Alive again in Denmark

Thursday 19 March 2009

After a failed adventure in England Remco Van der Schaaf is back on the pitch at Brøndby IF.

He doesn't speak Danish yet, but when the squad of the league leaders is huffing and puffing on a muddy field next to the stadium the Dutchman doesn't keep quiet.

"Make it big," the former player of PSV, Vitesse and Fortuna Sittard shouts when his team mates are too close to each other in a position game.

From time to time he uses the 'f-word'.

After an unhappy half year in the English Championship he hasn't lost his fighting spirit and seems to enjoy playing again.

He confirms it a little later in '1964', the modern sports bar of the club.

Looking at one of the 25 TV screens fans drink beer and eat hamburgers in the proximity of the players of Brøndby.

"In spite of the fact that I didn't play in England I enjoyed my stay. Manchester and Liverpool were nearby, a lot of new impressions."

Last summer Van der Schaaf traded Vitesse Arnhem, where he played since 1997, except for three years at PSV and six months at Fortuna, for English side Burnley.

Van der Schaaf was unhappy with Vitesse's offer for a new contract.

And as he didn't consider other Dutch clubs a serious option he moved to the northwest of England.

There was some interest from Turkey, Germany and from Cardiff City in Wales, but the plans of Burnley-manager Owen Coyle - reach the play-offs with Van der Schaaf as a holding midfielder - were most appealing.

Coyle seems set to reach at least half of his goals - Burnley are fifth at the moment - but soon after the season started there was no room for Van der Schaaf.

He played a total of 59 minutes in the first team.

"I had missed a large part of the pre-season and wasn't fit. Still I started in the first league game against Sheffield Wednesday."

Burnley were 2-0 down within 4 minutes to lose the game 4-1 in the end, but by then Van der Schaaf was already in the shower.

From the bench he saw how the team started to gel after a second defeat.

At the cost of Chelsea and Arsenal Burnley reached the semifinals of the League Cup and in the FA Cup the Clarets also reached far.

Van der Schaaf drifted far from Coyle's attention and sometimes wasn't even part of the squad of 18.

"The coach wanted to be able to field three forwards when we fell behind. When I wasn't part of the squad for the League Cup game against Tottenham Hotspur we had to talk. I had to prove myself with the reserves the manager said. But I have heard all that before.

The interest of Brøndby, where once Laudrup and Peter Schmeichel made name for themselves, was heaven sent.

"Playing and training in the Championship was a great experience. They play very intuitively with spectacular goals. They shoot from every possible angle. Often these balls end up in the stands but sometimes one find the back of the net. Great!"

Van der Schaaf felt welcome at Brøndby immediately.

"Things are well taken care of here. The atmosphere, the facilities and the great stadium remind me of PSV a lot."

Van der Schaaf thinks his club are at the level of Dutch teams just under the top of the Eredivisie.

With the classic Brøndby-FC Copenhagen being his first match Van der Schaaf couldn't have come at a better time.

Despite losing the game Van der Schaaf received good critics and a week later he was named in the Team of the Week.

He is hoping Brøndby will lift the option to buy him.

If not Van der Schaaf will be happy to return to Burnley, where he has a contract until the summer of 2011.

On Sunday Brøndby beat AGF Aarhus (2-0), cheered forward by the fanatic blue-and-yellow clad fans for 90 minutes Van der Schaaf - center back - led his team in battle.

He still isn't the fastest of players but he was always on the right spot, there where danger was imminent.

After a perfect long ball that started the attack for the first goal he turned to the 20,000 mad Brøndby fans, clenching his fists.

Van der Schaaf is playing again and all of Denmark should know.