Tuesday, August 17, 2021 at 13:19• Dominic Mostert

FC Utrecht is aiming for the return of Mike van der Hoorn. The club has had several conversations with the 28-year-old defender in recent days, reports Football International Tuesday afternoon. Van der Hoorn, currently a player of Arminia Bielefeld, is in the picture as the successor to Tommy St. Jago. In the exhibition game with Fortuna Sittard last Saturday, St. Jago, an intended basic player in the new season, seriously injured his knee.

René Hake opted for a central defense duo with Willem Janssen and Mark van der Maarel in the first competition match against Sparta Rotterdam (4-0 win) on Sunday. Although Van der Maarel scored a goal and was elected Man of the Match, Utrecht remains keen to sign a replacement for St. Jago. Van der Hoorn knows Stadion Galgenwaard well, because he comes from the youth academy of Utrecht and played for the first team between 2011 and 2013, before transferring to Ajax for approximately four million euros.

In total Van der Hoorn played 49 official matches for Utrecht and exactly as many matches for Ajax. He was sold by Ajax to Swansea City in 2016 and transferred to Arminia Bielefeld on a free transfer in mid-2020. He started as a basic player at the Bundesliga club, but ended up on the bench in January and has not been able to regain his starting spot since. On Saturday he participated for fourteen minutes as a substitute in the season overture against SC Freiburg (0-0).

“An external reinforcement is definitely something we should look at,” Hake recently agreed with Football International. “But we also have to take a good look at whether the boys we have now are good options to play. We talk about that every day. Look, if you want to get a central defender of 27 or 28 years who has not played football for a year has… That is nice on paper, but then it takes another half a year before you have him fit.” Van der Hoorn participated in several duels with Bielefeld in the preparation.