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

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

n professional football

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 ...

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

parentage who last played for

Ajax Cape Town FC Cape Town Spurs F.C. (formerly known as Ajax Cape Town) is a South African professional football club based in Parow in the city of Cape Town that plays in the National First Division. Dutch Eredivisie club AFC Ajax was their parent club and ma ...

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, 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 w ...

where he played for FC Den Bosch, 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 competi ...

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 Maarten Stekelenburg (; born 22 September 1982) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Eredivisie club Ajax. Stekelenburg began his career at Ajax, playing 282 matches over nine seasons in his first spell there and win ...

and

Bogdan Lobonț Bogdan Ionuț Lobonț (; born 18 January 1978) is a Romanian professional football coach and former player who played as a goalkeeper. He amassed 86 appearances for the Romania national team between 1998 and 2018, representing the country in ...

. 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 Cape Town Spurs F.C. (formerly known as Ajax Cape Town) is a South African professional football club based in Parow in the city of Cape Town that plays in the National First Division. Dutch Eredivisie club AFC Ajax was their parent club and ...

. 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

and Dennis Gentenaar, 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. 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. Vonk made his debut for the South African national team in May 1998 and was first choice goalkeeper for the 1998 FIFA World Cup 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 ...

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 football world championship for men's national teams organized by FIFA. It was held from 31 May to 30 June 2002 at sites in South Korea an ...

. 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 th ...

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: 2005–06 Ajax Cape Town *

Telkom Knockout The Telkom Knockout was a South African professional football knockout competition which comprised the 16 teams in the South African Premier Soccer League. The competition was established in 1982 and was first known as the Datsun Challenge. Unde ...

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 The Nedbank Cup is the current name of South Africa's premier club soccer knockout tournament. While many formats have been used over the years, the tournament has always been based on the idea of giving lower league and amateur teams a chance t ...

: 2007 *

Mangaung Cup The Old Mutual Mangaung Cup is an annual pre-season association football tournament. The cup is sponsored by Old Mutual Emerging Markets, a Licensed Financial Services Provider. References External linksOfficial site {{Football in South Afr ...

: 2007, 2008 Heerenveen * KNVB Cup: 2008–09

International

South Africa * Africa Cup of Nations 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 S ...

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