OTD: ROBIN ROEFS BORN

On this day, current Sunderland goalkeeper Robin Roefs was born. He's been so good for us so far that there's genuinely a not-too-audacious claim that he's the best 'keeper in the Premier League.

Born in Heeswijk, the Netherlands, in 2003, Roefs started out in football in the academy of his local team, VV Heeswijk, in 2009. He remained there for five years before moving 45 minutes up the road to join NEC Nijmegen, where he remained before coming to Wearside.

During the 2021-22 season, despite his young age, he helped to train goalkeepers at his old club Heeswijk. He made a combined 57 appearances for Nijmegen’s youth teams between under-17 and under-21 level and earned his senior debut in September 2023 in a 3-0 top flight win versus FC Utrecht, coming off of the bench due to an injury.

The shot stopper featured in the next three league matches after this and he also started in four KNVB Cup matches during the 2023-24 season. All of those games ended in wins and he kept one clean sheet. It was last season though that was his breakout campaign.

Roefs played in all but two of NEC’s Eredivisie games and started in a domestic Conference League play-off match, keeping 10 clean sheets in 33 appearances total. Most notably, he kept the ball out of the back of the net away to Feyenoord, Ajax and fourth-placed Utrecht. He had the second highest save percentage in the league with 72.9%. The number of clean sheets he kept was the joint-second best in the division too and just for good measure he was bested by only four goalkeepers in the top six European leagues for goals prevented last season. He prevented 10.1 goals, which also makes him the youngest ‘keeper from the campaign just gone to prevent more than four goals.

The young goalkeeper immediately usurped Anthony Patterson to become our first choice goalkeeper and it didn't take long for us to realise why. He's, at the time of writing, kept seven clean sheets in his 22 matches. He kept Manchester City out at the Stadium of Light and against Newcastle United in the Wear-Tyne derby. Other notable performances include away to Nottingham Forest (where he was one of the primary reasons we won 1-0), Brentford at home (where he saved a penalty) and in the FA Cup against Everton. He saved three penalties in a row in the shootout, helping us to progress to the fourth round. To be honest though, most of those 22 appearances have something you could write about. He's the best goalkeeper in the league when it comes to save percentage, with 76.8%. It's not just his shot stopping that is notable though, he's so good at commanding his box; a completely different level to what we've seen in recent seasons.

On the international stage he has been capped at an under-16, 17, 19 and 21 level for the Netherlands and has captained his country for the under-21s. He played every game for his nation at the most recent under-21 European Championship in June 2025, keeping two clean sheets as they made it to the semi final stage. He's been called up a few times for the senior national team now as well, owing to his form at Sunderland. Roefs hasn't managed to earn his first cap yet though, being behind Brighton and Hove Albion goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen in the pecking order but it wouldn't be foolish to expect him to seriously challenge this in the coming years.