WITH his Middlesbrough career up and running after last weekend’s hat-trick at Millwall, Jelle Vossen is hoping to add his name to the lengthy list of Belgian footballers playing a starring role in the English game.

From Eden Hazard and Thibaut Courtois at Chelsea to Vincent Kompany at Manchester City and Romelu Lukaka at Everton, Belgian players have assumed an increasingly influential status over the course of the last few years.

Throw in Simon Mignolet at Liverpool, Maroune Fellaini and Adnan Januzaj at Manchester United, Toby Alderweireld at Southampton, Christian Benteke at Aston Villa, and Jan Vertonghen, Moussa Dembele and Nacer Chadli at Tottenham, and you have 12 Belgian internationals regularly starting for leading clubs in the Premier League.

Vossen’s position is slightly different given that he has had to move to the Championship to get a foothold in England, but the Middlesbrough loanee boasts 12 senior international caps and harbours ambitions to return to Marc Wilmots’ senior squad before too long.

A successful spell with Middlesbrough would significantly enhance his chances of returning to the international stage, and while the Championship might not have quite as high a profile as the top-flight, his goalscoring achievements will not go unnoticed if he builds on last weekend’s hat-trick in the next few months.

“It probably helps that quite a few Belgian players have come to England and done well,” said Vossen, whose last international goal came in March 2011. “That has put a positive eye on all Belgian football players and made people pay attention to what they are doing over here.

“We did well with the national team in the summer, and these are all positive things for us. In the last few years, we have had some great Belgian players come through and they are all developing very well in England. I hope I can do the same thing.

“I know pretty much all of them because I have played with most of them in the national team. I know those players very well and it is good to see them doing so well.

“It is not just the fact that they are playing in England – most of them are the most important players in their teams. That is a very nice thing and maybe there’s a good connection between England and Belgium starting up.”

Vossen came close to leaving his homeland in both the summer of 2013 and during January’s transfer window, but both Middlesbrough and Cardiff City were unable to prise him from Genk.

When Boro rekindled their interest this summer, a group of supporters set up a ‘Free Jelle Vossen’ campaign on Twitter in an attempt to put pressure on the Genk board to sanction the 25-year-old’s departure for the North-East.

The campaign attracted national media attention in Belgium, and having opened his goalscoring account at the 13th time of asking last weekend, Vossen is delighted to have begun repaying the faith of his Teesside-based fans.

“I knew that Middlesbrough wanted me, but Genk didn’t want me to go,” he said. “It was great to see the fans starting up a campaign a little bit like I was in jail. They started a campaign with the hashtag ‘FreeJelleVossen’ and there were a lot of tweets about that.

“It was nice to see, and it showed me that the Middlesbrough fans wanted me to come here. It’s always a good feeling to have, although maybe after the last few months, they wanted me to go back!

“That’s the life of a striker, so I’m very happy that I’ve finally been able to give them back some goals. I’ve only been here for three months, but I already feel like I have a great relationship with the fans.

“I love that, and I had it at my previous team in Genk too. I had a good relationship with the fans there, and I need that to perform well. I’m feeling the support of the fans here and hopefully it continues like that.”

Despite Aitor Karanka’s tendency to regularly shuffle his forward line, Vossen will hope to make his third start in a row when Boro entertain league leaders Derby County this afternoon.

A win would take the Teessiders to the top of the table for at least a couple of hours, and last week’s performance at The New Den has generated some welcome momentum in the wake of three successive draws.

“We have a really big game coming up, but the result and performance at Millwall gives us a lot of confidence,” said Vossen. “I think we are in a good way, but there’s still a very long way to go.

“Nothing is decided yet, but every game is important and this is another big step to the coming weeks and months. When I came here, we were in about tenth or 12th place. But ever since I have joined the team, things have been going very well.”