Former SV Deurne goalkeeper Robin Verhoeven working for a soccer team in Texas

Since July 2019, he has been the one SV Deurne can fully rely on to absorb attacks that have crept into the defense and keep the ball out of the blue and white goal. But in April this year, goalkeeper Robin Verhoeven announced that he was going to the United States for his studies. Not just to study, it turns out that Verhoeven is going to work for the Dust Devils goal at Texas A&M International University.

It will be quite a change for the former SV Deurne keeper, from the pitch on the Crane Mortar to the dry and dusty ground in the southern US state of Texas. The varsity team that Robin Verhoeven will represent isn’t called the Dust Devils for nothing. Temperatures in the area around the town of Laredo on the border with Mexico are often around 40-42 degrees, it hardly ever rains and there is a humidity of 74%.

SPV Vlierden
Quite different from the circumstances he experienced in his Dutch football career, which started very early at SPV Vlierden. At six, he was already spotted for the PSV youth academy in Eindhoven, where he spent eight years. Although he had meanwhile been in the spotlight at professional clubs Helmond Sport and VVV Venlo, he chose to work as a goalkeeper at SV Deurne at the age of sixteen.

‘Player of the match’
The team for which Verhoeven is now in goal in the United States plays in the Lone Stare Conference where they are in search of the championship. According to SV Deurne’s Erwin Boerenkamps, it won’t be Robin’s fault: “Robin, who also has a background with young people at PSV, has shown in recent years that he is a fantastic goalkeeper; Robin was the “player of the match” almost every week. It was therefore shocking that Robin announced that he was moving to the United States to study. We wish Robin lots of fun and success in America!

Verhoeven’s place at SV Deurne will be taken over next season by 20-year-old Peter Strijbosch from Neerkant, who started his football career at Neerkandia and was active in PSV’s youth academy from 2010 for ten years . In 2020 Strijbosch moved to FC Eindhoven where he played the last seasons.