Netherlands international Ruud Vormer insists he doesn’t regret turning down a move to the Premier League and West Brom, speaking to Het Laaste Nieuws.
Nine years after the Baggies came and went, the veteran playmaker will probably have to admit, if he’s honest, an opportunity to prove himself at the top of the European game will never come around again.
Vormer is 33 now, after all.
But it’s not all bad.
He added a fourth Jupiler League title to an impressive CV last season and, while West Bromwich Albion are looking to escape the Championship at the first time of asking, Vormer is plying his trade in the Champions League instead, featuring in group-stage clashes with Manchester City and RB Leipzig.
And, even if Vormer could turn back the clock, he would make the same decision again and again.
Ruud Vormer opted for Feyenoord over West Brom
“I am happy with my career. I wouldn’t have wanted to do it any other way,” says Vormer, who joined Feyenoord rather than West Brom on a free transfer nine years ago.
“After (leaving) Roda JC in 2012, I could have gone to West Bromwich but I chose Feyenoord. I never asked myself: ‘Could I possibly have gone to the Premier League?’
“I have no regrets.”
Vormer spent two seasons in Rotterdam before moving to the Belgian capital in 2014. He’s now captain of a Club Brugge side that has dominated the domestic landscape in recent seasons, edging KRC Genk in a thrilling title race last term.
West Brom, meanwhile, would go on to finish a highly impressive eighth in the Premier League under Roy Hodgson during that 2012/13 campaign.
A team that included Claudio Yacob, Zoltan Gera, Peter Odemwingie and a young Romelu Lukaku enjoyed their finest top-flight campaign of the modern era.
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