Jermaine hoping a Dutch of class will shine through

DOING his bit to help recast the League of Ireland as a League of Nations is Jermaine Sandvliet - a 28-year-old player who last year joined Drogheda United from Dutch club, FC Dordrecht.

With two goals to his credit in the competition so far, Jermaine has already made a significant contribution along Drogheda’s way to Sunday’s FAI Cup final.

That game will pit the ‘Drogs’ against newly-crowned league champions Cork City at Lansdowne Road.

“I’m excited,” says Sandvliet, “Victory would mean the world to the town. I live in the centre, and, going for my groceries or to the pharmacy, young and old want to talk to me. They’re all involved and they are all excited.

“I know how much they want to bring the cup home.”

Spoken like a true local, but Jermaine admits that coming to Irish football was a voyage into the unknown after seven seasons at Dordrecht.

“I had a couple of options abroad and then my agent told me about Ireland,” he recalls, “I never knew there was a league in Ireland!”

After a week-long trial with Paul Doolin and his future team mates at Drogheda, however, Jermaine sensed that he had found a new footballing home.

“The things we did in training were comparable to what we were doing in Holland - a lot of play was on the ground.”

Jermaine also liked Paul Doolin’s ideas about football and he found that Drogheda’s ambitions matched his own.

Language, he says, was also a factor in his decision.

“I had options in Switzerland and Austria, but I’m not good at German. English, I can understand.”

It was the friendly atmosphere on Drogheda’s streets, however, that finally persuaded Jermaine to take a chance on the League of Ireland.

“When I came in and walked around Drogheda, people were very welcoming and nice,” he said.

After taking the plunge, the Dutch man found it easy to integrate with the Irish lifestyle.

“I didn’t really have to adjust,” he said, “Irish life is not that different from Holland. The main thing is that people here drink a lot more!”

On the pitch, however, Jermaine found that some things were different.

“Coming in at the start, it was a whole different game to what I was used to in Holland,” he says. “It was faster and much more physical.”

After some adjusting, including a change of position, however, Jermaine is happy with his progress this season.

“I’ve been playing on the left of midfield rather than at left-back and I feel more comfortable there,” he said.

“I’m more involved in the game and my strongest point is going forward. I was really happy with myself this season, for the most part, although at times I felt I could have scored more goals.”

Born in Rotterdam but brought up in Dordrecht, Jermaine almost turned his back on the game at the age of 15 when his first coach, Ton Hart, died.

“I had a real good relationship with him and I just stepped away from football after he died. I was sad about it. I didn’t play for three years. I was watching football but didn’t even play it on the street.

“When I was 18, my mother said I should pick up the game again. I picked it up again and played in the amateur league, had one season in the senior team and later got a professional contract at Dordrecht.”

Although he didn’t experience the top flight in Holland, Jermaine’s 300 appearances with Dordrecht brought him into contact with a number of players who would go on to represent their country.

“If you look at the Holland team at the moment I’ve played against a lot of those players: Jan Kronkamp, Romeo Castelen, Dirk Kuyt, Tim De Kleere, Khalid Boulahrouz, from Hamburg, and a couple more.

“It’s funny. I see them now on the big stage playing big games and, a few years ago, I was playing against them.

“It’s a good thing. It can inspire me to try harder.”

Right now, Jermaine is not looking beyond Sunday and his biggest game in football to date.

“This is my first final,” he says. “This is my first big game and I’m hungry to bring the cup home.

“When I played for Dordrecht, we had a big quarter-final game in the cup against a Premier team and we had a big league game with a 15,000 crowd.

“As a player you want to be involved in big games like this. I hope we can do it justice on Sunday.

“I’ve been told by many people that reaching the final is already a great achievement, and the best thing we can do now is bring that cup back to Drogheda.”