ISL 2020-21: Hyderabad FC bring in Dutch midfielder Roland Alberg

Indian Super League (ISL) outfit Hyderabad FC have bolstered their attacking ranks with the loan purchase of 30-year-old midfielder Roland Alberg. The Dutchman arrives in the ISL for the remainder of the 2020-21 season from Roda JC Kerkrade in Holland’s second division or Eerste Divisie. He is also an academy graduate from famous Dutch club AZ Alkmaar and is a former Dutch youth international.

Alberg becomes the seventh foreigner in the Nizams’ squad after Joel Chianese, Aridane Santana, Joao Victor, Lluis Sastre, Odei Onaindia and Fran Sandaza. The attacking midfielder will be the eleventh Dutch player in the ISL and the first to play for Manuel Marquez’s side. He has previously also played in the United States with Philadelphia Union, Turkey with Elazigspor Kulubu and in Bulgaria with CSKA Sofia apart from separate spells in the Netherlands with Excelsior and ADO Den Haag.

https://twitter.com/HydFCOfficial/status/1343505753328345089

Alberg arrived at Roda JC in the beginning of the 2019-20 season and has scored 9 times in 24 appearances since. Head coach Marquez has struggled to field the full quota of foreigners in almost all the games so far owing to injuries to Sandaza and Chianese as well as Sastre more recently. However, with Alberg’s arrival, he will be looking to utilise his playmaking abilities in the middle of the park, especially after a couple of bad results against Mumbai City and Kerala Blasters.

It has to be mentioned that the Indian midfielders in the side like Liston Colaco, Mohammad Yasir, Hitesh Sharma and Nikhil Poojary have done a brilliant job till now in trying to fill in for the more experienced foreigners. They will also get sufficient time to recover from the hectic schedule following Alberg’s arrival with Marquez now having one more midfielder to play around with. Sandaza has also recovered sufficiently, having made his debut in the defeat against Kerala Blasters. Hyderabad currently have nine points from seven games and are eighth on the points table.