Soccer-Ajax buy back-up keeper as Vermeer heads to Feyenoord
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Ajax Amsterdam moved quickly to plug the hole left by the impending departure of international goalkeeper Kenneth Vermeer by signing Diederik Boer from PEC Zwolle, the club announced.
The 33-year-old Boer has signed a three-year contract and will be understudy to Jasper Cillessen.
Vermeer, who lost out last season to Cillessen in an battle for both a first choice place at Ajax and the Dutch national team, is to move to arch-rivals Feyenoord Rotterdam, coach Frank de Boer said on Sunday.
The deal is expected to be finalised before the close of the transfer window on Monday and will be only the ninth time a player has moved directly from Ajax to Feyenoord.
"Vermeer has almost completed the move. It was a complete surprise to me. I only heard about it on Saturday night. It was a big shock," De Boer told a press conference after his side lost at Groningen on Sunday.
"It was a chance I had to grab with both hands," said the 28-year-old Vermeer."I’m grateful to Ajax for 14 fantastic years but I had to put myself first. I want to be playing. And I can do that at Feyenoord," he told Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf on Monday.
Vermeer, who has four caps, was cut from the Dutch preliminary squad ahead of the World Cup, missing out on the final 23-man selection that went to Brazil.
(Reporting by Mark Gleeson; Editing by Amlan Chakraborty)
