Groningen move for winger Kiran Bechan
19 November: Ajax winger Kiran Bechan has committed to
FC Groningen until the summer of 2008 today. The 22
year-old product of the Ajax youth system played one game
for Ajax-1, but never conquered a slot in the first team.
After a loan spell at First Division outfit Sparta Rotterdam he
returned to Amsterdam this summer, only to become a rather
superfluous player at Young Ajax. Bechan will
join Groningen immediately. The transfer fee remains
undisclosed as usual.
Kiran Bechan (born Amsterdam, 12 September 1982) signed
his first contract at Ajax in 1999, having come through the
youth ranks of the Amsterdam club. The man to give him his
first shot in the first team was head-coach Co Adriaanse.
Bechan made his first team début at age 18, as a starter
in the Eredivisie away game against NEC on 01 April
2001.
It would remain his only Ajax-1 appearance. Bechan returned
to Young Ajax, with which team he booked historic success that
season: the Ajax reserves won the championship for reserves
teams and made it to the semi finals of the 'big' Amstel
Cup.
Halfway the 2002-2003 season it was clear that Bechan was
not going to get his chance in the first team under coach
Ronald Koeman. On 03 February 2003 the winger
was loaned out to Dutch First Division outfit Sparta Rotterdam,
for whom he played for one and a half season. Bechan played 48
league games for Sparta, in which he netted nine times.
In the summer of 2004, however, Ajax did not want to loan
the player out any longer, knowing that his contract would
expire a year later. Attempts to find a buyer for the player
before the start of the season failed, so that Bechan found
himself training with Young Ajax again at age 22 until FC
Groningen 'set him free'.
"It didn't look like Bechan was going to play a
lot for Young Ajax," said Ajax's general director Arie van
Eijden, "so we are really happy for him that he has been
offered this opportunity."
At Oosterpark Stadium Bechan will be re-united with one of
his team-mates from the memorable Young Ajax crop of 2001-2002:
Stefano Seedorf, who was not offered a new deal by Ajax this
summer and joined Groningen on a free transfer at the start of
the season. (MP)
Sources: Ajax.nl, FC Groningen.nl
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