Heracles Almelo of Holland striker, Cyriel Dessers has sealed a deal to join Nigerian compatriots, Stephen Odey and Paul Ebere Onuachu at Racing Genk of Belgium, as the club that also previously had Wilfred Onyinyen Ndidi on their cards have announced a four-year agreement with the Dutch Eredivisie League’s joint-top scorer of the recently cancelled season, megasportsarena.com reports.
Although initial permutations had been on the possibility of Dessers joining a club in Spain or England, the lad with a Belgian father and Nigerian mother always said he would prefer going back to Belgium, and he is now on the verge of having his wish come true.
This is sequel to reports out of Belgium revealing that Genk have succeed with their plan to extend their Nigerian links ahead of next season, having agreed to pay four million Euros for Dessers to join them from Almelo and play alongside the pair of Onuachu and Odey in their attack.
Belgian portal, Het Laaste Nieuws added that Desser’s transfer will be completed on July 1, after Genk managed to beat down Almelo’s initial demand of six million Euros for the joint-top scorer in the Dutch top flight this past season, who had previously played for SK Lokeren and OH Leuven in Belgium’s top-flight league.
The 25-year-old Dessers, who opted to play for Nigeria ahead of Belgium, will now aim to hit the ground running in order to outshine Onuachu, who struggled for form during his first season in Belgium, after arriving from FC Midtjylland of Denmark, while Odey, who previously played for MFM FC of Lagos and FC Zurich of Switzerland, has also been in and out of the starting roster at Genk.
As Genk prepare to welcome Dessers, votes of confidence are already rolling out for the lad, who also played for FC De Zwaluw Vechmaal, Union FC Rutten, SK Tongeren, St-Truiden and SK Tongeren of Belgium prior to his move to Holland in 2016.
Leading the accolades are two coaches he played under, as Peter Maes and Stijn Vreven both spoke about the rare qualities they saw the Super Eagles’ new invitee showed during his days with them, and they now and reckon he will be a huge success at Genk.
Ex-Sporting Lokeren gaffer, Maes told voetbalprimeur.be: “A good head, eager to learn and very self-aware of his qualities, a huge asset as a deep striker. Such a boy, face to the goal, war in the sixteen: we don’t have many in Belgium like that. If I bring in a player somewhere; certainly a young guest, that is with the feeling that he has potential in mind.”
Vreven, who Dessers flourished under in the 2016/17 season at NAC Breda of Holland, for which he hit 42 goals in 40 appearances, added: “Strong, fast, good footballing, decent head game. He had no weaknesses, but you felt that he could still make progress in all areas. He did that. You don’t just become top scorer in the Netherlands. Dessers has everything.”
