[Player Profile] Bart-er Trade – Will Bart Fill the Diego-Shaped Hole in our Team?

If you haven’t read our piece on Diego yet, and seen how highly we regard him, do yourself a favour, click here and read it please.

Bart Ramselaar comes with a similar price tag to Diego, but with arguably the bigger reputation. He will be expected to deliver right from the get-go as it very much feels like one-in, one-out. In this article, we will take a look at how his journey through football has led us here, and also what kind of player we can expect when we finally get to see him in action.

Excellent Social Media Buzz

Prior to the signing of Toni Datković, our beloved Sailors had been pretty quiet on the social media front, with limited content due to the fact that players were still on their holidays. We had some content when Hariss Harun and Lionel Tan went down to do giveaways of merch to fans, and also when the club opened its doors to some ardent fans who won a matchball in some other giveaways. But none of that really compared to the buzz when the club announced its new signings.

The signings alone would probably have generated buzz, but the masterful way in which the club did it really set the pulses racing. Serious posts were mixed in together with the informal posts. You had your formal interviews with the pair of new signings where they outlined their ambitions for the club in the season ahead, but you also had Toni trying to figure out Singlish phrases, while I probably watched the amazing Bart Simpson v Bart Ramselaar video a few too many times. Those with fantastic eyesight would also have caught that in a teaser video hinting at a signing announcement in the afternoon, Bart Ramselaar’s face actually appeared for a split second.

Go see it for yourself here and see if you can pause it right at the moment where you can see Bart’s face there, hiding in plain sight.

And if all that content on Instagram was not enough, you get long-form content on Youtube where you can really hear at length from our signings. And if you’re more of a reading guy, the excellent articles on the official site give more depth to the person behind the footballer. Overall, just outstanding effort from the Sailors, and this is the excellence that we fans have come to expect from the club on all fronts.

First Dutch International to Play in Singapore

If I am wrong, someone please correct me, but I think Bart may be the first full Dutch international to play in our domestic league. Richairo Zivkovic has registered multiple appearances for the Dutch international youth teams, just as Bart does, but Bart has gone one step further and made 3 appearances for the senior national team.

He has played with the likes of Arjen Robben, Wesley Sneijder and Virgil van Dijk. He has trained under the likes of Mark van Bommel, Philip Cocu, and Erik Ten Hag.

He was well-loved at FC Utrecht, and had won the Eredivisie with PSV.

I’ll address the big question everyone has – so why is he here?

Why is Bart Here?

Bart’s answer when asked in various interviews was that he had spent 10 years in the Eredivisie and it was time for an adventure to explore a different league. I am sure that this is part of the truth – but I would hazard a guess that he would have been able to seek adventures in other leagues of far greater quality.

This is all speculation from this point on – but I think his big injury suffered in April 2022 had a huge part to play in how he ended up here. He was having a stellar season in 2021/2022, scoring 9 goals in 26 games and earning rave reviews for his performances. He was flying, starting every game and was an integral part of the team.

However, he then suffered a knee injury which kept him out for 10 months, and when he came back in the 2022/2023 season, he was no longer a first-team regular. The situation continued into the 2023/2024 season, where he probably did not get as much game-time as he wanted. It is pretty heartening that he did start 4 games spanning December 2023 and January 2024, which suggests that he is fit and ready to contribute to the Sailors this season.

In an interview with former Dutch international Andy van der Meyde, he revealed that one of the toughest times of his career was when found himself on the bench at PSV, so it’s not too much of a stretch to suggest that perhaps his lack of game-time also contributed to his decision to come to the Sailors.

Nothing wrong with that – we should acknowledge our status also as a team participating in a league that is nowhere near as glamorous as the top European or even Asian leagues. Top players who come here from Europe are usually unhappy in some way with their situation. In this case, the fact that Rankovic has previously worked with him before in FC Utrecht probably didn’t hurt!

Let’s just sit back and enjoy the talents of someone like Bart, whatever the circumstances may be that led him here!

What Kind of Player is Bart?

It is interesting that for someone who operates in midfield, Bart has more goals than assists in his career. 37 goals and 21 assists in 212 league and cup games in the Netherlands.

In fact, in his stellar 2021/2022 season where he performed outstandingly well and was being talked about as potentially being able to make a big move at the end of the season, he registered 9 goals and 0 assists in the league. When you watch his highlights on Youtube, you begin to see why. He clearly has a knack for arriving late in the box to finish off team moves, and is a very sharp finisher. The stats back him up too. In the season that he picked up 9 goals, he accomplished that while only taking 35 shots – so he’s not some shoot-on-sight merchant who scores goals because he is a high volume shooter.

In that sense, he is a little different from Diego, who sometimes disappointed with his finishing in the box. I would say that while Diego is the man with more flair, Bart is the one with more of a punch in his finishes.

Is he a one-dimensional player then? No, not at all. From what I can see based on his highlights, he is a player who is comfortable operating anywhere in central midfield or attacking midfield. He is calm under pressure, and has a deceptive turn of pace, which tends to leave his opponents trailing in his wake. A few quick touches and feints on the ball, and he’s off, looking to create the next opportunity, to progress the play for the team.

Do yourself a favour and go check out some of his highlights, and salivate at the prospect of how Bart may come into the team and improve us overall. I cannot wait to see how he links up with the likes of Shawal, Maxime, Richairo, and Abdul Rasaq.

Conclusion

There has been a lot of cynicism about why a player of Bart’s standing is here, especially from friends of mine who don’t really follow the local football scene. As mentioned above, I think we have to be realistic about our stature in the global football ecosystem. We are big fish in Singapore, but the reality is that the SPL is very much a small pond.

I am happy to ignore all the context surrounding why Bart is here, and prepare to enjoy the player and what he brings to the team. I sincerely hope he can stay fit – our astroturf pitches can be very hard on the knees, and I hope our physio team is right there with him to ensure that he strengthens the muscles surrounding the knee enough to withstand the rigours of a long season on astroturf pitches.

We’ve assembled a really exciting team (and the transfers aren’t even done yet), and I cannot wait for the season to start.

WELCOME BART!

Written by Eddy Hirono

If you’d like to support the work we do here at SailorFanTalk, you may want to visit https://ko-fi.com/sailorfantalk and leave us a tip!

P.S. Is he gonna wear 23 or 10? 23 is his favourite number, and he mentioned in the same interview with Andy van der Meyde that he likes it because Isco is one of his favourite players. He has also worn 23 most of the time in his career. However, he also did mention to Raushan in a Sports Minutes interview that his idol growing up was Ronaldinho. The now-taken down video of Bart Ramselaar visiting Bart Simpson also featured the likeness of Bart Ramselaar wearing a Sailors shirt with the no. 10 on it. A small point in the grand scheme of things, but just something I thought about!