At 36 years of age, Jeremain Lens is on the backend of his career, enjoying life at FC Versailles in France, joining them four years after he left Sunderland for Besiktas.
His career has been a rollercoaster, starting off in Holland and settling in at PSV Eindhoven before heading to Ukraine in 2013 with Dynamo Kiev, where he stayed for two years.
That’s when Sunderland bought him in 2015 for €11.4m, and the veteran forward has spoken to Voetbal International to discuss his career and what went on during all those years.
Now in France’s third tier with Versailles, he explained his decision to join them in 2022: “Even some of my teammates asked at the beginning: ‘Why are you here, anyway?’ I explained to them that the highest level is no longer realistic for me, as I had done almost nothing for a year.”
That was off the back of a disaster decision to leave Sunderland for Besiktas, where he was eventually pushed to one side for the last two years of his contract, spending six months on loan at Fatih Karagumruk.
Barely playing for 14 months, he admits: “I let myself go a bit during that phase. I’ve seen 110 kilos on the scales.”
When his contract expired, he ended up returning to Amsterdam and playing with some friends at the amateur club Real Sranang, where he suddenly realised how off the pace he was.
He added: “There were meant who were in their fifties and at a certain point, they simply outpaced me. On the way home in the car, I realised this doesn’t feel good.”
That’s when he decided to ring his personal trainer and get back on track, eventually managing to get a spot at Versailles, in the midst of an ambitious project.
A far cry from his times at Sunderland, where he made just 24 appearances, scoring four goals and assisting another three, but he certainly is happy with his decision, having scored nine goals and assisted five in 32 games since his arrival.
