Reiziger hungry for trophies on Teesside

Middlesbrough new boy Michael Reiziger insists he can add to his trophy haul despite passing up the chance to join Spanish champions Valencia.

The 31-year-old Dutchman turned his back on the Primera Liga and UEFA Cup winners, and the chance to play Champions League football next season, after bringing an end to his seven-year spell at Barcelona.

Instead, he has decided to join Steve McClaren’s blossoming Boro squad to test himself in the Premiership and enjoy the club’s first-ever European campaign after last season’s breakthrough when they won the Carling Cup, the first major honour in their 128-year history.

Full-back Reiziger, who signed a two-year deal with the option of a third at the Riverside Stadium today, is adamant that his ambitions can be fulfilled on Teesside.

“Of course, this is a tough league, but I think we have a good team,” he said as he prepared for a three-week break following his exertions at Euro 2004. “It’s always difficult to say: ’We can win this or win that’.

“Even if you’re playing for Barcelona, it’s difficult to say because you have to grow as a team in a competition.

“We have the quality to grow and, if that’s the case, I think we can aim for things and achieve maybe winning cups.

“Always when you’re winning, you expect more, and that’s the challenge that you have. I’m sure that we will get more, and that’s the ambition I like to have.

“You always try to make yourself better and improve yourself and improve your team.”

Boro have demonstrated their ambition by targeting the likes of Reiziger, his former Barca team-mate Patrick Kluivert and Leeds striker Mark Viduka among others this summer, and were delighted when the Dutchman agreed to sign on the dotted line barely an hour into negotiations in Amsterdam last Friday.

“It’s fair to say that Michael’s ambitious and that came across when we spoke with him for the first time last week,” said chief executive Keith Lamb.

“Michael still wants to achieve things in football, particularly in the Premier League. He wants to win trophies and we have told him how ambitious Middlesbrough are.

“Our ambition and his ambition suit each other, and that’s one of the reasons he’s here. He’s not coming here for an easy time. He’s coming here to compete at the highest level and to win trophies.”

Reiziger’s decision to join Boro came after he spoke to Dutch team-mates Bolo Zenden and George Boateng about life on Teesside and the likes of Ruud van Nistelrooy and Paul Bosvelt about the Premiership.

“I knew a lot and when Bolo came here and George, I was even more aware of the club, but as a football player, you always know what’s happening around Europe,” he said.

“The Dutch team is a very international team with players all over Europe. Paul Bosvelt has also had his first year with Manchester City and he told me that the excitement of playing in games is so beautiful. That’s one thing that I want to experience.

“It’s one of the toughest leagues in the world and the excitement of the games is something that’s very different when you play in other countries.

“It’s something you have to do in your career as a footballer if you have the chance to do it.

“I always wanted to play in the Premier League, like I wanted to play in Serie A and also the Primera Liga. It’s something you have to do as a professional to prove yourself.”

Reiziger will not be the only new arrival at the Riverside this summer, with Viduka’s move from Elland Road now a matter of sorting out a lingering contractual wrangle with his current club.

“Mark’s position with Middlesbrough is complete,” said Lamb.

“There are still one or two contractual problems to sort out with his position at Leeds United, but both clubs have always insisted that Mark, when he joins Middlesbrough, will join free of any encumbrance and problems with his former club, and I think that will be resolved in the next 24 hours.”

Meanwhile, Lamb remains confident that Zenden, who spent last season on loan at Boro from Chelsea, will return.

“We are pretty confident that Bolo will be playing for Middlesbrough next season,” he said. “We are in constant touch with him and his father and I’m pretty sure that we’ll have an announcement to make on that in the not-too-distant future.”