Joost Mangert, currently playing at professional soccer club Excelsior Rotterdam, will play his games next season for Simon Fraser University, located in Burnaby, Canada. The defender has made the decision to combine his soccer ambitions with a study, about 4500 miles from his current surroundings. Joost will combine his role with the men’s soccer team at the Simon Fraser University with a Business Administration study.
After playing for multiple KNVB talent teams, Joost signs for SBV Excelsior at the age of 12. At Excelsior, Joost plays for every youth team before joining the U23’s. Although he hasn’t made his official debut yet, he’s already made multiple unofficial appearances for the first team, coached by Mitchell van der Graag. During preseason the former professional soccer player invited Joost to train with the first team for seven weeks as well as letting him play 190 minutes in various games, once as a first-string player.
At the end of this season it will mean Joost’s time at Excelsior has come to an end. For the past seven years the 18-year-old defender played for the side from Rotterdam and grew into a leading figure in every youth team. Thanks to his physical power, speed and timing Clint Schneider will be very pleased to add Joost to his side, who were crowned champions of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference last season. The head coach of Simon Fraser scouted Joost at the KingsTalent showcase, held in January this year. After being instantly impressed he didn’t waste any time and got the signing done as soon as possible.
Next season Joost will spend a good amount of time on planes to play games all over America. Expectations are high, because ‘the Clan’ only lost two games out of twelve last season. Universities like Seattle Pacific, Northwestern Nazarene and Western Washington couldn’t cope with the side from Burnaby. It’s no surprise Simon Fraser has its sights set on another league title next season and with the signing of Joost the chance of silverware has only increased. Check some of his highlights in this video!
KingsTalent would like to wish Joost a lot of fun and good luck with his new side in Canada!
