Rovers have finally ended their year-long search for a permanent first-choice goalkeeper with their European Scouting Network search culminating in the services of KAA Gent goalkeeper, Thomas Kaminski being secured.
The 27-year old shot-stopper, whose contract with the 2019-20 Belgian runners-up was set to expire at the end of 2020-21, arrives at Ewood Park for an undisclosed fee, quoted in the region of €500,000, which makes him the Blues’ first signing in over 11 months. The Belgian, who turns 28 towards the backend of October, has put pen to paper on a two-year deal with Rovers until 2022, which includes the option for the club to potentially extend it to three years.
Although Kaminski has spent most of his career plying his trade in the Belgian First Division – the Jupiler Pro League – the ‘keeper has also had brief loan spells in the top tiers of Cyprus and Denmark. In addition to his domestic exploits, Kaminski also has experience in both European competitions with three Champions League appearances to his name from the 2013-14 edition, which he earnt during his time at RSC Anderlecht, where he faced Olympiacos and Paris Saint Germain twice. His 14 Europa League games came for KAA Gent in the 2019-20 competition, as ‘The Buffalos’ went from the second qualifying round, through the group stages and into the first knockout round, beating VfL Wolfsburg and AS Saint-Étienne along the way, until their journey was ended after a 2-1 aggregate loss to Italian giants AS Roma.
In terms of career statistics and honours, Kaminski has two Pro League titles to his name from 2012-13 and 2013-14 after his Anderlecht side came out on top in the Championship Playoffs to secure consecutive titles. From those campaigns, Kaminski – then 19 and 20 years old – made 19 appearances in all competitions over both seasons, with 11 of those being league games, which qualified him for medals in both seasons. Furthermore, his loan in Denmark with FC Copenhagen during the 2015-16 season yielded him a league and cup double, despite only featuring eight times in both competitions. Although his Superliga games were limited to just two, Kaminski – who turned 23 mid-season – played in all six of Copenhagen’s FA Cup-equivalent Pokalen games, keeping two clean sheets along the way, as ‘The Lions’ completed the domestic clean sweep.
Looking at his clean sheet to game statistics, from the 2019-20 season – which was curtailed on the penultimate game of the season without any playoffs – before going into a deep dive into his career, the 6’3” goalie donned the gloves 44 out of a possible 45 times for Gent in 2019-20, which saw him keep 12 clean sheets; two of which were during Gent’s Europa League journey. In terms of his wider career stats, 68 clean sheets in 285 career games is a very respectable number.
Internationally, Kaminski was recruited by Belgium for their controversial 5-1 victory over Luxembourg during their 2014 World Cup preparation, which was deemed ‘unrecognised’ by FIFA due to Belgium making one to many substitutes. Despite that, the new Rovers recruit did not enter the fray as he was limited to being third choice behind Zulte Waregem stalwart Sammy Bossut, who started the game and former Liverpool ‘keeper Simon Mignolet, who was alongside Kaminski on the bench.
We look forward to seeing our first ever Belgian player, and new number #1 in action, once his 14-day Government-mandatory quarantine is over!
