Anton "Ton" Pronk (21 May 1941 – 26 August 2016) was a Dutch

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

defender who played for Ajax in the 1960s and for

FC Utrecht Football Club Utrecht () is a Dutch professional football club based in Utrecht. The club competes in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football, and plays its home matches at the Stadion Galgenwaard. The club was formed in 1970 as a merge ...

in the early 1970s.

Club career

Pronk came through the Ajax youth system and made his senior debut for the club on 4 September 1960 against

PSV PSV may refer to: * Partial specific volume * PlayStation Vita, a handheld game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment * Petit Saint Vincent, an island south of St. Vincent in the Grenadine islands * Platform supply vessel, a specific typ ...

.Ton Pronk (75) overleden
- Ajax He played in 337 official matches for them during the 1960s, winning 4 league titles and 3

KNVB Cup The KNVB Beker (; en, KNVB Cup), branded as the TOTO KNVB Beker for sponsorship reasons, is a competition in the Netherlands organized by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) since 1898. It was based on the format of the English FA Cup. Ou ...

s. He was on their losing side in the

1969 European Cup Final The 1969 European Cup Final was a football match held at the Santiago Bernabéu, Madrid, on 28 May 1969, that saw Milan of Italy play against Ajax of the Netherlands to determine who would be the champions of Europe that season. Ajax made ...

and was released by Ajax before the club won the Champions's Cup for three successive years in the beginning of the 1970s. He joined the newly formed

at the end of 1970 and finished his career with them.Seizoen 1970/1971
- FC Utrecht

International career

He made his debut for the Netherlands in a May 1961

FIFA World Cup qualification The FIFA World Cup qualification is a competitive match that a national association football team takes in order to qualify for one of the available berths at the final tournament of the (men's) FIFA World Cup. Qualifying tournaments are hel ...

match against East Germany and earned a total of 19 caps, scoring no goals.National team stats
- Voetbalstats His final international was a May 1969 World Cup qualification against Poland.

Personal life

Pronk married Marjan Meier in 1969. Their son, Robin, used to work as a youth coach for Ajax and FC Utrecht and is currently a coordinator at the academy of Polish club Zagłębie Lubin. Marjan Meier and Anton Pronk 1969

After retiring as a player, Pronk was appointed as scout at Ajax and Louis van Gaal named him chief scout in 1991 until he retired in 2007. He was honoured by Ajax in 2011 for being member of the club for 60 years and is credited for bringing Jari Litmanen and Zlatan Ibrahimović to the club.De grote successen gingen aan Ton Pronk voorbij
- NOS He died of

ALS Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that results in the progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles. ALS is the most com ...

in August 2016 in Purmerend.Voormalig Ajax-speler Ton Pronk (75) overleden
- NOS

Honours

* International Football Cup: 1 ::1962 * Eredivisie: 4 :: 1966, 1967, 1968, 1970 *

: 3 :: 1961, 1967, 1970

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pronk, Anton 1941 births 2016 deaths Footballers from Amsterdam Association football defenders Dutch footballers Netherlands international footballers AFC Ajax players FC Utrecht players Eredivisie players AFC Ajax non-playing staff Deaths from motor neuron disease Neurological disease deaths in the Netherlands