Trinidad and Tobago defender Sheldon Bateau has agreed to a new two-year extension to his contract with Belgium top division club KV Mechelen.
Bateau agreed to the offer last week and is delighted to be staying at the club until the end of 2014 at least. Now he’s hoping to have Trinidadian teammate Jamal Gay join him as the big striker heads to Mechelen for a three-week trial beginning this Monday.
Bateau was not expecting the new offer until March but had no issues with the early approach. Like him, Gay was also not expecting the three-week trial offer and hopefully he will be able to do sufficiently well to secure a deal.
It is understood that the club opted to keep Gay beyond a week as to ensure he has sufficient time to adapt to the cold conditions.
“They had until March to make the offer but I think because of me doing pretty well at the club so far, they felt it was too long to wait before making me this offer.,” Bateau told TTFF Media.
“They actually offered another year on top of the two years but I prefer to stick to the deal we had discussed before which was two years. Maybe next season I can take up on the extra year depending on how things are looking at that time.
“Now that I've extended my contract the weight is lifted off a bit and now I can totally focus on playing my game and making this my home for the next two and a half years. I'm happy, my team is happy, the fans are happy and most importantly my family's happy,” Bateau added.
“So all thanks to God for giving me the strength and courage to perform under some tough circumstances and coming out on top so far.”
Gay meantime received the invitation to join Mechelen from the club’s technical director. It run’s from this Monday until February 16th.