Picture by Greg Higgs, Story by Rob Greenwood, Messenger Community News.
Maarten Boddaert offers three reasons for leaving Dutch professional soccer to join a club 16,000km from home in a league he has never heard of.
“It was the challenge and the adventure,” Boddaert, 27, says.
“I’ve also never won a title so I hope this season to win one.”
Boddaert arrived in SA last week to link up with Adelaide Comets ahead of the SA Premier League campaign.
The defensive midfielder, who can also play at the back, signed for the Mile End club in November after coach Theo Tsiounis noticed his talents while viewing a video of one of his teammates.
“I had to think about it and the conditions had to be good because I was making a big step,” says Boddaert, who has never previously left Europe.
“I know there are some (Australian) players that play in the Dutch first division but I didn’t know anything about Australian football.
“But I have friends that have been to Australia before and I have heard only good stories about the country and the people.
“It’s an opportunity for me once in my life and my friends and family said ‘you have to take a chance’.”
Boddaert joins Comets from FC Den Bosch, where he was captain last season and racked up more than 100 games over five years in the Dutch second tier.
He previously came through the youth ranks at hometown club RBC Roosendaal, alongside the likes of Cuco Martina, who now plays for Southampton in the English Premier League.
Boddaert made his first- team debut in 2008 and went on to play a further 72 times for RBC, including a stint under former Adelaide United coach Rini Coolen.
“Every young kid in Europe dreams of being a footballer.
“To make the step to the first team is a dream come true but that’s only the beginning.”
Boddaert is living with Tsiounis until he finds an apartment and hopes to see an AFL match at Adelaide Oval while in SA.
“It looks very exciting.”
On the pitch, he is targeting improvement on last season’s fifth-placed finish for Comets and has not given up on a rekindling his professional career.
“If I play a good season, maybe I can make a step in Australia or somewhere else,” says Boddaert, who trained with Dutch second division clubs Telstar and VVV Venlo last year.
“But the first thing I want is to be important for Adelaide Comets and enjoy this time.
“I don’t know about the opponents here, but I want to win games and to win the league.”