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Joos Valgaeren

Discussion in 'Ex Players' started by BroxBhoy94, Jul 28, 2020.

Discuss Joos Valgaeren in the Ex Players area at TalkCeltic.net.

  1. BroxBhoy94

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  2. MickeyyMack CELTIC GLASGOW OK Gold Member

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    Liked the big yin
     
  3. celticdaft238

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    Cracking defender, played really well in the big games.
     
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  4. Callum McGregor The Captain Gold Member

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    Joos Valgaeren played football according to his personality: sober, correct and modest. These traits earned him 19 caps for the national team and he played five years at top Scottish club Celtic Glasgow. An interview with a footballer who characterises himself as unsure in front of the cameras, but stopped top attackers with confidence.

    After Valgaeren decided to stop playing football in October last year, he bought a villa in Kasterlee to settle down with his girlfriend and three children. Located in the Kempen region, Kasterlee was one of the five nominees for the most beautiful village in Flanders two years ago. And rightly so, because the municipality exudes cosiness and conviviality. It is in this village that I meet Joos Valgaeren in his home. As Valgaeren opens the door, his astonished daughter stares at me as if I were the evil wolf in the flesh. "Bedtime," her mother calls out and the daddy takes me into the living room.

    After he sweeps the children's games off the table, our conversation starts by asking why he stopped playing football. "By mutual agreement with my then Dutch club Emmen, I dissolved the contract. I was sitting on the bench a lot and suffering from minor injuries. The motivation was gone and in the end I had had a very nice career after all. I felt it was time to quit."

    A fine career is the least you can say: KV Mechelen, Roda JC, Celtic Glasgow, Club Brugge and finally Emmen. Although he was constantly plagued by injuries in the last five years, which put him on the back foot at Club Brugge and Emmen. "In the end, my three years at Club Brugge had been a disappointment. 3 years languished with my meniscus, so I never got top fitness. I had indeed expected more of it when I signed my contract at Club Brugge. Still, we won the cup, so I wouldn't speak of a let down." A let down certainly cannot be called Valgaeren's playing career. "At Celtic, I played above my level for a number of years and that allowed me to play 19 times for the Red Devils. After all, the national team remains one of the most important goals for a footballer."

    "Beforehand, I knew nothing about the atmosphere at Celtic"

    When he made his debut at KV Mechelen in 1995 at the age of 18, he could only dream of making the national team. He got his first playing minutes at the highest level at Lierse, KV Mechelen's arch-rival. The following week he played his first full match: at home against Anderlecht. "Nerves of course, but I played a good game.

    The result was 1-1, not bad against Anderlecht." Since then, he was mostly in the starting line-up as a central defender. The press described Valagaeren as accurate, reliable and unobtrusive. After KV Mechelen's relegation in 1997, Roda JC was charmed by this reliable defender. "Roda JC was also charmed by Bob Peeters then, so that doesn't say that much," Valgaeren says, laughing. "By the way, I still phone him from time to time, one of the few contacts I kept from football." After three years at Roda JC, he left for Celtic. A vibrant club with the best supporters in the world.

    Wasn't that an overwhelm for the humble defender? "I had no idea beforehand what I was getting myself into. In fact, I knew nothing about the atmosphere at Celtic. Then you start the first game and you hear the supporters singing You will never walk alone. Pretty impressive for an ordinary guy from Leuven. With that atmosphere, you are obliged to shift up a gear for ninety minutes."


    A Gift from *

    Valgaeren has played with a lot of good footballers, but the best was Moravcik. "Just type his name on Google. You will probably never have heard of him. Too bad, because that's a living legend at Celtic. A number ten with unparalleled technique." And indeed, when I type his name on Google I get a You Tube video titled A gift from *. "Petrov and Larsson were no amateurs either, but Moravcik was really the best." And the best coach? "Sef Vergoossen at Roda JC.

    He really made me better. With him I learned, for example, not to just kick the ball into the stadium. A central defender had to play along with Vergoossen." Valgaeren also worked under Ceulemans, a man he saw leave Club Brugge. "Unjustly, because he didn't have enough player material. I thought the Caje was a good trainer. Not too much circling the pot and no hours of lectures on running lines or tactics. During a game, a footballer forgets all that chatter anyway." At Brugge, the central defender played with Stijn Stijnen, a figure who has been making headlines for weeks. "I'm not a fan of his, but he does grab his balls every game. The media looks for Stijnen and he makes no effort to hide. That's a trade-off between player and press."

    "I preferred to stay in anonymity"

    Joos Valgaeren rarely made it to the media and there was a reason: "I always felt insecure when I had to give interviews. I didn't like cameras and after the game I avoided the press. Maybe that suited my modesty. After all, there are players who like nothing better than to show their heads on television, but I preferred to stay in anonymity." So his choice of Roda JC was ideal. "Roda JC only got attention from the local Limburg journalists. The Dutch press was mainly looking for sensation from the three big clubs in the Netherlands." So in football-mad Glasgow, didn't he have much trouble with intrusive journalists? "Not really no, everything was arranged by Celtic's PR department. These refused about 90 per cent of interviews. On average I gave an interview once a month."


    "Football doesn't interest me"

    There is another reason why he preferred not to talk about football with journalists. "I had absolutely no interest in football news. I trained and played my matches, but on television I rarely watched football matches. Now I don't follow football either. The only matches I watch are those of my two sons." His two sons play at the Devils of Kasterlee, where entertainment takes precedence over performance. "For the time being it is and that is the most important thing for me. If the fun disappears completely, they'd better stop." And how is he feeling in his new hometown? "I still have to find my feet a bit, but that won't be a problem. I am uncertain about my future, though. I don't know yet what I'm going to occupy myself with in the coming years." Football coach perhaps? "Absolutely not. At most, at one time or another, jump in with the youth of Kasterlee." But one plan is certain. "To go skiing regularly, because I missed that during my football career." And with that, the conversation ends. As he leaves me outside, the ex-soccer player asks, laughing, "By the way, shouldn't you be at the top match Lokeren-Westerlo? Or are you less fanatical than I thought?" Watching Jef Delen and co in the bleak wind. No thanks, I'd rather have an interview with Joos Valgaeren between four warm walls. By Tomas Thys
     
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  5. Liam Scales Gold Member Gold Member

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    Only 3 posts in his thread, what an underrated player. MON trying to make him a LB done him dirty man :56:
     
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  6. themouth1888

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    Way our window is going was half expecting to see we were trying to get him out retirement
     
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  7. Callum McGregor The Captain Gold Member

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    Injury harmed him more but aye, wasn't his best position.
     
  8. NomDePlum

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    Joos Joos Joos .....
     
  9. Liam Scales Gold Member Gold Member

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    Poor mans Laursen at LB :56:

    Mind we had the option of him, Varga, Bobo and Mjallby but!?
     
  10. FrankMcCallum Gold Member Gold Member

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    He was * sensational in his and Martin O’Neill’s first season to win the treble.

    He was great in the second season too. Contributed brilliantly with goals and was solid.

    Then lost a yard and ended up getting hammered for pace on the regular.

    A Swedish guy called Christian Wilhelmson absolutely annihilated him when we played Anderlecht in Brussels.

    I’ll genuinely never forget how much he got rinsed that night, and it became a bit of a common occurrence when we stepped up a level.

    Cracking big player overall though. Probably injuries that killed him for pace in the end.
     
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