De Graafschap starts its new season preparations on Sunday, June 21. The first training is at ZZC'20 in Zelhem and starts at 11:00 AM. De Graafschap holds its open day on Saturday, August 1. On August 7, the first round of the first division takes place. NEC midfielder Kodai Sano is again in the interest of several major clubs. PSV's Ismael Saibari is likely to sell to Bayern Munich, which has brought back the interest in the Japanese player. The German VfB Stuttgart also shows interest. Sano could have gone to Ajax or Nottingham Forest last winter, but NEC did not let him go. Instead, the Nijmegen club took third place and qualified for the Champions League. Former NEC goalkeeper Robin Roefs made his debut for the Netherlands. The goalkeeper came on as a substitute in the friendly match against Algeria, replacing Bart Verbruggen. The keeper was under contract with NEC from 2020 to 2025 and had been called up for the Dutch national team several times before. However, he did not play beyond the training session. Against Algeria, he finally got his first minutes in the Dutch national team and was able to celebrate his debut in the Oranje shirt. However, he could not prevent the Netherlands from losing the match. The score was 0-1 in De Kuip.