Berg Of The Gremlins
Grilled Birds might not yet be certain of whether they'll be in the S-League next season, but Noubaryan's beefing-up of the squad wouldn't wait, as he recruited 29 year-old Dutchman
Kalle ter Berg from French fourth division side Les Gremlins. Their young head coach Mamay Omurzakov had just inducted highly-rated new midfield blood in Iranian Ghorban Afshari Kaveh and Finn Sami Siirilä, and Ter Berg's S$9.85 million fee would only recoup a minor part of the previous S$24 million-plus outlay.
What the Birds
would get for their money, was another top-class ready-to-go player in Kalle. Unlike
Salah Kamel, Ter Berg has always considered himself first and foremost an attacking midfielder, although word is that he is more than willing to range as an attacking sweeper, nowadays. This might be reflected in his choice of Number Three as his new jersey number - last worn by Yuki Irie - from Number Six with Les Gremlins.
His playing record has thus far been mostly beyond reproach too, ever since his first transfer as an 18 year-old wonderkid, from hometown club Enide up north to Groningen's omkoal, for S7.8 million. Despite omkoal being on a steady decline, Ter Berg did well enough that his value rose to S$14.5 million at 25 years of age, when he made another in-country move, this time to Utrecht's Fc Altijd Lastig. Alas, that didn't work out off the pitch, and he would join Les Gremlins, where he would be part of two Division Five titlewinning squads.
Ter Berg's acquaintances and agent had never hidden their expectation that he was cut out for bigger and better things, however, and seeing as he's nearing thirty, they were largely in agreement that this was his best, and possibly last, chance to win a major trophy. "I was telling him, Kalle, it's now or never." agent Joost van Leeuwenhoek said. "You don't want to sit up nights when you're retired, and wonder what might have been."
The Birds certainly have the record to back such a desire up, having just won a Division Two league title at a canter, and with their last national-level cup win coming just last season; although some pundits might argue that what Noubaryan's side truly needs is more depth on the wings, with
Cyril Künzler aging and
Heng Dong Chu not quite having made himself indispensable, few could bring themselves to put Ter Berg down on his own many merits.
Kalle ter Berg had also beaten out quite impressive competition to be hired, from other reports; after Noubaryan had passed Yann Prud Homme over, he had been frequently linked with former Ugandan U-20 star Abubakari Sebina, as well as FC Tsai's Italian technician, Gianni Boccafogli. "As you can see, we're aiming very high." Noubaryan asserted. "This club takes the best, and will pay for it if we have to."
