Teun Koopmeiners would have liked to start on Saturday evening in the game against RKC Waalwijk (1-0 defeat). The AZ midfielder started on the bench and made his entrance after an hour as a substitute. Prior to the match, trainer Pascal Jansen indicated that he only wanted to draft players ‘who have their thoughts with AZ’.
Koopmeiners faces a departure and therefore had to take a seat on the couch. “I would have liked to play yes”, the captain agrees after the duel in Waalwijk in front of the camera of ESPN. “It went in good consultation with the trainer. We discussed this extensively. He gave his reasons for this and I expressed my position. I wanted to play and I also indicated that. I made a choice. That was completely clear to me.”
Koopmeiners then draws a connection between his imminent departure and his reserve role. “That has to do with that choice,” he says about his departure. “But I also said: as long as nothing happens, I will play here, I want to play everything and I am 100 percent available. I have stated before that a transfer entails a lot, but I am also just professional. As long as you are here you just have to give one hundred percent and I always will.”
Koopmeiners seems to be on the eve of a transfer to Atalanta, as the Italians have already indicated several times that they are interested in the left leg. The transfer of Cristian Romero to Tottenham Hotspur should accelerate the transition from Koopmeiners to Atalanta, it was reported recently in Italian media. AS Roma and Napoli were also linked to the midfielder, who are asked how concrete the interest in him is. “It’s concrete, but if you don’t mind, I don’t feel like talking about it for a while.”