Danilo van Roekel

Central Defender - Clermont Foot
21 Mar 2030
Thursday
Process

Marked for Danilo van Roekel

163 Edition

The Clermont Foot Courier

10 Sep 2029
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Player ratings

Both of them Maxence Soulet's — 9.24

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.24, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Market

Stade Lavallois come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Clermont Foot did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Match

Clermont Foot cannot stop winning

4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.

Player ratings

Maïdine Douane was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 23. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

Transfer targets

Simon Kalambayi stays at Paris FC as time runs out

A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Clermont Foot will try again when the window opens; Paris FC may not be selling by then.

Squad

Yoann Salmier in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Clermont Foot this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match

Maxence Soulet the difference as Clermont Foot beat Valenciennes

Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Maxence Soulet. 3‑1 against Valenciennes, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.

The terraces

The crowd has taken to Maxence Soulet

At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.

Player ratings

Ninety minutes of Ousmane Diop at his very best

Marked 8.62. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Clermont Foot.

In brief

Back issues
159 Edition

The Clermont Foot Courier

13 Aug 2029
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

8 matches without a win for Clermont Foot

The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Clermont Foot are no longer polite ones.

Transfer targets

No thanks: Emerson rejects the move

Clermont Foot had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Olympique de Marseille, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.

Market

Danilo van Roekel hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Clermont Foot can pretend not to have heard.

Market

Only the photograph left for Romain Montiel

Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Romain Montiel will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Clermont Foot the goodbyes have quietly begun.

Market

Clermont Foot say no — this time

The offer from Vegalta Sendai for Maxence Soulet was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.

Squad

Mohammed Guindo in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Clermont Foot this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match

AS Nancy take the points off Clermont Foot

Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

Player ratings

The game went through Abdellah Baallal — 7.13

Marked 7.13 on 12 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.

The dugout

No hiding place for Joan Raynaud

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Joan Raynaud, and the manager let it.

In brief

155 Edition

The Clermont Foot Courier

16 Jul 2029
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Market

Terms done: Luís Hemir is going

Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Sochaux waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Clermont Foot is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.

The dugout

Ibrahim Halilou Mouhaman: that is not what I was promised

“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Clermont Foot have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.

Market

Anis El Ghzizal puts it in writing

“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Clermont Foot, and it is not being withdrawn.

Market

Ilyes Hamdia has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Clermont Foot they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Transfer targets

Shina Ayodele due for a Clermont Foot medical

Everything agreed with LOSC Lille, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.

Squad

Mohammed Guindo in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Clermont Foot this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Matys Donavin is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.

Squad

A move Danilo van Roekel would have made for nothing

There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Danilo van Roekel is living that version at Clermont Foot, and it tends to show in the first month.

Squad

Late improvement for Luís Hemir

At 25 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.

In brief