When we were first linked with Robin Roefs last summer, I’ll be the first to admit that I didn’t have a clue who he was, and nor did I know how highly he was rated in his homeland and quite why Sunderland
were so keen to bring him to Wearside as we sought a more dominant presence between the sticks following promotion to the Premier League.
When he was formally unveiled as a Lads player, I was immediately struck by how close a resemblance Roefs bore to snowboarding icon and X-Games hero Shaun White (“Let’s hope he’s got as good an aerial game”, I mused) but even for a relatively modest fee of £12 million from NEC Nijmegen, it’s fair to say that Roefs’ signing was one of the more scrutinised of the summer, not least because of how much responsibility he would have to shoulder as our new number one.
As it turns out, we needn’t have worried and on Saturday, Roefs was in the spotlight again, saving three penalties as Sunderland saw off Everton in the FA Cup after a Saturday afternoon slugfest at the Hill-Dickinson Stadium.
After taking the lead through a sublime Enzo Le Fée volley and turning in a lively and committed performance, extra time and spot kicks would’ve been avoided had we not fallen foul of a referee who clearly earned his diploma through a breakfast cereal promotional campaign, but when it mattered, the Dutchman helped to ensure a very solid Lads’ display wasn’t in vain.
For months, I’ve been ever more impressed with the way Roefs has gone about his business and perhaps more importantly, the authority he exudes in a position that can often be more harshly scrutinised than many others.
Whereas fellow summer arrivals Senne Lammens and Lucas Perri have often looked erratic at Manchester United and Leeds United respectively, Roefs’ game is marked by composure, sharp reflexes, command of his area and a maturity that makes a mockery of the fact that comparatively speaking, he’s still in the very early stages of his senior career.
Of course, the genie is very much out of the bottle now and I’ve got no doubts that every scout from Turin to Munich will be keeping tabs on Roefs’ progress, but that’s also a massive compliment to the environment he’s operating within and the way he’s developing under the watchful eyes of the Sunderland coaching staff.
Sunderland’s roll call of elite Premier League stoppers is — shall we say — chequered.
Jordan Pickford left before fulfilling his potential; Craig Gordon was great but often hampered by injuries, whereas Simon Mignolet, despite a promising stint on Wearside, arguably played his best football for Liverpool — and that’s before you get to the likes of Costel Pantilimon and League Cup hero Vito Mannone. A varied and highly intriguing mix, to say the least.
In 1998, Peter Reid zeroed in on a young Danish prospect from Odense who made the journey across the North Sea to link up with Sunderland ahead of our all-conquering 1998/1999 season before establishing himself as a solid and reliable Premier League goalkeeper during the years that followed.
In many ways, at this stage Roefs is further down the track than Thomas Sorensen, having not had the benefit of a season in English football before making his top flight bow, and that says a great deal about his character, his single-mindedness and his sheer ability.
Yes, he’s conceded goals he would’ve been disappointed by, most notably to Bournemouth’s Tyler Adams and Aston Villa’s Matty Cash, but the good far outweighs the bad and he’s surely only going to go from strength to strength — not least because he’s operating behind a defence that’s looked borderline impenetrable at times this season, which always breeds tremendous confidence in a goalkeeper.
Of course, when watching Roefs in full flight, it’s hard to overlook the possibility that in all likelihood, he won’t be a Sunderland player next season if one of the European giants decides that a new goalkeeper would be a worthwhile investment, but in the meantime, he’s got an absolutely key role to play for us and if there’s one silver lining to a potential departure, it’s that we could essentially write our own cheque, so important has Roefs been during 2025/2026.
That’s a discussion for another day but for now, we can revel in the sight of an absolutely top class goalkeeper — not soaring twenty feet above the lip of a snowboard halfpipe like his doppelgänger White, but dominating his eighteen-yard box, acting as an intimidating last line of defence and providing a colossal presence at home and away.
£12 million? An absolute snip — and another huge success for Florent Ghisolfi and Kristjaan Speakman.
