According to several sources, including Sky Sports and The Athletic, the 22-year-old Roefs will reportedly earn NEC a fixed fee of €10.5 million, a fee which could rise to €13.5 million via bonuses. Roefs will sign a five-year contract at Sunderland, who announced the statement signing of Bayer Leverkusen captain Granit Xhaka earlier on Wednesday.
The transfer fee will smash NEC's transfer record, which previously stood at just €5 million from last year's sale of Magnus Mattsson to FC Copenhagen.
Roefs broke into the first team during the 2023/24 season and took the starting spot before the 2024/25 season, in which he shone and became the starting goalkeeper for the Dutch U21 team at this summer's Under-21 European Championships.
The NEC standout joins Anthony Patterson, Blondy Nna Noukeu, and Simon Moore in Sunderland's goalkeeper room. Patterson started 44 of Sunderland's 46 games in the regular season and kept 14 clean sheets, considerably fewer than James Trafford (29) and Ilan Meslier (21) of fellow promoted sides Burnley and Leeds United.
Reports suggest that Sunderland would want Patterson to compete with Roefs for a starting spot next season.
Roefs is expected to finalise his transfer soon, with his medical exam scheduled for Wednesday.
Cillessen to return?
With Roefs's big move now materialising, NEC are left with neither of the two goalkeepers who represented them in the Eredivisie last season after Stijn van Gassel left the club to return to Excelsior earlier in the transfer window.
The Nijmegen side have started looking for a replacement for Roefs and are reportedly setting their sights on former Ajax and Barcelona stopper Jasper Cillessen.
The 36-year-old Nijmegen native, who's a free agent, made his professional debut for NEC in 2010, after which he soon moved to Ajax. Cillessen returned to NEC after 10 years in 2022 and played two seasons before leaving for Las Palmas.