Defender handed first Dutch call-up

Brighton & Hove Albion defender Jan Paul van Hecke has been named in the Netherlands under-21 squad for the first time.

The Netherlands squad will be reduced from 30 to 23 players on March 18 ahead of their trip to Bulgaria on March 25, and a crucial home encounter with Switzerland four days later.

The Dutch sit three points behind Group E leaders Switzerland, with a game in hand, as they bid to reach the finals in Romania and Georgia next summer.

Van Hecke has become an ever-present at Ewood Park since returning from a threematch suspension in November.

The centre half has been part of a miserly Rovers defence that has kept 11 clean sheets in their last 17 matches, of which van Hecke has played every minute, and was named the club’s player of the month for February.

And the Dutchman, who joined Albion from NAC Breda in 2020 and spent last season on loan at Heerenveen, said he saw himself as ‘a player for Blackburn Rovers’ instead of a Seagulls loanee.

Speaking to the Lancashire Telegraph, van Hecke said: “I’m here and I feel like a Blackburn Rovers player, I think that’s the best way to do it.

“This season I’m just a player like everyone else and I think that’s better for myself.

“If you come here and think ‘oh I’m a Brighton player, I just come here to play’ then it doesn’t work like that.

“Blackburn is a great club with a big history, this is a really good league and I’m really happy to be here.

“I feel as though I’m a player for Blackburn Rovers.”