Sheffield United star Gustavo Hamer has come to the defence of Middlesbrough’s Rav Van den Berg, believing he is a victim of a lack of attention given to Dutch players outside of the top European leagues.
The Sheffield United man has been speaking to Viaplay, in which he expressed his frustration at the Dutch media and the perception they put on some players.
Van den Berg has been a regular for Middlesbrough since joining them from PEC Zwolle in 2023, with 59 appearances to date.
The 20-year-old is very much considered a potential talent of the future but is yet to receive any recognition on the international stage, despite Ronald Koeman regularly turning to youth, particularly players coming through inside the Netherlands.
Instead, he’s been limited to playing for the U21s, although he hasn’t appeared for them since October last year and has been left out of the last two international breaks in which they took on Slovakia, England, Italy and Romania in friendly matches.
Hamer believes the lack of appreciation for him may be to do with the fact he plays in the Championship with Middlesbrough, something Hamer believes is an indication of a problem in the Netherlands.
“It’s always like, well, okay, we only do the big players, we only do the Premier League, and we only do the famous, the famous guys, you know. Whereas, for me it’s about how you perform,” he said.
“Rav, he’s doing really well at Middlesbrough. And yes, he’s also hardly ever talked about. He’s doing really well too. And they went for promotion, and they’re were also going for the play-offs, you know. But only, only then is something said in the Netherlands.
“He plays every game as a starter. Then I also think, yeah, that’s also an achievement.
“And that’s what I mean a bit with in the Netherlands, they are quite flat in terms of, yeah, you know, the big teams are always shown, the lesser teams are shown a bit less and, well, as long as you don’t play in the Premier League Serie A or something like that in the top, top, top countries, in the top divisions, then you are a bit forgotten in the Netherlands and I sometimes think that’s a bit of a shame.”
