Bart Vriends seems to be finishing his career at Sparta Rotterdam. The 31-year-old center defender has opted to extend his expiring contract at Het Kasteel. With the new contract, Vriends is under contract with Sparta until mid-2024, with the option of an extra year. The experienced mandekker has been associated with the number fourteen in last season’s Eredivisie since the summer of 2016.
“The talks with Bart had been going on for a long time, from our side the intention to extend was very clear,” explains technical director Gerard Nijkamp on the club site on Friday. “Last season he has been of great value to our body preservation, with 33 duels and even 3 goals. It was clear that Bart had a good feeling at Sparta and was open to a longer stay, but also the option of a foreign adventure (Hapoel Tel Aviv, ed.) Fortunately, we got out of it and with Bart we can look forward to, at least, the next two seasons. He has become an important part of the club, which will soon enter its seventh season and we believe that together we can achieve even more great things,” said the Sparta driver.
A message from Colombia ?? pic.twitter.com/GUoGOKrB7s
— Sparta Rotterdam (@SpartaRotterdam) June 10, 2022
Friends had a difficult start to his adventure at Sparta due to persistent injuries. The defender has now become an indispensable part of the back line of the Rotterdam club, where he is very popular with the fans. Friends addresses the Sparta supporters on Friday through a video message from Colombia. “Hi Spartans, I had to think about it for a while, but I’ll just stay on board. Two more years, I couldn’t have enough. I’m looking forward to it, I hope you too. We are going along the line of The last few weeks continue and not unimportant: finally playing on a grass field. So we are going to make something of it”, concludes Vriends, with 152 duels for Sparta to his name. Earlier in his career he played for FC Utrecht and Go Ahead Eagles.
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