After ten years at Feyenoord, Ramón ten Hove started the next chapter in his career this week. The 23-year-old goalkeeper managed to enforce a contract with Esbjerg fB within one day during a training period and then signed a two-year contract in Denmark. “I am now of the age to make minutes and there is a chance to do that here. And then it’s up to me to show that I belong in the goal and can be important for the team,” says Ten Hove in conversation with Football zone.
By Chris Meijer
Ten Hove has taken place under the stands of the Blue Water Arena. The interview turns out to be an interlude in a busy day. He has already completed group and gym training and has to move to a new apartment later in the day. “Temporarily, you know. Starting next week, we will then take a look at a definitive house at the same time,” he clarifies immediately. Ten Hove has been intimately acquainted with the Danish decisiveness in recent days. On Monday evening he flew to Denmark, Tuesday morning he was on the training field for the first time, on Tuesday evening agent Godwin Falix already received a contract offer and on Thursday he signed a contract with Esbjerg. His official debut may already follow on Saturday, if he succeeds in qualifying him to play in time for the duel with Lyngby. “It actually felt very good. They saw it very quickly, acted quickly and showed a lot of confidence. For me it was important that everything was well arranged when I arrived, that it felt good. That actually worked.”
“They explained to me a lot about the club, how big the club is here. It is one of the largest clubs in Denmark, which you can see when you arrive at the stadium. Then it is a pity that the club plays at the second level, but we all have to ensure that that changes. This is a club with potential, which wants to take a step. I like that challenge”, continues Ten Hove. Esbjerg relegated from the Superligaen in 2020 and finished third in the second tier of Danish football last season. Under the leadership of trainer Peter Hyballa, Esbjerg must again be promoted to the highest level next season. “The goalkeeper coach (Frode Birekland, ed.) has helped me very well, I already received a message from him before I got on the plane to Denmark. I also briefly spoke to Hyballa and that felt good, although he is currently absent due to family circumstances. There is a nice group here and everyone speaks English, so that is very nice. The level is high, the trainers and the staff around them are good. We can really make something of it.”
Esbjerg is the desired challenge for Ten Hove after a period he has never experienced before in his career. The former international for the the Dutch Under-20 has played in Feyenoord’s youth academy for the past ten years, which took him away from Excelsior. “I’ve been guiding Ramon for eight years now and the one thing I’ve always seen is his enormous potential. Since he left Excelsior, he has been a competitor of Bijlow and has always been the preferred choice. Until he got an injury, then the tables were turned. I see a new Van der Sar here, a new Buffon: a very good long-term goalkeeper. He doesn’t have the bravado of Justin Bijlow, but in the long run I think he’s going to be a more consistent goalkeeper,” said his agent Falix. Ten Hove signed his first professional contract in 2017, something that he considers his best moment at Feyenoord.
Ten Hove last season in Feyenoord’s friendly match against Willem II.
“That’s a reward, especially because you’ve worked very hard for it. And that’s when it really starts,” explains Ten Hove. Even before he signed his first professional contract, he was part of the first selection of Feyenoord. As the third or fourth goalkeeper, he experienced, among other things, winning the national title in 2017, the TOTO KNVB Cup in 2018 and the Johan Cruijff Scale in 2018. “I have experienced great things at Feyenoord and played with great players, from whom I have learned a lot. Out of all the goalkeepers I’ve worked with, I’ve been able to pick up some and that’s been really good for me. Brad Jones, Joris Delle, Nick Marsman, Justin Bijlow. Everybody.”
In recent years, a special bond has developed with Khalid Benlahsen. He has been a goalkeeper trainer at Feyenoord since 2016 and already held the same position at Varkenoord before that time. “In the beginning I had a hard time with Khalid, when I was about sixteen years old. In those years things went less well for me, so the band was not optimal. We talked about that very openly when I joined the first and we’ve had a really good relationship ever since. He is a trainer who can get the most out of you, you can see that in the other keepers. I think he has made every goalkeeper at Feyenoord better. He keeps up with the times in terms of exercise material, which is also very important these days. I gained a lot of experience at Feyenoord, through the training sessions and the players I played with there.”
Ten Hove with Nick Marsman, behind whom he was second goalkeeper at Feyenoord last season during the absence of Justin Bijlow.
After ten years of Feyenoord, there is one thing that still gnaws at him a bit. He watched dozens of matches at home and abroad from the bench and in practice matches he was under the bar at the first, but he never made his official debut. “That’s a thing, but I hope to change that in the future. My goal is certainly to return to Feyenoord one day. Justin did a good job when he got the chance, so it’s going to be tough to get past that. I did everything I could to make the step, but in the end the club makes the choice to go for something else,” Ten Hove puts into perspective. Still, it was difficult for a while when he was told in the spring that Feyenoord would not extend his expiring contract. “Because Feyenoord is a very nice club. I played for Feyenoord for ten years and have been a fan from an early age. I saw it coming, so the blow was less hard. Of course I was sorry, but I immediately turned that button. I’m also glad I took a step with a chance at more minutes. That was the most important thing now.”
The search for a new club was not necessarily easy. “We certainly encountered in the Netherlands that he has played little in recent years and that the rental period at FC Dordrecht was not very happy,” explains Falix. Ten Hove played on a rental basis for FC Dordrecht in the second part of 2019, but returned to Feyenoord after six months. He himself describes that rental period as ‘something he learned a lot from, just not on the field’. In the month in which Ten Hove was without a club, he trained for himself with a personal trainer and agent Falix. “This was new and that was not very nice, because I would have preferred to start training in mid-June,” says Ten Hove. “There are also all kinds of clubs, so in your mind you have already been everywhere. That is a thing, also for your family.”
Ten Hove made seven official appearances while working for FC Dordrecht.
For example, Falix recently flew to Italy to talk about Ten Hove with Virtus Entella and Parma. “Parma was very serious, there he was going to work with Gianluigi Buffon. His idol. Everything is calm in Italy. They get money for it when players from the youth make the step to the first. So that is constantly a trade-off against a foreign player and as a result the processes run very slowly,” says Falix about the talks in Italy. The Georgian champion Dinamo Tbilisi did make an offer. Just before Ten Hove was to board the plane to Denmark, Vitesse also reported. “In consultation with Khalid (Benlahsen, ed.), it was decided to go abroad, where he can develop better. Khalid has been hugely involved in Ramón’s development and next step to date. He recommends clubs, gives references: certainly because the market was difficult. And also because clubs doubted because he played little.”
“I did have a preference to go abroad. During the internship you have a certain pressure to prove yourself, because it is a nice opportunity after all. But that was more healthy tension. It gives a nice feeling that you were able to prove yourself so quickly. The most important thing is to play here, take the team in tow and then we’ll see what comes in the future,” Ten Hove said with determination. He may soon have to deal with a compatriot at Esbjerg, because after the extremely troubled start of Hyballa, the club is in talks with Rafael van der Vaart about a supporting role in the technical staff. With a smile: “I also read that in the media. It would be fantastic for the club and the players if he could join here. It’s only beautiful when you’re with that kind legends can work together.”