His player Mars is now officially the Birger Verstraat!
Shortly before the end of the transfer period in our country, the “yellow” PAE announced the acquisition of the 29-year-old Belgian defensive midfielder, with the two sides agreeing a two-year contract, which will run until summer of 2025!
Let’s remember that the experienced midfielder comes from the league of his home country, where he played for the last 3.5 years with its jersey Antwerpcounting during this time 81 appearances and four goals in all competitions.
The announcement of PAE Aris in detail:
“PAE ARIS announces the acquisition of Birger Verstraete for the next two years.
Birger Danny Verstraete was born in Ostend on April 16, 1994 and started his football career from the academies of his city.
At a young age, he was spotted by Club Brugge in whose jersey he became a football player, reaching the first team.
The Belgian international defensive midfielder after 11 appearances for Club Brugge was loaned to Mouscron in the summer of 2014. With Mouscron he scored his maiden goal in the Belgian league (12 appearances).
In July 2015, Kortrijk added him to their team. There he spent a full season and a half with 42 appearances before transferring to KAA Gent in January 2017.
In the shirt of KAA Gent he spent the best period of his career. With 78 appearances (6 goals, 3 assists) in 18 months he earned a well-deserved transfer to the Bundesliga for FC Koln for €4 million.
After a year of adaptation in Germany (10 appearances) Verstraete returned to Belgium on behalf of Royal Antwerp initially on loan in the summer of 2020 and then on a transfer in 2021.
Birger Verstraete quickly found himself in the Antwerp team and lived a “full” three years (81 appearances, 4 goals, 5 assists) with participation in European competitions and with winning the double in Belgium last season.
Certainly last season from September onwards the 29-year-old midfielder played on loan with KV Mechelen, making 25 league and Belgian Cup appearances.
Verstraete has played with the small national teams of Belgium (U16, U19, U21), while he also has a participation with the representative group of Men.
From today Birger Verstraete belongs to the ARIS family”.
“I will give everything for my new team”
In his first statements at arisfc.com.gr, Birger Verstrate, emphasized: “I am happy to now belong to ARIS and I look forward to starting work with my new team. I come with great appetite and with the aim of helping ARIS to win many victories and achieve its goals in Greece. I don’t know much about the Greek league. Last year I played against Olympiakos with Antwerp. I talked to many of my friends and compatriots who played in the Greek league, mainly in Atromitos and they told me that it is competitive. That’s good.
I was told about ARIS that it is a club characterized by the passion of everyone in the team, especially the fans. I was told that the atmosphere they create is very warm and I want to experience that. They also told me, because they know me, that ARIS as a team suits me and I won’t have any problem adapting.
I must say that I was also impressed by the way the president of ARIS approached me. I spoke with him and in his eyes I could see the fire he has for the team and how much he wants to lead it to success. I won’t hide from you that his words and the way he spoke to me convinced me that I was making the right decision.
I will give everything for my new team. I will give 100% in every game so that together with my teammates we can achieve our goals. I had other proposals but I preferred ARIS for the reasons I explained to you and because I wanted to experience a new challenge far from my home country. I was informed that my first match as a member of ARIS will be against P.A.O.K. A local derby. They told me what it means to the city and to our world. I am ready if my coach asks me to. I’m waiting for my first game and we’re going to give everything to get the result we want.”
Source: Sport Fm
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