If you’ve been following our Middlesbrough articles for a while now, you might remember a nice little interview Julien de Sart gave to DH back in March about his move to the Riverside from Standard in Belgium.
The young defensive midfielder, who only played twice during the second half of the season for his new club, has spent the last eight months getting physically ready to play in English football, and he’s already seeing the results.
Currently on international duty with Belgium’s U21s, de Sart spoke to DH about what he’s been up to and what the future holds for him at Boro.
He said: “I’ve put on 3.5kg (just over half a stone) since January. Even during games, I can feel it. Rhythm wise, I’m at a whole new level than at Standard. There’s such a difference between Belgium and other big European leagues that you need to get to their level.
“It’s true that I would have liked to play three or four more games (last season), but I felt I was progressing so much during training that I was having so much fun. I felt like everything was going well, and I wasn’t stagnating. I wasn’t lacking match fitness because the training level is so high compared to Belgium that I didn’t have any problems.”
Now part of Aitor Karanka’s squad of 25 players for the Premier League, the player is ready to impress when called upon, and already did so in the EFL Cup tie against Fulham, which Boro lost to Fulham 2-1 after extra-time.
It might be a while yet before we see the 21-year-old playing regularly for the northern club, but if he’s progressing as well as he makes out to be, there’s no doubt we will eventually.
