Mats Knoester excited to experience ‘football culture’ of Pittodrie

Mats Knoester is relishing the chance to experience the matchday “vibes” of Pittodrie for the first time as he prepares to make his Aberdeen debut in Sunday’s Scottish Gas Scottish Cup fifth-round tie against Championship side Dunfermline.

The 26-year-old Dutch defender joined the Dons on a two-and-a-half year contract on transfer deadline day following his recent departure from Ferencvaros.

Knoester revealed his early impressions of Aberdeen’s traditional “football culture” stadium added to the appeal of moving to the north east of Scotland.

“I’m looking forward to seeing how packed the stadium is going to be, because I heard a lot of good stories,” said the centre-back.

“I saw a video as well, before signing, to introduce me a little bit and then you already feel the vibe a little bit. Also when I walked in the stadium, you can feel the historical part in the club.

“You walk in, you see the wood and everything and the old stands and it just breathes football culture. I’m just looking forward to feeling that with the fans inside and then get a good result out of it.”

Knoester spoke to his Ferencvaros team-mate Stefan Gartenmann, who spent last season on loan with Aberdeen, before making the move to Scotland.

“I wanted to have a chance of playing again in an attractive league, attractive area and I think when Aberdeen called, I knew about them, like it’s a historical club,” he said.

“I spoke to Stefan and he told me lots of positive stuff and then it was pretty clear to me to come here.

“I asked him some questions about how it is here and he had a very good experience here.

“He knows me quite well, because we spent a lot of time together in the last six months in Ferencvaros, so he also could have an opinion on if he thinks it’s a good fit. I used his information to get to know Aberdeen a bit more from a player’s side and that made the decision more easy.”

Knoester joined Hungarian club Ferencvaros from Dutch side Heracles in 2022 but, after playing regularly in his first season, he struggled for game time in his last 18 months in Budapest.

With Aberdeen having had enough faith in him to offer a contract until 2027, the defender is optimistic about his future.

“That’s exactly what I was looking for in the next step, so that’s also why I waited pretty long with making a decision, because with the clubs that were interested, I wasn’t feeling like, ‘okay, this is it’,” he said.

“And then when Aberdeen came, all the pieces fell together a little bit, like from every side I had good arguments to come here and that’s why I made the decision to come here.”

Knoester has joined the Dons at a time when they are on a remarkable run of 14 league games without a win.

“I wouldn’t have signed if I didn’t have confidence that Aberdeen can have good results and you also saw that in the first part of the season that it was going very well,” he said.

“I think it’s just the long phase of not winning that’s very frustrating. Normally you see results going up and down a little bit more.

“Now it’s like a lot of wins (at the start of the season), then a lot of losses and it feels a bit strange maybe.

“But I think in the end, if you look at it, we’re still in a promising position and if we get the small things right, I think a win is close.”