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Elrio to join Westerlo

Elrio to join Westerlo

Posted: 2010-07-22 20:06

 Bafana Bafana international Elrio van Heerden will sign for Belgian top-flight club Westerlo on Friday as he seeks to re-ignite his career.

Van Heerden arrived at the club today for his medical check up and will pen his name to a one season deal with an option for a further year with the club.

It is a new start for the 27-year-old wide attacker, whose failure to play regular football last season effectively cost him a place in the World Cup squad.

He was signed at the start of last season by Muhsin Ertugral at Sivasspor but after Ertugral got the sack, Van Heerden was sidelined and did not play again. He was released in May.

Problems with his knee have largely contributed to Van Heerden’s career tumbling since he was considered a rising star at Belgian giants Club Brugge and then went onto sign for Blackburn Rovers in England.

Van Heerden, who has 32 caps, holds the unique distinction of being the first player to ever appear for Bafana Bafana without having played a full match of first team club soccer.

His only experience in the professional ranks prior to his international debut in 2004 was four minutes as a late substitute for Danish champions FC Copenhagen against Aalborg in May 2004 where he scored soon after coming on.

He moved to Club Brugge in January 2006 after also being pursued by Anderlecht and joined Blackburn Rovers in June 2009. But in England he flopped, failing to get hardly any playing time in the premier league.

At Westerlo, Van Heerden will join up with another Bafana Bafana reject, the defensive Masilo Modhubi, who has been at the club for the last seven years.

There are two other South African internationals in Belgium with Anele Ngcongca at Racing Genk and Lance Davids, who has just signed for newly promoted Lierse.

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Soccer Critic (size13): 2010-07-23 07:21

another talent is going down the drain... this boy is far better than tivani(teko)...dont worry boy,u will overcome those injuries!

Soccer Critic ( Tivani ): 2010-07-23 09:16

size13: 2010-07-23 07:2

*** U cant write a sentence without mentioning Teko. It was Shabba Teko, Yeye Teko, Now Elrio Teko?

Soccer Critic ( Tivani ): 2010-07-23 09:20

size13: 2010-07-23 07:21

Then Jali Teko, Terminator Teko, Khune Teko, Pelembe. its like a song. anything and evrything tha is rising is being compared with the Navigtor. R u obssenced with The King? Sometyms i dont blame you, guys, U dont understand how Teko plays. Elrio and Teko plays different positions with different style. Until you understand how Teko plays, then you will stop Comparing him with evruthing.

Soccer Critic ( Tivani ): 2010-07-23 10:14

hehehe

Soccer Critic ( Tivani ): 2010-07-23 10:26

quoting from General: 2010-07-23 10:10

Now I understand why Pirates said "NO" to the offer for Teko,Players must stop rushing to play in Europe because within a season they just dissapeared,In the World Cup how many players we had plying their trades with overseas teams look Nomvete it had helped him to come back home and play our domestic soccer he started to be Bhele who was known before going abroad.
Who said that European clubs play better soccer than us in Africa,we have to take out this mentality of thinking that something that is abroad is better than with what we have here in Africa.Now we need to show them that we do have our own Gods talent.Let us learn to be proud with what we are.Khoza and Motsepe did well by sanctioning this Europe teams by not giving them Gaxa and Motsepe respectively.

Look Tso,Rhee,Siyabonga Nkosi,Carnell ,Fernandez,Stanton Fredericks to name a few they went abroad when they were in peak of their perfomance,after that they got rusty and they were loaned from one team to another.Not all players will succeed in Europe like Rhoo,Pienaar and Benny.

Now is the time to have our own and be proud of who we are.

Soccer Critic ( Tivani ): 2010-07-23 10:26

shapa Mzansi soccer shapaaa!!! thanks general

Soccer Critic ( Tivani ): 2010-07-23 11:15

size13

prism: 2010-07-26 12:20

it's sad to learn that an accomplished anchorman like Modubi was not considered for the World Cup because of his demographic/geographic profile. i.e. he is not a Gauteng-er. But bench-warmers like Sibaya & Dikgacoi were got a LOOK-IN !!!

Phantsi nge-TRIBALISM & XENO...