u/DutchOnionKnight

Rai Vloet (31) spent twenty months in custody following the fatal road accident in which a four-year-old boy lost his life. The footballer has been free again since Wednesday. In his first interview since his release, he spoke to De Twentsche Courant Tubantia about guilt, punishment and his desire to return to the football pitch.

In a quiet corner of a gym, Rai Vloet takes a seat at the table. He looks fit and says he has never stopped training. But everything he does now is overshadowed by that one night in November 2021.

He then caused a fatal road accident on the A4 near Hoofddorp, in which 4-year-old Gio Roos was killed. Vloet had been drinking too much and was speeding. He was jailed for twenty months for this.

Now that he is free again, he wants to move on and play football once more. The question of whether someone should return to the public eye after such a tragedy is a sensitive one. Vloet is well aware of that.

“I understand that perfectly,” he says. “I understand that people are angry. My family were too. They could have given me a proper telling-off that day, just like everyone else, but they’ve always supported me since.”

It will never leave him. At the same time, he has to move on. Though he knows it won’t be easy, the midfielder – who has played for Heracles Almelo, PSV and NAC in the Netherlands, among others – realises this. “There will be plenty of people who don’t want me to get a second chance.”

His name will forever be linked to the accident. “All you have to do is Google my name and the first thing you see is that story. That’s something I have to deal with and accept.”

Looking back, Vloet describes the period between the accident and his conviction as more difficult than the sentence itself. The trial, the media attention, everything that was said about him. The appeal lodged by both the Public Prosecution Service and Vloet, but later withdrawn by both parties.

He does, however, want to emphasise one thing. “The parents are the biggest victims in all this. It was a terrible mistake that evening.”

Strangely enough, his time in prison – first in Middelburg, later in Roermond – brought him a sense of peace. A lot changed behind those walls. “You don’t know anyone there. You don’t have to worry about anything or look after anyone. You can spend that time focusing entirely on yourself.”

‘It’s almost therapeutic,’ says Vloet. ‘It’s like: I’m serving my sentence as I should, and then I can look to the future.’

For the first sixty days, Vloet was held in the detention centre. He was allowed out of his cell for one to two hours a day. The rest of the time he was locked up.

Vloet points to a bench a little further on. It’s about three metres long. That’s roughly the size of his cell. Inside, there’s just a bed, a small desk and a toilet. “You don’t have much freedom in a cell like that. You don’t have a job yet, unlike later on when I was in the internal cleaning unit.”

That’s when it dawned on me. “I thought: I could just sit there and do nothing. Or I could try to make sure that the time wasn’t completely wasted. To turn the punishment into something as positive as possible for myself.”

That feeling really set in when he was transferred to a regular wing. At first he was on his own, then with a fellow prisoner, and then on his own again. The door did close at a quarter to five in the afternoon and didn’t open again until half past seven in the morning. But there was more room to move about.

He learnt to play chess there. He learnt to cook. He sometimes attended church services. He ran football clinics. And he reflected on things. “There are lots of people who are feeling a bit down at the moment and going through a tough time. Perhaps I can be of some help to them.”

And so he often thought of Gio. And of the parents. He didn’t write to them. Not because he didn’t want to, but because he isn’t allowed to. “There’s a one-sided ban on contact. I’m not allowed to get in touch. But if they’re ever open to a conversation, I’m always willing to talk.”

He also did a lot of sport. “At the start, you spend an awful lot of time lying down. That’s why I did a lot of push-ups and trained my legs. Or I’d put a few bottles of Bar-le-Duc in a laundry bag. That way I could train my biceps.”

He also always went outside with the team on Saturday afternoons to play football. Just among themselves, six against six. “Those were fun games. A sort of street football. There were plenty of ways to keep fit in there.”

Vloet didn’t do that on a whim. He wants to return to playing football. That’s why he led a disciplined lifestyle and watched what he ate, in the hope that there might still be a club out there willing to give him a chance. “Whether or not I get a second chance in football, that was my motivation.”

He just doesn’t know if that will actually happen. “Everyone says that everyone deserves a second chance. But in reality, that’s not always the case.”

Did Vloet ever think about giving up football? Before he went to prison, he did have his doubts. How would he come out of it? In what condition? And would there still be a future for him as a footballer afterwards?

But that feeling soon faded for the man from Brabant, who played his final match on 1 June 2024 as a player for FC Ural.

“In the exercise yard, I had lots of conversations with other inmates. Everyone said: ‘Go for it, this is what you’re good at’. That really motivated me. I want to end my career on a positive note. Not that it’s over once I’m out of prison. So I kept training and approached it as if something was on the horizon.”

According to Vloet, he can still cope with the level. “You never forget how to play football. Normally, I’ve got another four or five years left in me. Maybe longer. My body has had a rest, of course. That could work in my favour.”

Vloet rules out a return to the Netherlands. “I’d like to, but no manager would dare take that risk. The people I’ve spoken to say: ‘Rai, as a player, we’d sign you straight away.’ But given the reactions from fans, sponsors, the board of directors and the media, we don’t see it happening.”

So he’s looking abroad. Where exactly doesn’t matter much to him. “I’m not in a position to choose.” If it were up to him, he’d prefer somewhere in Europe. But he’s not ruling out other options either.

Vloet sees the fact that he’s being released right now as an advantage. “I was already training, but now I can get back on the pitch as well. If I keep training hard over the coming weeks, I’ll be reasonably fit to start pre-season in about six weeks’ time.”

And suppose it works out. That he plays again. And scores. Will he celebrate? “Absolutely. People might interpret that negatively. But I’ll definitely celebrate. Because I know what I’ve been through. I’m not a victim, I repeat. But I’ve worked hard for that moment.”

But how he will be remembered in the future is not in his own hands. “That accident will always stick with me. It’s not easy to change that now. Ultimately, people will think what they want to think. I have no control over that.”

What he does have control over, however, is how he deals with it. And how he lives the rest of his life. “I do think I’ll be remembered as someone who came out of it strong, despite having made a huge mistake. That I stayed true to myself. That I never stopped giving up or dreaming.”

Gio Roos’s parents were informed of this publication in advance via their solicitor.

As the tittle said. I just dunno where to begin. I've been a fan for about 25years since I was 8 years old. My mom and dad had his music upon repeat because I asked them too. I asked his CDs and DVDs as a chrismas gift, I got them, I danced accordingly as a 10yo back in 2002. I remember the day when it happened. I remember Dutch MTV had his videos upon repeat, for days, weeks even!

I just miss him so freaking badly. I don't even know much about his life, I am not even a "super fan" I've been to the movie a few days ago, and yes Jafaar did a great job, but it aint him...

I dunno... I am just a stranger...