New Aberdeen centre-back Mats Knoester revealed a former Reds stopper acted as an inside man in him signing a two-and-a-half-year deal with the Dons.
The 26-year-old joined Aberdeen on the winter window deadline day after leaving Hungarian outfit Ferencvaros.
The Dutch defender explained how former Dons loanee Stefan Gartenmann, now with the Budapest outfit, contacted him when he caught win of Knoester’s Granite City suitors.
On his conversation with fellow centre-half Gartenmann – who spent last term on loan at the Dons from Danish club FC Midtjylland – Knoester said in an interview with RedTV: “I know Stefan Gartenmann – he’s now at Ferencvaros.
“I heard from him about Aberdeen.
“We talked about it, and he was also very positive about it.
“He actually texted me, because he heard about the interest, and then I asked him, like: ‘How is it there? How’s life? How’s the club?’
“And he didn’t say a bad word about it, actually.
“But to be honest, for me also, I didn’t have any doubts coming here.
“It was settled very quick.”
Knoester looking for ‘challenge’ and return to regular action at Aberdeen
Left-sided centre-back Knoester began his career with Feyenoord before breaking into the senior ranks with another Dutch outfit, Heracles.
He joined Ferencvaros in 2022, winning the Hungarian title in his first season, before spending the 2023/24 campaign on loan at Aarhus in Denmark – playing 90 minutes in a Danish cup final defeat to Silkeborg.
However, with his game time at reduced on his return to Ferencvaros this term, Knoester was keen to move on in the winter window.
Although he did feature in Champions League and Europa League qualifying for Ferencvaros at the start of the campaign to add to existing European experience, Knoester said: “I was not playing a lot this season.
“Before that, I was playing in Denmark. I had a good time there – unfortunately, (I got) an ankle injury, so I couldn’t play the full season.
“And my first year in Ferencvaros, I had a good year and played a lot.
“So I had a good, very good phase.
“Then in the last half-year, it went down a little bit in playing time.
“I’m looking for a challenge again and a chance of playing again and competition.
“I’m just looking really for this for this challenge in a good league where the football lives – where it’s in the culture – and start to enjoy also again.
“That was what I’m what I was looking for.
“And then there were some options coming this window.
“When Aberdeen came, yeah, the decision was made quite fast.”
Father-of-two Knoester hopes, in Aberdeen, he has found a “stable place” where he and his family can remain for “some time”.
Knoester from Dutch football school, but also ‘physical’
For fans of the Dons, who have watched Jimmy Thelin’s side struggle to keep clean sheets at the back this term, what sort of centre-back are they getting in Knoester?
He said: “Obviously I’m Dutch, so the Dutch football school, building up from the back.
“I’m left footed – I think that’s an advantage. Also playing on the left side; left centre-back.
“I try to get the passes through. I think my left foot is decent.
“And then, defending-wise, I think I’m pretty physical.”
Knoester added: “When I saw some clips of Aberdeen playing, I also saw that they’re trying to play from behind, not just putting the ball long.
“So I think that’s a good fit.”
The 6ft 1in-stopper has no concerns about the physicality of the Scottish Premiership, saying: “I was in Denmark and there the league is also very physical. And as soon as you adapt to that, I think I can I can manage this physical part as well.”
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