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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 The appeal lodged by both the Public Prosecution Service and Vloet, but later withdrawn by both parties.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.

The Public Prosecution Service is seeking a seven-year prison sentence for the 40-year-old former football coach from Vlissingen for filming young footballers in the changing rooms of football clubs in Zeeland over a period of several years and for sexually abusing a former pupil of his. The man has confessed to everything and is aware of the impact: ‘I hope you find a way to come to terms with this.’

They were neatly organised into folders. By club. By year. By team. 27,000 photos and 2,700 videos. Mostly filmed in the changing rooms of Zeeland football clubs between 2010 and 2025. And those images show naked boys during and after showering. For example, at the Jeugd Voetbal Opleiding Zeeland (JVOZ), SV Walcheren and VV Kloetinge.

For years, the 40-year-old man from Vlissingen was able to do as he pleased in the changing rooms. A special app on his phone concealed the fact that he was filming. Even when an observant team manager confronted him about it, he carried on. “It was easy to do,” he says today.

It only came to an end when a former pupil reported him to the police. The two got to know each other when the boy was taught by the man from Vlissingen in Year 8. A bond developed between them. “After a difficult time at primary school, he finally felt seen and heard when he joined the suspect’s class,” his mother explains today.

The two also go on holiday to Texel for a few days. Not much happens there, but the boy is secretly filmed whilst taking a shower.

After that, they stay in touch. Te Vlissinger regularly visits the boy’s family. He helps with the problems the family is facing, and once a month the boy goes to stay with the suspect in Vlissingen for the weekend.

Things go wrong during those weekends. First, the man suddenly kisses the boy. The boy reacts with shock and asks him never to do that again. “We’ll see,” the suspect is reported to have said.

It didn’t stop there. During the weekends in Vlissingen, sexual contact occurred between the two. The abuse continued for about a year, but then stopped because the man realised it wasn’t right. The boy continued to visit the man, but in the meantime carried a great secret with him.

It is not until April 2025 that the boy’s mother discovers what has been going on between the two, and a report is made to the police. When the police visit the man’s home following the report and search his house, they find data storage devices that turn out to be full of child pornography. The vast majority of this material was filmed by him in changing rooms.

The man has known for years that he is attracted to young boys. During his teenage years, he struggled with these feelings, and by the age of 20 he had come to the definitive realisation that he harboured paedophilic tendencies. Despite this, he continued to coach young boys, completed his teacher training and went on to work in primary education.

In 2010, he realised that he was aroused by the sight of naked boys in the changing rooms and decided to start filming them. The judge calculated: “100 to 150 videos a year. 40 victims a year. Over the years, that amounts to 500 to 600 young footballers.”

The defendant is also aware of this large number: “It is a huge number. I was quite shocked when that was mentioned and I know I was in the wrong.” He states several times that the boys filmed need not fear that the photos and videos have been distributed.

The Public Prosecution Service holds the suspect in particularly high contempt for the fact that, despite his sexual preferences, he nevertheless chose to work with young boys. ‘Through his career choice and his role as a coach, he knowingly placed himself in a dangerous situation. It is unbelievable that he continued to seek out the company of children in this way. He should have stayed out of those changing rooms. He should not have arranged to meet a pupil.’

The prosecutor calls it a betrayal. ‘Children and parents must be able to trust teachers and coaches. It is appalling that you would undermine that trust in such a way.’

That is why the Public Prosecution Service is making a strong demand: the man should be sentenced to seven years in prison. Furthermore, as far as the Public Prosecution Service is concerned, the man should be barred from working with children for ten years.

Although the man has made a full confession, his lawyer is asking for a slightly more lenient sentence because, in her view, the period during which the offences were committed is shorter than the Public Prosecution Service alleges. The man is also already actively engaged in his treatment.

The man has reached agreements with the boy and several young footballers regarding compensation to be paid.

The lawyer also draws attention to the fact that the man is having a difficult time in detention. For instance, shortly after his arrest, he was assaulted in prison by fellow inmates. He was subsequently transferred to a special unit within the prison.

The court will deliver its verdict in two weeks’ time.

The boy who had been abused by the man from Vlissingen read out a victim’s statement whilst sitting next to his parents. “A year ago, I said something that would change my life,” he began, referring to the moment he told his mother his biggest secret.

He spoke about his feelings: fear, anger, sadness and revulsion. He described how the suspect paid no heed when, after the first time they kissed, he asked him never to do it again. And although the abuse stopped at some point, that wasn’t the end of it for the boy. “Then came the hardest part: the secret. After two years, I plucked up the courage to tell my parents, and only then did it become clear just how much it had affected me and will continue to affect me."

The boy said that he eventually succumbed to that secret. He says he still lives in fear – afraid of bumping into the man, afraid of the future, afraid of relationships. Yet he concludes his statement with a message for other boys or men in the same situation: ‘You are not alone. It helped me to start talking about it and to break my silence.’

In hindsight, it is incredibly painful for the victim’s mother that she trusted the suspect with her child. During the hearing, she spoke about the moment she discovered the abuse: “The ground fell away from under me. For the first few days, all I could do was cry. I was so panicked that the doctor prescribed me sedatives. As a mother, I felt so guilty, stupid and naive. My head was also spinning with questions."

On behalf of the parents of a number of young footballers, a victim’s solicitor reads out a statement. What is particularly striking in the statement is that some of them are now wondering whether the suspect really saw talent in their children, or whether he was mainly scouting the children to satisfy his own desires.

A striking example is a boy who was unsure of his abilities but was still allowed to do an internship at JVOZ, only to discover the suspect’s secret. “And unfortunately, I fear this is the final blow to his confidence, to his belief that he really is a talented footballer.”

The Dutch club’s sporting director, Jordi Cruyff, knows Athletic’s manager very well; the latter has decided not to take charge for the time being. Míchel Sánchez looks set to be the permanent appointment.

Ajax Amsterdam, one of Europe’s historic clubs renowned for its youth development programme, approached Ernesto Valverde last February as a potential candidate to manage their first team for the coming season, according to information obtained by AS. Their sporting director, Jordi Cruyff, is well aware of the Athletic manager’s qualities, having been alerted to the fact that it was clear – and Ibaigane himself was already certain – that he would be ending his spell in Bilbao on 30 June. In fact, plans to bring in the German Terzic had been in the works for months.

But Valverde is keen to take a break from his managerial career and has no intention of accepting, in the short term, any offers from clubs that approach him; in addition to Ajax, he has already received other offers from abroad to keep him in the game: “I need to take a breather; this season has been very intense,” said the former manager of Barça, Villarreal, Valencia and Olympiacos on Sunday, after the match against Celta at San Mamés. “For now, I’m going to take a bit of a break; I need it and I think it’s for the best,” he remarked regarding his future plans as a manager. “I definitely won’t be coaching now,” he concluded, ruling out any other potential offers for the coming weeks.

Jordi Cruyff’s preferred choice in this scenario, with Valverde no longer in the running, appears to be Girona’s current manager, Míchel Sánchez, although the situation remains unclear given that the Vallecas-born manager is focused on securing his current team’s survival. “All I can say is that I haven’t reached any verbal agreement with any manager,” the former Barça attacking midfielder said in an interview last Saturday.

No such agreement about the Dutch national team, although he does say that he would have been interested to become the NT head coach if the KNVB approached him in case Koeman would leave

Ajax scouts feel they are not being taken seriously by Jordi Cruijff, whom they see as acting on his own. The technical director prefers to work with his own scout, Joel Lara, which is widening the rift between Cruijff and the scouting department. A number of scouts are looking for other employers.

Insiders say that Cruijff shows little interest in the work of the scouting department. For instance, it is said that when he took up his post, the technical director did not familiarise himself with the scouts’ methods and reporting procedures. He prefers to rely on the insights and advice of Lara, his trusted technical advisor. The Spaniard effectively acts as a link between Cruijff and the scouting department.

Lara is officially employed by Ajax as ‘head scout’, but his close ties with Cruijff give him a unique position within the club. It was to be expected that the existing scouting department would have difficulty with this role.

Former player Siem de Jong was appointed in March to ‘oversee scouting for professional football for the time being’, as Ajax announced in a press release at the time. De Jong took over the role from Kelvin de Lang, who returned to his former employer, Manchester City, a few weeks before Cruijff’s arrival.

Cruijff’s approach can be partly attributed to the way he views his role. As the person with ultimate responsibility for technical matters, he demanded full decision-making authority when he took up the post. “If I fail here, then I’ll have: Cruijff failing at the Johan Cruijff Arena – that’s not a nice story,” he said in an interview in February.

Cruijff made Lara’s appointment a condition of his own arrival. Ajax agreed to this, knowing full well that Cruijff would be turning the existing structure upside down.

It is not only the scouting department that is feeling the effects of the freedom Cruijff has been given to restructure the organisation. The same applies to director of football Marijn Beuker. For instance, Cruijff is now also making decisions regarding Jong Ajax. Before his arrival, that team fell within Beuker’s remit. Cruijff has also taken over the authority to make decisions regarding Ajax Under-19s, which previously also fell under Beuker’s remit.

Some insiders dismiss the tensions with the scouts as something that is common in football clubs. After all, scouting is not an exact science, and technical directors prefer to work with people they trust. Furthermore, a technical director has broader responsibilities than a scout. Cruijff has to put together a harmonious, winning squad, whereas a scout primarily looks at the qualities of individual players.

But at Ajax, the relationship between the technical director (TD) and the scouting department is under scrutiny following the Mislintat era. The German technical director was also accused of acting independently, relying on a trusted confidant.

“He didn’t think much of our scouting department,” said Leo van Wijk, who was a director at the time, two years ago, in a statement regarding an investigation into Mislintat’s working methods. “He went his own way and mainly consulted with his video analyst.”

According to the findings of the KPMG investigation, the fact that Mislintat was able to do as he pleased at the time was linked to the absence of a technical director. That role has now been filled by former player Edo Ophof.

Following reports of discontent among scouts, Cruijff and Lara have recently been paying closer attention to the department. Nevertheless, scouts are already looking for other employers.

Cruijff’s preference for Lara is partly based on the quality of the current squad. Judging by the players Ajax has signed in recent years, Cruijff is not impressed by the scouting department, according to a source close to the matter. It is worth noting that Cruijff’s predecessors – from Marc Overmars to Alex Kroes – also sometimes bypassed the scouting department.

An insider suggests that Ajax’s technical policy has fluctuated too much in recent years: with every new technical director, the direction changes. Concerns have also been raised about the quality of the current technical staff.

The fact that Cruijff prefers to work with Lara is said to be linked to the sensitive nature of the matter. According to an insider, the technical director rarely shares information about potential new players and coaches within the club, as he fears that names might be leaked. This undermines Ajax’s effectiveness and negotiating position.