Jonas De Roeck held his first press conference of the year, before the first big meeting of 2025 with the cup match against Union.
Jonas De Roeck was very satisfied with the arrival of the Red Devil Olivier Deman, on loan for six months from Werder Bremen: “Olivier is a boy who will bring us quality, especially on the offensive level. And he knows the championship, which is always an advantage. He comes from Bremen in good shape. He hasn’t played any matches yet, but he is already eligible for tomorrow and will play straight away,” the Antwerp coach shared at a press conference.
Olivier Deman could perhaps even start already since Bataille is absent and Ayrton Costa is on his way to Boca Juniors: “The two clubs have reached an agreement and he has obtained permission to travel to Argentina. For us, Ayrton could stay because we believed that he would further develop. We must not underestimate the adaptation period of a player who comes from another continent,” De Roeck then confirmed.
“I would have preferred Butez to stay, because he has always proven his worth and he should normally have played again tomorrow. But I give it to him, because he is someone who has a brilliant personality. And above all at that age, if you can join a higher championship, it’s just great,” says the Antwerp mentor.
Praise for the Union
Antwerp has a big program awaiting it with this quarter-final of the Cup, then Sunday’s derby at Beerschot: “Let’s start with the first match, it will already be quite difficult. It’s the third time we’ve played against Union and the big difference from the first time is that the machine is well oiled.”
“The fact that they are already unbeaten in 13 matches says a lot. But we showed in the previous matches against them that we can bother them. We won the first match and we started the second well, but we We lost because of poor match management”, punctuates the technician.
