Emiel van Eijkeren (born 27 July 1967) 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

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

Career

Van Eijkeren 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 ...

, but early on him and his family moved to Zaandam, where his father went to work for a large company, Bruynzeel. He began playing football in Zaandam with local amateur club ZVV. In 1990, he moved to

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 ...

, then still named FC Den Haag, managed by Co Adriaanse. He had been on a trial with AZ prior to signing with Den Haag, which proved unsuccessful. He made his debut on 28 August 1990 against

FC Twente Football Club Twente () is a Dutch professional football club from the city of Enschede, sometimes known internationally as Twente Enschede. The club was formed in 1965 by the merger of 1926 Dutch champions Sportclub Enschede with Enschedese Bo ...

. He played there for four seasons, two of which in the

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 ...

. Van Eijkeren made 114 appearances and 39 goals during his first stint in Den Haag. He then played four seasons for

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 ...

, recording 114 league matches and 32 goals. One of these goals came in the relegation play-offs in 1997 against

VVV-Venlo VVV-Venlo (, ''VVV'' stands for ''Venlose Voetbal Vereniging'' meaning "Venlo Football Club") is a Dutch football club from Venlo, a city on the border with Germany. They play in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of Dutch football, following ...

, a penalty-kick securing a 3–2 win which heeded NEC from relegation from the Eredivisie, and earned Van Eijkeren the nickname "The Saviour" among fans of the club. His performances earned him a transfer to

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 February 1998, joining the club alongside

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 Rotterda ...

. Ahead of the 1999–2000 season, he returned to ADO Den Haag and played three more seasons, in which he made 58 league appearances and scored 23 goals. His contract was terminated by mutual consent in April 2002.

After football

After his professional football career, Van Eijkeren began working as a gym teacher at Trias VMBO in

Krommenie Krommenie () is a town in the Dutch province of North Holland. It is a part of the municipality of Zaanstad, and lies about 15 km northeast of Haarlem. History Krommenie developed in the 11th century as a peat excavation settlement. In 170 ...

. He since became dean and mentor at Zaanlands Lyceum. He also coached amateur club Hercules Zaandam between 2014 and 2018 in the Derde Klasse.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Eijkeren, Emiel van 1967 births Living people Footballers from The Hague Association football forwards Dutch footballers ADO Den Haag players NEC Nijmegen players FC Utrecht players Eredivisie players Eerste Divisie players