ROBIN ROEFS: WHO ARE YOU?

It has been widely reported that Sunderland have agreed a deal to sign 22-year-old Dutch goalkeeper Robin Roefs from Eredivisie side NEC Nijmegen for a fee of £9 million plus £2.5 million in add-ons. Should all add-ons be paid, he will be our new record goalkeeper signing, surpassing the £9 million we spent on Craig Gordon back in 2007.

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 has remained ever since before coming to Wearside. He made a combined 57 appearances for Nijmegen’s youth teams between U17 and U21 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, one defeat and a draw, 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.

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 U21s. He played every game for his nation at the most recent U21 European Championship in June 2025, keeping two clean sheets as they made it to the semi final stage.

According to the reports, he will immediately usurp Anthony Patterson as our number one between the sticks. His signing will offer some relief to our support, after failed attempts to bring in Marcin Bulka and Djordje Petrovic earlier in the window. Roefs joins on a five-year contract. Perhaps one of the reasons he will be our main man in goal is because he ranks highly amongst goalkeepers in stats such as crosses stopped (the top 1%!), defensive actions outside the penalty area and clearances. Or, in other words, he works better as a sweeper and has good command of his box. During the 2021-22 season, despite his young age, he helped to train goalkeepers at his old club Heeswijk.