Johannes Adrianus "Hans" Vonk (; born 30 January 1970) is a retired

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

n 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'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

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 ...

of Dutch parentage who last played for Ajax Cape Town FC.

Career

Netherlands

Vonk began his professional career at

RKC Waalwijk RKC Waalwijk () is a Dutch professional football club based in Waalwijk, that is currently competing in the Eredivisie. Its name is derived from 'Rooms Katholieke Combinatie' ('Roman Catholic Combination' in Dutch) and was established as a merger ...

where he made 25 appearances in three seasons. He became first-choice goal keeper for

FC Wageningen FC Wageningen (before 1978 ''Wageningen'' and ''WVV Wageningen'') was a Dutch football club which was founded on 27 August 1911., The club played its matches in the Wageningse Berg stadium. Its first success came on 18 June 1939, when the team w ...

, but was forced to leave after just one season, when the club went bankrupt and ceased to exist. Vonk returned to

North Brabant North Brabant ( nl, Noord-Brabant ; Brabantian: ; ), also unofficially called Brabant, is a province in the south of the Netherlands. It borders the provinces of South Holland and Gelderland to the north, Limburg to the east, Zeeland to the we ...

where he played for

FC Den Bosch FC Den Bosch () is a football club from 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands. They were founded 18 August 1965, as FC Den Bosch/BVV. They are the successor of BVV (1906) and Wilhelmina (1890). Their stadium is called 'De Vliert', an 8,500 all-seater. R ...

, before joining his first club RKC, this time as their first keeper. His breakthrough came with his transfer to

sc Heerenveen Sportclub Heerenveen (; West Frisian: Sportklub It Hearrenfean) is a Dutch football club from Heerenveen. They currently play in the Eredivisie, the top level of football in the Netherlands. History Sportclub Heerenveen was founded on 20 July ...

, a club on the rise. They reached a domestic cup final in 1996–97 and finished second in the league in 1999–2000, resulting in

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

football the next season. After eight years, Vonk was approaching the autumn of his career. He left Heerenveen to become third-choice goalkeeper for Ajax behind Maarten Stekelenburg and Bogdan Lobonț. In a surprising turn of events, Vonk managed to play 26 games in two seasons.

First stint at South Africa

After 18 years of professional playing Vonk left the Netherlands to return to his country of birth, and played 2 seasons for Ajax' satellite club, Ajax Cape Town. He was terminated from his contract after a conflict with the coach of Ajax Cape Town, which made him a free agent.

Return to Netherlands

Ajax signed him due to injury problems with their current goalkeepers Maarten Stekelenburg and

Dennis Gentenaar Dennis Gentenaar () (born 30 September 1975) is a Dutch former footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Besides the Netherlands, he has played in Germany. Career Gentenaar was born in Nijmegen. Coming from the amateur side ZOW, he made his prof ...

, leaving the Amsterdam club with only one professional goalkeeper left:

Kenneth Vermeer Kenneth Harold Vermeer (born 10 January 1986) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Major League Soccer club FC Cincinnati. A product of the Ajax Youth Academy, Vermeer has played for Jong Ajax, Willem II on loan, ...

. In the winter transfer window of 2008–09, with the regular Ajax keepers back in shape, he once again moved to an old club, Heerenveen to become second-choice goalkeeper behind

Brian Vandenbussche Brian Vandenbussche (; born 24 September 1981) is a Belgian former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He formerly played for Sparta Rotterdam and ten seasons for Heerenveen. Career At the end of February 2019 it was confirmed, ...

. He soon took over Vandenbussche's spot and played several league games, and another cup final, which Heerenveen won.

Second spell at Ajax Cape Town

Continuing his tour amongst clubs he'd already played for, Vonk once again moved, this time back to his homeland South Africa, to play for Ajax Cape Town, citing family reasons, as well as sensing an opportunity to make the Bafana Bafana World Cup 2010 squad.

International

Vonk played once for the

Netherlands national under-20 football team The Netherlands national under-19 football team represents the Netherlands at this age level and is governed by the Koninklijke Nederlandse Voetbalbond — KNVB. They compete in international competitions like the UEFA European Under-19 Champions ...

in a 3–1 win against Denmark. He played the second half coming on as a substitute for

John Karelse John Karelse (born 17 May 1970 in Wemeldinge) is a retired Dutch football goalkeeper and unemployed manager after being fired by NAC Breda. He played for AGOVV Apeldoorn in his native country for a few years before moving to NAC Breda. It was he ...

. Vonk made his debut for the

South African national team South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz' ...

in May 1998 and was first choice goalkeeper for the

1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for the ...

as well as an unused substitute for

Andre Arendse Andre Leander Arendse (born 27 June 1967) is a South African former soccer player who played as a goalkeeper. He now works as an assistant and goalkeeper coach for Supersport United and has also been a co-presenter with SuperSport. Playing c ...

at the

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

. Vonk announced his retirement for Bafana Bafana in 2005 after South Africa failed to qualify for the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, after earning a total of 43 caps.

Honours

Club

Ajax *

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 ...

: 2005–06 Ajax Cape Town * Telkom Knockout:

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

* Nedbank Cup: 2007 * Mangaung Cup: 2007, 2008 Heerenveen *

: 2008–09

International

South Africa *

Africa Cup of Nations The Africa Cup of Nations referred to as AFCON (french: Coupe d'Afrique des Nations, sometimes referred to as CAN, or TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons), and sometimes as African Cup of Nations, is the main internati ...

third place:

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

References

External links

Vonk signs for Ajax Cape Town from bbc.co.uk
*

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vonk, Hans 1970 births Living people South African soccer players Men's association football goalkeepers RKC Waalwijk players FC Wageningen players FC Den Bosch players Netherlands men's youth international footballers Directors of football clubs in the Netherlands SC Heerenveen players AFC Ajax players Cape Town Spurs F.C. players Eredivisie players Eerste Divisie players South Africa men's international soccer players 1998 FIFA World Cup players 2002 FIFA World Cup players 2000 African Cup of Nations players 2002 African Cup of Nations players South African expatriate soccer players Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands South African expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands South African people of Dutch descent Afrikaner people People from Alberton, Gauteng Soccer players from Gauteng SC Heerenveen non-playing staff