Erik Willaarts (born 25 August 1961 in

Woudenberg Woudenberg () is a municipality and a town in the central Netherlands, in the province of Utrecht. There are forests in the western part of the municipality. The Pyramid of Austerlitz is located in the municipality. Etymology The name Woudenber ...

) is a Dutch retired footballer.

Career

Willaarts shot to fame when he scored a remarkable 25 goals 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 1986-87 Eredivisie season, after only having joined them from a sixth-tier amateur side at the start of that season. He finished runner-up to the great

Marco van Basten Marcel "Marco" van Basten (; born 31 October 1964) is a Dutch football manager and retired professional player, who played for Ajax and AC Milan, as well as the Netherlands national team, as a striker. Widely regarded as one of the greatest pl ...

in that season's top goalscorers list which earned him a move to German Bundesliga side

Borussia Mönchengladbach Borussia Verein für Leibesübungen 1900 e. V. Mönchengladbach, commonly known as Borussia Mönchengladbach (), Mönchengladbach () or Gladbach (; abbreviated as Borussia MG, BMG), is a professional Association football, football club based in ...

. He scored a club record 5 hattricks for Utrecht. He later played for Dordrecht’90 and SVV/Dordrecht’90 and

Go Ahead Eagles Go Ahead Eagles () are a Dutch professional football club from the city of Deventer. They play in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football, having achieved promotion from the second tier Eerste Divisie in the 2020-21 season. The club's h ...

but injuries cut short his career.

Personal life

Willaarts is an uncle of

Ricky van Wolfswinkel Ricky van Wolfswinkel (; born 27 January 1989) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a striker for Eredivisie club FC Twente. He has played top-flight football in the Netherlands, Portugal, England, France, Spain and Switzerland and ...

, who played for clubs in Portugal, France en England. After retiring is as a player, Willaarts became a kitchen salesman.'Bij de eerste keukens die ik verkocht, was het alsof ik een doelpunt scoorde'
Volkskrant.nl (Archived)

References

External links

* 1961 births Living people People from Woudenberg Men's association football forwards Dutch men's footballers FC Utrecht players Go Ahead Eagles players FC Dordrecht players Borussia Mönchengladbach players Eredivisie players Bundesliga players Dutch expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in West Germany Dutch expatriate sportspeople in West Germany {{Netherlands-footy-forward-stub