Brighton and Hove Albion goalkeeper Kjell Scherpen has admitted he faced a ‘dilemma’ when choosing to join the club.
Scherpen signed with the Seagulls from Ajax in a £4.5m deal in July 2021, electing to leave the Netherlands for the first time in his career after spells with Emmen and then Ajax.
His time in England has not exactly been a smooth one so far, with him managing just one appearance for Graham Potter’s side so far.
Indeed, he’s spent most of his time with their Premier League 2 side, which is hardly the situation he would have imagined when moving from Ajax a year ago.
That was evidenced when he decided to leave the club on a temporary basis in January, signing with Belgian side KV Oostende until the end of the season.
He’s been a regular for them since then, getting the game time he wasn’t getting at Brighton and continuing his development as a result.
It’s certainly something he’s pleased with, stating that the Seagulls were happy to send him out on loan in the first place.
“I spent two years there, then, last summer, we sat down to talk about my future. The idea was to lend me a year so that I had to playing time. And Brighton’s proposal came at that time.
“I knew it wouldn’t be to play as a starter, so I was faced with a dilemma: be loaned by Ajax or try a new adventure. Of course, I was only 21, and I was leaving family and friends, even if my partner came with me to England and then to Ostend – we live in De Panne.
“But it was nice to go in the country of football, where we respect the players a lot. I was able to play a Cup match, despite an ankle injury which had sidelined me for six weeks at the very start of the season, six months when I learned a lot, then I came to Ostend.
“It’s complicated, especially for a goalkeeper, to move in January; you need a little luck to get a place. But Ostend wanted me, and Brighton were happy to see that I could have more playing time in a D1 team.”
