The 33-year-old rejected claims he moved to the A-League club due to its Dutch connection.
Orlando Engelaar has revealed that he was so intrigued by Melbourne Heart that he just couldn’t turn them down.
The 33-year-old joined the A-League club from Eredivisie giants PSV Eindhoven as a marquee player earlier this month and joins Holland native Rob Wielaer, a former team-mate for two seasons at Twente, and ex-coach John van’t Schip, now technical manager, at AAMI Park.
Heart have a rich recent heritage of housing Dutch players in recent years and the midfield enforcer follows in the footsteps of Gerald Sibon, Rutger Worm and Marcel Meeuwis in playing for the club during their first three seasons at Australia’s elite level.
That was rumoured to be the motivation behind Engelaar’s decision to sign for John Aloisi’s side but insists there was no contact with any of his fellow countryman and he didn’t need any extra persuasion after meeting with the club.
“I just wanted something else, something different,” he explained to Fox Sports.
“The country really excited me, (so did) the city, Melbourne. When Melbourne Heart came they really intrigued me with what they wanted. So I wanted to be a part of that.
“They showed me that they really wanted me and they made me see that I could be important in certain areas for the other boys and bring something extra to the team, so that’s what really excited me. I just wanted to be a part of that.”
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