Mateo Biondic is the Pro League player of the month for September. He did not know Deniz Undav’s story before signing for Union. I read it on Monday, at the chip shop, and I put my weekly down.
I’m not criticising. I’m comparing.
In 2020, Undav was 23. He was playing at Meppen, in the German third division. Union came to get him. The club was then in the Challenger Pro League, the Belgian second tier. After that, 45 goals and 18 assists in 70 games.
In January, Union made Biondic’s transfer official. German, Croatian roots, 22, Eintracht Trier, fourth division. One division lower. The club, for its part, went up. He told RTBF that Union did not want only good players, but “players who adapt to their characteristics, to the way they want to play football”.
In the old days, a player arrived at a club and somebody told him who had worn the shirt before him. In the dressing room. Not in the newspaper. Today he signs, he scores, he is player of the month, and it is the press that tells him there was a precedent. I don’t blame him. He had no weekly.
One thing consoles me. He said: “I come to training by bike. I’m not really a special person.” In 1980, that would never have happened either. Nobody would have said it. Everybody did it.
Marcel, in my dressing room we hand the history down too. Especially the story of the slope.
He had also applied to the police. Turned down, because it could not be combined with football. Soon after, Union’s offer arrived. I cut out the article. I keep it with the one on Undav, in the same folder. If a third one comes, it will have something to read.
Well. It’s the times.
It’s true, we checked: RTBF Sport.
