Tuesday, March 30, 2021 at 14:00• Mart Oude Nijeweeme • Last update: 14:08

Piet Velthuizen has been told by Fortuna Sittard that his contract has been formally terminated. This means that the goalkeeper can probably look for a new employer after a few months in Limburg. Velthuizen was attracted by Fortuna in February to solve a goalkeeper problem, but had an extremely unfortunate return to the Eredivisie. The contracts of seven other players have also been formally terminated by Fortuna.

Dutch clubs are obliged to provide players with an expiring contract with clarity about their future before 1 April. Velthuizen has been told that the club intends to split up next summer. The closing post was attracted by Fortuna at the end of February due to an injury to first goalkeeper Yanick van Osch and an upcoming transfer of second goalkeeper Alexei Koselev. The club then decided to work with Velthuizen for the rest of the season.

However, the return of the former Vitesse goalkeeper turned out to be a catastrophe. In the away match against FC Groningen (1-0), Velthuizen injured his hamstring early in the game, after which Koselev took his place under the bar after 23 minutes of play. As a result of Velthuizen’s injury, an internal riot occurred at Fortuna, in which goalkeeper coach Sieb Dijkstra was eventually banned from the first team and returned to the youth academy by the club.

In addition to Velthuizen, Gregoire Amiot, Clint Essers, Djibril Dianessy, Nassim El Ablak, Leroy George, Özgür Aktas and Dimitrios Ioannidis have also been informed that their expiring contract will not be renewed. Martin Angha and Tesfaldet Tekie did see the options in their contract being lifted. “Tesfaldet and Martin have made enormous strides in the past period, just like the rest of the team”, technical manager Sjoerd Ars said on the club website. “It was therefore a logical next step to highlight the options in both contracts. We are also in talks with both players about a longer stay.”

Samuel Moutoussamy, Mickaël Tirpan, Dario van den Buijs and Dimitrios Emmanouilidis will be hired by Fortuna this football year and will in principle return to their original employer after this season. “We will use the coming period to look ahead to the new season and how we want to give substance to this,” Ars continues. “We are currently already in talks with Mickaël to look at the possibilities.”