Piet Velthuizen’s return to the Eredivisie was short-lived on Sunday. The goalkeeper of Fortuna Sittard had to drop out after more than twenty minutes in the game with FC Groningen (1-0 loss) due to a muscle injury and make way for Alexei Koselev. For example, a new goalkeeper problem for Fortuna threatens: the Moldovan reserve keeper is about to leave the club and goalkeeper Yanick van Osch is also injured. During and after the game it was also mainly about the posture of Velthuizen, including Sunday evening Studio Football.
“At half past two I was watching PSV – Ajax and on my iPad to FC Groningen – Fortuna Sittard. At half past two I called the editors to indicate that I wanted to show something ”, said Pierre Van Hooijdonk, while the images of the opening phase of the game in Groningen were shown. Velthuizen was lucky when he grabbed the ball into his own goal, but it turned out that Jørgen Strand Larsen was offside. “This is not possible, boys,” the former attacker pointed to the stature of the 34-year-old goalkeeper, who played his very last game in professional football more than three years ago.
“This is the bankruptcy of the keepers in the Netherlands. If, after a week, you end up under contract with Fortuna Sittard ”, Van Hooijdonk sighed. “You are way overweight, you have quite a few corona pilots hanging around you. Look at that free kick, how Velthuizen comes in with a clumsy. He hits the ball into his own goal, but the goal is rejected to his great luck. Look at that belly dude. ” Rafael van der Vaart was asked whether he had expected the comeback from Velthuizen. “I didn’t really know he was still playing,” said the former footballer, quasi-seriously.
“The first impression, and that’s what it’s often about, is not too good,” Van der Vaart also acknowledged. Arno Vermeulen was curious about Fortuna’s motives. “This also says a lot about Fortuna. He was on trial, wasn’t he? ”, Commented the commentator NOS in. Van Hooijdonk still couldn’t get over it. “When he takes off his shirt, everyone watches, right?” Theo Janssen, jokingly: “That shirt doesn’t help either.” Van Hooijdonk: “Not that fifteen kilos extra either.”
Velthuizen signed a contract with Fortuna until the end of this season on Friday and was thus already under the bar with the Limburgers two days later. However, the single the Dutch-international quickly suffered from his hamstring. The problems already started in the warm-up. “I kicked some long balls in that and then I already felt something in my hamstring. That was not so good”, Velthuizen said ESPN know. “They put some hot stuff on it after warm-up.”
“I kicked the ball away in the game and it shot worse. It was wiser to stop,” said the keeper, who wanted to play anyway. “I was happy to be able to play again and of course I wanted to help the team as well as possible.” Velthuizen does not think he will be out of circulation for long because of the injury. For the goalkeeper it was his first Eredivisie match since November 9, 2014, when he played for Vitesse. His last official competition was on December 16, 2017, in the service of Omonia Nicosia. After that he was under contract with AZ and Telstar. However, he did not play for the last two clubs.