WHEN Jelle Vossen decided that the time was right to leave Genk last summer, he was faced with a selection of prospective employers.

Aston Villa and Everton were both credited with a strong desire to take him to the Premier League. Fulham, tipped to be at the forefront of the Championship promotion battle, were interested in signing him on loan. The Belgian media was full of stories linking the striker with a switch to the Bundesliga.

As Genk officials finally accepted defeat in their attempts to retain him, Vossen appeared destined to join some of his Belgian team-mates on a grand stage. Instead, he joined a Middlesbrough side struggling in 16th position in the Championship after suffering back-to-back defeats to Sheffield Wednesday and Reading.

Not only that, but after moving to Teesside at the start of September, he started just three of his new employers’ next 14 games. Boro fans might have set up a ‘Free Jelle Vossen’ campaign on Twitter to entice him to move to the Riverside, but a couple of months into his career with the club, the 26-year-old could have been forgiven for wanting to return home.

“I have to be honest – at the beginning, when I first arrived, it was a little bit of a risk because we were down in the bottom half of the table,” said Vossen, who has subsequently emerged as a key part of Boro’s successful surge to Monday’s Championship play-off final at Wembley.

“But I believed in this project, and if you see how we are doing at this moment, you see that I was right. I can only say that it has been the perfect step for me, and I think everybody in this team and at this club is proud to be part of what Middlesbrough are doing. It’s a really nice thing to be part of, and everybody deserves to go to be going into this game.”

In many ways, the story of Vossen’s Middlesbrough career is the story of the club’s season. It started slowly, and there have been some eventful highs and lows along the way, but in the last couple of months, things have hurtled towards a climax with performances improving and results remaining generally impressive.

Initially regarded as a third-choice alternative to Patrick Bamford and Kike, Vossen has developed into a key constituent of Aitor Karanka’s preferred attacking line-up.

He has left his previous role on the left of midfield in order to take up a position on the shoulder of the lone striker, with Karanka’s willingness to move Lee Tomlin out of the ‘number ten’ slot underlining just how highly Vossen is regarded.

The faith is reciprocal, with Vossen crediting Karanka’s tactical acumen and astute man management as key factors in Middlesbrough’s surge into fourth position at the end of the regular campaign and then on to Monday’s play-off final.

“I don’t think anyone could have known that we would reach this at the beginning of the season, but having looked at what happened last season, I knew the team had been doing well after he (Karanka) arrived, said Vossen, who is expected to turn his current loan deal into a permanent transfer this summer. “That’s not a coincidence – you just have to look at the way that he works to see how good he is.

“It always looked like it was going to be a nice project. It was a little bit of a risk, but if you see the atmosphere the other Friday (in the play-off semi-final second leg) and the performance that we put in, then it was the right step for me to make. I have never regretted it for one second.”

Vossen’s contentment will increase even further if Boro succeed in two days time, and while the bookmakers are finding it impossible to split the two finalists, there is confidence within the Teessiders’ camp that they will have the edge.

They have already beaten Norwich twice this season, with an aggregate score of 5-0, and while there is a healthy respect for the Canaries, there is also a sense that Boro might just have their number.

Whatever happens at Wembley, after five unsuccessful attempts to reach the play-offs in the wake of 2009’s relegation, Boro have taken a giant step forward under Karanka’s control. But as Vossen readily concedes, that does not mean that an opportunity like Monday’s will come round again.

“It doesn’t get much bigger, but we just have to prepare for the final like we have for every game this season,” he said. “We have a lot of qualities, and if we can put them onto the pitch with our attitude, then we have already shown we can beat any team in this league.

“We have to stay with our feet on the ground, because we haven’t done anything yet. Winning the semi-final was a big step, but there is still another game to play. But although we still haven’t achieved anything, it is a big chance and maybe it will be the only chance for some of us to get into the Premier League.”