NEC have signed a new defender. The Nijmegen club officially unveiled Gabriel Brás on their official channels after bringing him in on a one-year loan from FC Porto.
Brás captains Portugal Under-21s and played for FC Porto B. The 22-year-old is still waiting to make his debut for the first team.
The right-footed centre-back arrives on loan from FC Porto, with NEC also securing an option to buy. The size of that option has not been disclosed. According to Transfermarkt, Brás is worth two million euros.
NEC had been pushing hard for reinforcements at the back. During pre-season, Dick Schreuder had already made it clear he felt his squad was too short defensively and hoped to bring in two or three more defenders.
Those issues showed up again in the opening round against Telstar, a 1-2 defeat. Schreuder had to improvise at the back and made it clear afterwards that he was not satisfied with the limited numbers in his defence.
Schreuder's options at the back shrank further last Tuesday. Philippe Sandler had to go off early during the match with Olympiakos, a 2-1 win.
The club fear the former player of, among others, Manchester City will be unavailable for weeks.