It was regarded as a major coup for Middlesbrough last summer when Rav van den Berg was signed. At the time, it was widely known that some of the biggest clubs in Europe were pursuing the young defender.
Following a meeting with Michael Carrick and Jonathan Woodgate, he ultimately decided to move to Boro after being convinced about the club’s project and their plans for his development. He made this admission himself.
In his first season at the club, Van den Berg has also lived up to expectations, winning Carrick’s trust right away by providing effective cover while injuries decimated the Boro team. The 19-year-old has shown a remarkable level of maturity in that time by performing at such a consistent level.
Head of football Kieran Scott, who had long courted the Dutchman, is not surprised by that. The tale of Van den Berg’s summer signing with Boro, who was well aware of his talent, demonstrated the defender’s level of maturity and grace. During his most recent appearance on the Twe12th Man Podcast, Scott related the story.
“Rav’s signing is a good story,” he remarked. His brother was well known long ago; I saw Sepp perform at Zwolle when he made his breakthrough while I was at Norwich. When we first met, the agent said to me, “You should see his younger brother!”
It was completely unimportant at the time because Rav would have only been 13 or so, but I could never shake the thought that he had a younger brother. Nevertheless, Rav succeeds and eventually leaves for Liverpool, and I continued to watch him. My coworker Chris Jones had seen him and thought well of him, and the man representing him is a fascinating individual for a representative.
To be honest, he could have paid much more for both Rav and himself to take him to ten or so other clubs. However, he was just fond of Middlesbrough’s atmosphere. We arranged for Rav, the agent, Michael, and Jonathan to speak over the phone, and Michael and Jonathan completely astounded Rav.
“Your guys have won him over,” the agent called me as soon as they ended the call. You have a brief window of time to get him before larger clubs start calling me nonstop. They were also sizable clubs. You’re referring to teams like AC Milan, Dortmund, and others.
“We completed that deal—quite a difficult one—in about a day, with Rav even flying over to demonstrate the agent’s excellent work for us. The agent informed me, as I recall, that Rav had called every club expressing interest to inform them that he had decided to move to Middlesbrough and to thank them for their interest.
“That was, as far as I know, fifteen other clubs that he called personally—big names and prominent figures at major league teams like Dortmund, Juventus, Milan, Ajax, and so on. That truly captures the essence of the boy—he’s 19 going on 29. That’s how that happened, and I recall thinking, “We’ve done all right here,” after only about fifteen minutes of his first training session in Portugal. I think he did a little bit better than I initially believed.
In his first season at the club, Van den Berg has undoubtedly made an impression, and many of the elite teams that Boro beat to sign him last summer are still keeping a close eye on him. He joined the team last summer and signed a four-year contract, but because of his strong play and the club’s desire to keep him, there have recently been encouraging discussions about signing a new deal to stifle interest in him this summer.
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