Fulham confirmed signing Roma Stekelenburg

Fulham have confirmed they landed Roma goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg on a four-year-contract.

The 30-year-old spent nine seasons at Ajax before joining Roma two years ago. H has lost his first-choice status due to series of injuries and arguments with Zdenek Zeman. The new coach Aurelio Andreazzoli, who replaced Zeman in charge of Roma in February, still was reluctant to offer the Dutch goalkeeper his share of first-team football. As a result Stekeleburg decided to leave Stadio Olympico.

Fulham boss Martin Jol is a long-term admirer of Stekelenburg and tried to sign him in January, but the transfer fell through on a deadline day. Jol revealed he is delighted to have signed the player, stating: “Maarten Stekelenburg is a fine quality goalkeeper who I know well from my time working with him at Ajax and of course as the Dutch international goalkeeper I have always had an additional interest in his career. I am sure that he will do well here at Fulham in the Premier League.

“He is a player of great quality and technical ability whose distribution and ability to react quickly and read the game is exceptional; he will be a fantastic addition to the talented team of keepers that we already have. I am delighted that he was so keen to come to join us and am very happy with the way that the summer is shaping up in terms of our signings, so on the whole I’m ever so pleased,” he added.

Stekelenburg, in turn, admitted he is happy to work again under Jol. He said: “It’s good that I’ll be joining Martin again. He knows my capabilities very well, so I am just looking forward to joining up with the team in pre-season and enjoying some time with them prior to the new season starting.

“I am very happy to be joining Fulham and to have everything sorted out so early in the summer, so I can really focus on preparations for playing in the Barclays Premier League next season,” added the Dutchman.