Edwin de Graaf (; born 30 April 1980) is 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 ...

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

and former player. He is the manager of

Eerste Divisie The Eerste Divisie (, en, First Division) is the second-highest tier of football in the Netherlands. It is linked with the top-level Eredivisie and with the third-level Tweede Divisie via promotion/relegation systems. It is also known as the ...

club

Roda JC Sportvereniging Roda Juliana Combinatie Kerkrade (; Ripuarian: ), also known as Roda JC Kerkrade () or commonly Roda JC or Roda, is a Dutch professional football club based in Kerkrade, Netherlands. Roda JC Kerkrade plays in the Eerste Divisie. ...

Career

Club career

De Graaf is a midfielder who was born in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

and made his debut in professional football, being part of the

RBC Roosendaal RBC, commonly known under its previous official name RBC Roosendaal, is a football club based in Roosendaal, Netherlands. RBC currently plays in the seventh-tier Tweede Klasse after a bankruptcy in 2011, restarting the club in tenth tier Vijfde Kl ...

squad in the 2001–02 season. He also played for

Feyenoord Rotterdam Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the club changed to various names before settling on being called after it ...

and

ADO Den Haag Alles Door Oefening Den Haag (), commonly known by the abbreviated name ADO Den Haag (), is a Dutch association football club from the city of The Hague. They play in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of Dutch football, following relegation f ...

before joining

NAC Breda NAC Breda (), often simply known as NAC, is a Dutch professional football club, based in Breda, Netherlands. NAC Breda play in the Rat Verlegh Stadium, named after their most important player, Antoon 'Rat' Verlegh. They play in the Eerste Divi ...

. On 15 June 2010, he signed a two-year deal with

Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the top level league competition for professional football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football' ...

club Hibernian. De Graaf made an "impressive" performance in his home debut for Hibs, scoring two goals in a 3–2 defeat by

NK Maribor NK may refer to: Businesses *Imerys (Euronext ticker code NK) *Nordiska Kompaniet, a department store in Stockholm, Sweden *Northrup-King Seed Company *Spirit Airlines (IATA code NK) *NK.pl, a Polish school-based social networking service Places ...

. His later performances were not as productive, however, as he missed clear goalscoring chances in games against The Rangers,

Inverness Inverness (; from the gd, Inbhir Nis , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness"; sco, Innerness) is a city in the Scottish Highlands. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highlands. Histori ...

and

Kilmarnock Kilmarnock (, sco, Kilmaurnock; gd, Cill Mheàrnaig (IPA: ʰʲɪʎˈveaːɾnəkʲ, "Marnock's church") is a large town and former burgh in East Ayrshire, Scotland and is the administrative centre of East Ayrshire, East Ayrshire Council. ...

. De Graaf struggled to hold down a place under Hughes' successor,

Colin Calderwood Colin Calderwood (born 20 January 1965) is a Scottish professional football manager and former player. He is the assistant manager at Northampton Town. As a player, he was a centre-back who notably played in the Premier League for Tottenham Hots ...

, and was loaned to

SBV Excelsior Excelsior Rotterdam, commonly known as Excelsior, is a Dutch professional football club based in Rotterdam, Netherlands. They play in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football from the 2022–23 season following promotion. The club was found ...

for the remainder of the 2010–11 season. Calderwood stated in April 2011 that he had received good reports about De Graaf's performances for Excelsior and confirmed that he would return to

Easter Road Easter Road is a football stadium located in the Leith area of Edinburgh, Scotland, which is the home ground of Scottish Premiership club Hibernian (Hibs). The stadium currently has an all-seated capacity of , which makes it the fifth-larges ...

for the 2011–12 season. His contract with Hibernian was terminated and he signed for

on 1 September 2011.

International career

De Graaf has represented the

Netherlands B national football team ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

five times.

Coaching career

Feyenoord

Retiring in the summer 2013, De Graaf was hired as head coach of

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the club changed to various names before settling on being called after its ...

's U14s.

Drunk driving

In March 2015, De Graaf was arrested after he was

driving under the influence Driving under the influence (DUI)—also called driving while impaired, impaired driving, driving while intoxicated (DWI), drunk driving, operating while intoxicated (OWI), operating under the influence (OUI), operating vehicle under the infl ...

of alcohol, causing an accident on the highway half past three in the night. De Graaf drove into his predecessor on the highway near

Zoetermeer Zoetermeer () is a city in the Western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The municipality covers an area of of which is water. A small village until the late 1960s, it had 6,392 inhabitants in 1950. By 2013 this had grown to 123,328 ...

with his

Opel Opel Automobile GmbH (), usually shortened to Opel, is a German automobile manufacturer which has been a subsidiary of Stellantis since 16 January 2021. It was owned by the American automaker General Motors from 1929 until 2017 and the PSA Grou ...

. The victim's car would be a total loss. De Graaf decided not to stop, but shortly afterwards he was put aside by the police. An investigation by Feyenoord later showed that De Graaf had 'slightly exceeded the maximum permitted alcohol level at the time of the incident. For that reason, he only received a 'strong warning' from the club and was not fired. He continued in his position as head coach of the club's U16s. However, shortly before the start of the 2017–18 season, De Graaf decided to leave the club to seek for a new challenge.

ADO Den Haag

A few hours after leaving Feyenoord, it was confirmed that de Graaf had been appointed assistant manager to

Alfons Groenendijk Alfons Groenendijk (; born 17 May 1964) is a Dutch former professional footballer and current assistant coach of Antalyaspor. Club career During his career, Groenendijk played for ADO Den Haag, Roda JC, Ajax, Manchester City, Sparta Rotterd ...

. In December 2019, an heated conflict took place between ADO-player,

Donny Gorter Donny Gorter (born 15 June 1988) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a left back for amateur side RKSV Halsteren. He formerly played for NAC Breda, AZ, AaB, Viborg FF and ADO Den Haag. He is the son of former footballer Edwin ...

, and de Graaf. A brawl allegedly started, after which technical manager Jeffrey van As decided to send De Graaf home. On 9 January 2020 the club confirmed, that de Graaf's contract had been terminated.

Roda

On 24 January 2023, de Graaf was hired by

until the end of the 2022–23 season.

External links

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Graaf, Edwin De 1980 births Living people Dutch footballers Dutch expatriate footballers Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Expatriate footballers in Scotland Eredivisie players Eerste Divisie players Derde Divisie players Scottish Premier League players RBC Roosendaal players Feyenoord players ADO Den Haag players NAC Breda players Hibernian F.C. players Footballers from The Hague Excelsior Rotterdam players FC Lisse players Association football midfielders Dutch football managers NAC Breda managers Eerste Divisie managers Roda JC Kerkrade managers