How Rav van den Berg is getting on at FC Koln after departing Middlesbrough | OneFootball

Rav van den Berg left the Riverside this summer for a taste of top-flight football in Germany.

After a strong couple of years at Middlesbrough, it was always going to have been difficult for Rob Edwards' side to keep hold of Rav van den Berg this past summer.

The Dutch centre-back won Boro's player of the year and young player of the year awards in his first season at the Riverside, and despite his second campaign not being as impressive as his debut one as well as being marred by injury, he was still a big player in the heart of the Middlesbrough defence.

After a season of regression, however, it was clear that the 21-year-old - who was a big part of the Netherlands side that made it to the semi-finals of the 2025 U21 European Championships this past summer - would be looking at clubs outside the Championship to continue his progression.

And that came in the form of newly-promoted Bundesliga side FC Koln, who had spent five seasons in the German top flight before their one-year stop in the second tier last year.

Van den Berg moved there for a fee which could rise to £11.2 million, which is, once again, another excellent piece of business from a Boro side who paid just £260k to sign him from PEC Zwolle, who have excelled in making profits on their stars as of late.

But how has the Dutchman gotten on since he made the move from the Championship to the Bundesliga this summer?

Van den Berg missed 19 Championship games in the 2024/25 campaign, with 18 of them coming due to several different spells on the treatment table.

Unfortunately, it hasn't taken the 21-year-old long at all to find himself facing a lengthy spell on the sidelines at FC Koln either.

After missing out on the opening day of the new campaign, Van den Berg started the following two matches — a 4-1 win over Freiburg and a 3-3 draw with Wolfsburg.

It was in that six-goal thriller on 13 September that the defender was forced off with a shoulder injury that required surgery, which will see him miss "several weeks."

It's a continuation of a very frustrating year for the exciting centre-back, who clearly has the quality; he just needs to remain fit for long periods of the season, but that already doesn't appear to be the case for him in his new German adventure.

His Koln side are sniffing around the European places in the infancy of the 2025/26 campaign, despite back-to-back losses to RB Leipzig and Stuttgart respectively since the ex-Middlesbrough man has been out of the side.

Van den Berg will be raring to get back on the pitch once fit again and help his side consolidate their place in the Bundesliga further.

Middlesbrough enjoying a solid defensive start after Rav van den Berg's departure

Despite the clear upside a Middlesbrough defence would have if the Dutch Under- 21 star was still in the side, especially given the fact they've already endured some injury woes in central defence, Boro have been excellent at the back since he left for the Bundesliga.

Rob Edwards' system has allowed the likes of Alfie Jones and Luke Ayling to be forces in his back three, and Boro currently have a solid lead atop the Championship with an even more solid backline.

Indeed, Boro have conceded just five goals in their opening seven league games ahead of their clash with Stoke City on Tuesday evening, with Edwards' three central defenders flanked by wing-backs approach extracting huge improvement levels in Middlesbrough's organisation and solidity in defence.

That wasn't the case during Van den Berg's two seasons on Teesside, with the 23/24 and 24/25 teams both being pretty vulnerable at the back, with costly mistakes and seemingly a lack of defensive pride being unwanted traits that both of those sides showed at times.

After being a bright star in the Middlesbrough backline, Boro fans will be hoping from afar that Van den Berg can get back to fitness and show why they secured a potential eight-figure fee for him in August, especially considering they inserted - as they now routinely do - a sell-on fee in the deal which could enable their former defender to bankroll them again in the future.

But for now, they seemingly aren't missing his presence as much as they feared they might during the opening stages of the Championship campaign.