Wednesday, April 28, 2021 at 10:29 AM• Rian Rosendaal • Last update: 10:30 am

Eric Botteghin is ready for a new challenge after fourteen seasons in the Netherlands. The central defender looks in an extensive interview with Football International among other things, back on his years at Feyenoord, the club that brought him in in 2015. Botteghin thinks it is a shame that he has only been able to work with Jaap Stam for a few months, someone he likes very much as a defender.

“I still think it is a shame that Jaap did not succeed at Feyenoord. He is a really good trainer, it was just not easy”, Botteghin sighs about the coach who left in Rotterdam-Zuid in 2019 after four months. The Brazilian mandekker will always be grateful to Stam. “He made me captain, also something I will never forget. I still played with that band around my arm in De Kuip. It was a shame that Dick Advocaat later turned that back and Steven Berghuis made captain. But no problem. Every coach. has the right to its own captain to choose. And even without a bond you can take responsibility and take the lead “, Botteghin emphasizes.

Just like Advocaat, Botteghin will leave Feyenoord after this season. “After this season I will leave Feyenoord, I will leave the Netherlands behind and have no idea what the future will bring. I am not afraid of it. I trust that everything will be fine and we will find our way, wherever it may be”, the 33-year-old defender looks hopefully to the future. In any case, the routine keeps all options open regarding his new club. “A return to Brazil seems like something to me. I am now 33 years old and have never played at the highest level in my native country. The football fans know me from the interviews I give to the media there, but I doubt they know. what kind of football player I am. I keep all doors open. “

The approaching departure at Feyenoord does not leave Botteghin unaffected. He says he loves the Netherlands, the culture and the people. In addition, the children of the stopper were born in Rotterdam. “This country has been so important to me, I have been able to develop here as a footballer and as a person, I have been given opportunities and grasped. But I do not allow those thoughts completely. I want to close well by getting European football with Feyenoord. That would be the ideal goodbye, after fourteen beautiful years “, Botteghin concludes.