Crawley Town’s Van Den Bogaert is looking forward to making home debut

Crawley Town’s new signing Bryan Van Den Bogaert wants to prove himself in English football.
Crawley Town FC unveil their new manager Mark Yates 19-05-2015.  SR1510713. Pic by Steve Robards SUS-150519-152354001Crawley Town FC unveil their new manager Mark Yates 19-05-2015.  SR1510713. Pic by Steve Robards SUS-150519-152354001
Crawley Town FC unveil their new manager Mark Yates 19-05-2015. SR1510713. Pic by Steve Robards SUS-150519-152354001

He is aiming to persuade manager Mark Yates to offer him a permanent contract after signing signing a one-month deal.

Van Den Bryant could be making his league debut in front of the home fans this afternoon when Reds take on AFC Wimbledon at the Checkatrade.com Stadium.

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He impressed the Crawley manager in a pre-season friendly against Reading both for his performance and his commitment in driving five hours from his home in Belgium to play the match.

Left-back Ven Den Bogaert, 23, said: “I just arrived here for the game against Reading - my agent phoned me on the day offering me a game - he couldn’t get a flight so I just got in my car and drove five horus to get here, trained, played and Mark Yates said I could stay.

“I am very pleased to get a contract here.

“My contract finished at Anwerp and I was offered a new two-year deal but I wanted to play in England.

“It’s my kind of football. It’s less technical but its quicker then in Belgian.

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“I was at Shrewsbury for a trial, they offered me a deal and I went to Bolton in April and my contract told me to wait for a better deal.

Football here is less technical but quicker and it’s my kind of football.

“I watch English football and support Tottenham because they have four Belgian guys there.

“The gaffer has trust in me but wanted to see how my ankle worked out.

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Van Den Bogaert played for Belgium league Division Two club Royal Antwerp together with his younger brother believes he is more suited to the rough and tumble of the English game.

He said: “It’s because of my character, I go for it. I just do it, I tackle for the ball and die before the other person scores.

“I am not quite there with my ankle so I will see what happens.

“I am very much looking forward to my first home game. I’m very curious about the crowd here - at Antwerp we had 12,000 home fans.

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“If we play away we took 500-600 fans with us as this is one of the biggest clubs in Belgium.

“The salaries for footballers is better here. In Belgium they have two levels of professional football while here there are four!

“My family’s coming over to watch my first game and staying over until Tuesday to watch the next one (against Portsmouth).”

Mark Yates said: “I thought he did OK against Peterborough - there were things we could have done better but then as a team defensively there were loads of things we could improve on.

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“A lots happened to him in a short space of time. To make the effort to come over here in a short space of time was amazing.

“The performance he put in against Reading was really good.

“He started well against Nuneaton and got smashed and thought he was going to be out for a month with the size of the swelling which came up.

“But he has shown how tough he is. He did alright but no more than that and he knows that. he is here to be looked at for however long he is here.”

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