Jan van Roessel (7 April 19253 June 2011) was a Dutch football player.

Club career

A big striker and fierce header of the ball, Van Roessel was picked up at LONGA by local rivals Willem II in

Tilburg Tilburg () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, in the southern province of North Brabant. With a population of 222,601 (1 July 2021), it is the second-largest city or municipality in North Brabant after Eindhoven and the seventh-larg ...

in 1951, and won the 1952 Dutch (then still amateur) league title and in 1955 the first professional

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 ...

championship. He formed a potent strike force with

Toon Becx Antonius Wilhelmus Maria "Toon" Becx (21 April 1920 − 26 November 2013) was a Dutch people, Dutch Association football, footballer who played for Willem II (football club), Willem II, primarily as a Left winger (association football), left wing ...

and

Piet de Jong Petrus Jozef Sietse "Piet" de Jong (; 3 April 1915 – 27 July 2016) was a Dutch politician of the defunct Catholic People's Party (KVP) now the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA) party and naval officer who served as Prime Minister of the Neth ...

and was reportedly linked to neighbours

PSV Eindhoven Philips Sport Vereniging (; en, Philips Sports Association ), abbreviated as PSV and internationally known as PSV Eindhoven (), is a Dutch sports club from Eindhoven, Netherlands. It is best known for its professional football department, w ...

and some Italian clubs, most notably

Sampdoria Unione Calcio Sampdoria, commonly referred to as Sampdoria (), is an Italian professional football club based in Genoa. The club was formed in 1946 from the merger of two existing sports clubs whose roots can be traced back to the 1890s, ...

and

Torino Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. T ...

, but Czech coach

František Fadrhonc František Fadrhonc (18 December 1914 – 9 October 1981) was a Czech football manager, who was born in Nymburk, Austria-Hungary, present day Czech Republic. He coached many teams in Europe, mostly in the Netherlands. After winning the Dutch cham ...

convinced him to stay in Tilburg. Van Roessel was named Player of the Century of Willem II.

International career

Van Roessel made his debut for the

Netherlands ) , 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 ...

in a June 1949 friendly match against

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

and had earned a total of 6 caps, scoring 5 goals. He represented his country at the 1952 Summer Olympics, where he scored against

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. His final international was a May 1955 friendly match against

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

International goals

:''Scores and results list Holland's goal tally first.''

Personal life and death

Van Roessel married Louisa van Laarhoven in 1956 and the couple had one daughter, who died of

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ...

in 1988. In his later years, he suffered from Alzheimer's disease. Van Roessel died on 3 June 2011 of a lung disease at the age of 86.Jan van Roessel (86) overleden
- NOS

Honours

* Netherlands Football League Championship: 2 :: 1951–52, 1954–55

References

External links

*
Obituary
- Sportkwadraat
Profile
- Voetbal Legends {{DEFAULTSORT:Roessel, Jan van 1925 births 2011 deaths Footballers from Tilburg Association football forwards Dutch footballers Netherlands international footballers Footballers at the 1952 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers of the Netherlands Willem II (football club) players Eredivisie players People with Alzheimer's disease Respiratory disease deaths in the Netherlands Deaths from lung disease