John Karelse (born 17 May 1970 in

Wemeldinge Wemeldinge is the oldest village in the Zuid-Beveland area of the Dutch province of Zeeland. It is located in the municipality of Kapelle, about 4 km northwest of Yerseke. It is located within the Eastern Scheldt national park. History T ...

) is a retired

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 ...

football goalkeeper 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 ca ...

and unemployed manager after being fired by

NAC Breda NAC Breda (), often simply known as NAC, is a Dutch professional football club, based in Breda, Netherlands. NAC Breda play in the Rat Verlegh Stadium, named after their most important player, Antoon 'Rat' Verlegh. They play in the Eerste Divi ...

. He played for

AGOVV Apeldoorn AGOVV () is a Dutch association football club based in Apeldoorn. It was established on 25 February 1913. The club played in professional football from 1954 to 1971 and from 2003 to 2013. AGOVV's male first squad plays in 2022–23 in the Tweede ...

in his native country for a few years before moving to NAC Breda. It was here that he caught the attention of then

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East End ...

manager

Ruud Gullit Ruud Gullit (; born Rudi Dil; 1 September 1962) is a Dutch footballer and subsequent manager who played professionally in the 1980s and 1990s as a defender, midfielder or forward. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all t ...

, who signed him for an undisclosed fee (thought to be in the region of £800,000) in August 1999. His time at Newcastle was largely unsuccessful, as he endured a terrible start to his career at the club, losing 4-2 to

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

on his debut. He found his first team opportunities very limited after this, not helped by the competition for his position being very high with the reliable

Shay Given Séamus John James Given (born 20 April 1976) is an Irish former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. With 134 caps, he is the second-highest capped Republic of Ireland player. Given started his career at Celtic, however he neve ...

and

Steve Harper Stephen Alan Harper (born 14 March 1975) is an English former professional footballer, and currently first team coach for Newcastle United and goalkeeping coach for the Northern Ireland national team. He is best known for his time playing at ...

also at the club.

Tony Caig Antony Caig (born 11 April 1974) is an English football coach and former player, who played as a goalkeeper. He is currently the Head of Academy Goalkeeping for Premier League Club Newcastle United. Playing career Caig made his name playing ...

was also ahead of him as third choice backup. He did, however, manage to keep a clean sheet against

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

Highbury Highbury is a district in North London and part of the London Borough of Islington in Greater London that was owned by Ranulf brother of Ilger and included all the areas north and east of Canonbury and Holloway Roads. The manor house was situ ...

, in what proved to be his third and final game for the club. A proposed move to

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

broke down in 2000, but a year later a move back to the Netherlands seemed likely, with

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the club changed to various names before settling on being called after its ...

rumoured to be interested. No move materialised and the former Dutch Under-21 international had no choice but to stay in the Newcastle reserves. He retired in 2004 after one final season at AGOVV Apeldoorn. In 2006, he became interim manager of NAC and led the team successfully through the relegation play-offs. Karelse became manager of NAC in 2011.

References

Profile
1970 births Living people Dutch footballers Expatriate footballers in England Association football goalkeepers Dutch expatriate footballers Eredivisie players NAC Breda players AGOVV Apeldoorn players Newcastle United F.C. players Premier League players NAC Breda managers People from Kapelle Dutch football managers Footballers from Zeeland Dutch expatriate sportspeople in England {{netherlands-footy-goalkeeper-stub