Danzell Gravenberch Is Looking For A New Club On LinkedIn

Ok, so this story is a little random. Usually, when a player is looking for a new club, they’ll have the help of their agent. With forgotten Reading midfielder Danzell Gravenberch though, that isn’t the case.

The Dutch-Surinamese player, who’s been on loan at KSV Roeselare this season, doesn’t actually have his own agent. With his contract at the Madejski Stadium set to expire in the summer, he’s taken a novel approach to finding somewhere else to ply his trade.

He’s using LinkedIn. He advertises his skills on the networking site as follows:

“I’m Danzell Gravenberch, 25 years old. I am currently in my final contract year at Reading and I am loaned to KSV Roeselare in Belgium. I started my career as a striker. I can still do that and I like that! My current position is now central defender / defensive midfielder.”

That was originally in Dutch, but we’ve used Google Translate.

It’s certainly a unique approach to finding a new club. In the hyper-commercialised, super-competitive world of modern football, it also strikes me as pretty refreshing - rather than relying on a third party to represent his interests, he’s put himself into the shop window through his own hard work.

So why doesn’t he have an agent? Well, he told Dutch site Voetbal Primeur that he doesn’t really trust them.

“It is not that I am looking for a club via Linkedin, you know. I have experienced a number of things in recent years that I would rather not sign with an agent. This is simply useful now, you can make connections with people.

”I get all sorts of things through Linkedin, requests from agents and so on. I am approached by agents. Most say they can find something for me. Well, first see, then believe. You never know if they are telling the truth. If someone I want to think about it with a clear plan that suits me. But it is certainly not that I put my signature right away.”

Again, we’ve used Google Translate.

Fair play to him for wanting to do things differently and being prepared to put in the work required. He’s certainly confident in his own abilities too, as he tells Voetbal Primeur that he wants his next club to be in the Eredivisie - the Dutch Premier League. For a player that’s spent the last few seasons in either the English or Belgian second tiers, that’s ambitious.

Good luck to him though.

Beste wensen, Danzell.