for another football year.
After all, in the second half of the season, he already had doubts whether he would continue for another season. “Then you play a role in whether you will be promoted. Eredivisie or Kitchen Champion Division, that’s quite a difference, isn’t it?” The Telegraph. “When we didn’t make it to the play-off final, I thought it was a good time to say enough is enough. I also had small injuries more often, which I never had before.”
The forced departure of Maurice Steijn also played an important role. “Let me be honest, of course I came to Breda for Maurice. Otherwise NAC would never have reported to me at the time. I thought NAC was a nice club. What pisses me off is that I’ve never played in a full stadium at this club. Such a shame, because from the past I know how atmospheric it can be at NAC with a full house.”
Immers was good for six goals and four assists in the past regular season. It was also a football season in which the veteran was hit by the corona virus and two hamstring injuries. He made a total of 31 encounters in the Kitchen Champion Division and the subsequent play-offs.
He looks back on a career in which he played for ‘a fantastic club’ such as Feyenoord and also under ‘an international top trainer’ such as Ronald Koeman, who is now for the selection of Barcelona. “In my first season I was criticized here and there, but I thought: if a trainer like Koeman puts me first in his team every week, he must have faith in my qualities. As a result, I started to perform and I had two fantastic years under him.”
“Because of Koeman, I started to look at top football in a different way. He taught me things. I don’t think I’m the only one who is super happy that he got to play and train under him. I also won the Silver Shoe because of him.” In the election of best Footballer of the Year, at the end of the 2013/14 season, of, among others The Telegraph, the KNVB and the VVCS, he had to leave only Daley Blind of Ajax ahead of him as a Feyenoord player.
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