Danny Petrus Hesp (born 19 October 1969) is a Dutch former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a defender.

Football career

Born in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

, Hesp started at local Ajax, but only appeared in nine

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is c ...

games in three seasons combined, all in his first. A very promising player, he broke his leg after a sliding tackle in 1988 and never fully recovered to reach his full potential. Released in 1990, Hesp resumed his career with Heerenveen, going to play until 2005 with several clubs in the top level ( Roda, AZ,

NEC is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. The company was known as the Nippon Electric Company, Limited, before rebranding in 1983 as NEC. It prov ...

and

RBC RBC may refer to: Media and arts * ''RBK Daily'', a general business newspaper published in Moscow, Russia. * RBK Group, a large Russian media group * RBC Ministries, now Our Daily Bread Ministries, a Christian media outlet in Grand Rapdis, Mich ...

) and also spending three seasons – two complete, two halves – with

second division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

Top Oss TOP Oss (), is a professional association football club based in the town of Oss, North Brabant, Netherlands, that competes in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of the Dutch football league system. Founded in 1928 as T.O.P., a Dutch abbreviati ...

Life after football

In 2005, Hesp became president of the '' Vereniging van Contractspelers'' (VVCS), the Dutch union for professional soccer players, and in 2013 announced he would function as a contact for gay soccer players, to assist them in their coming-out; a 2014 poll by the VVCS and the John Blankenstein Foundation indicated that soccer's culture of machismo was an important cause of homophobia in the sport.

Personal life

Hesp's older brother,

Ruud Ruud and Rud are surnames of Norwegian origin. Both are also Norwegian place names of numerous farmsteads named Rud or Ruud from Old Norse ''ruð'' meaning clearing. Ruud is also a Dutch masculine given name meaning "famous wolf" although it is also ...

, was also a professional footballer. A

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

, he was best known for his three-year stint with Spain's

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

; the pair played together in the 1995–96 campaign, at Roda.

References

External links

Beijen profile

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hesp, Danny 1969 births Living people Footballers from Amsterdam Dutch footballers Association football defenders Eredivisie players Eerste Divisie players AFC Ajax players SC Heerenveen players TOP Oss players Roda JC Kerkrade players AZ Alkmaar players NEC Nijmegen players RBC Roosendaal players Dutch trade union leaders