Kevin Hofland (born 7 June 1979) is a Dutch professional

football manager ''Football Manager'' (also known as ''Worldwide Soccer Manager'' in North America from 2004 to 2008) is a series of football management simulation video games developed by British developer Sports Interactive and published by Sega. The game bega ...

and former

player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who ...

, and was last the head coach of

Eerste Divisie The Eerste Divisie (, en, First Division) is the second-highest tier of football in the Netherlands. It is linked with the top-level Eredivisie and with the third-level Tweede Divisie via promotion/relegation systems. It is also known as the ...

club Willem II. A

centre back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

during his career, Hofland played 15 active seasons in which he amassed

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 ...

totals of 182 games and eight goals in 10 years, namely for PSV and

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 ...

. He also represented

VfL Wolfsburg Verein für Leibesübungen Wolfsburg e. V., commonly known as VfL Wolfsburg () or Wolfsburg, is a German professional sports club based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony. The club grew out of a multi-sports club for Volkswagen workers in the city of W ...

and

AEK Larnaca AEK Larnaca FC ( el, AEK; for short Αθλητική Έvωση Κίτιον Λάρνακας , translit=''Athletiki Enosi Kition Larnakas'', "Athletic Union Kition of Larnaca") is a Cypriot professional football club based in Larnaca. The club ...

in Germany and Cyprus, respectively. Hofland became a

Dutch international The Dutch International is an open international badminton tournament held in the Netherlands. The tournament annually held in Wateringen and organized by the VELO badminton since 2000. The Dutch International is a part of the European Badminton ...

in the 2000s, earning 7

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

Club career

Fortuna

Hofland was born in

Heerlen Heerlen (; li, Heële ) is a city and a municipality in the southeast of the Netherlands. It is the third largest settlement proper in the province of Limburg. Measured as municipality, it is the fourth municipality in the province of Limburg. ...

, but grew up in

Brunssum Brunssum (; li, Broensem) is a municipality and a town in the province of Limburg in the Netherlands. The municipality of Brunssum has residents as of . Brunssum was a center of coal mining until 1973. Population centres Topography Histor ...

Limburg Limburg or Limbourg may refer to: Regions * Limburg (Belgium), a province since 1839 in the Flanders region of Belgium * Limburg (Netherlands), a province since 1839 in the south of the Netherlands * Diocese of Limburg, Roman Catholic Diocese in ...

. He joined local SV Limburgia at the age of just four, moving to the professionals with

Fortuna Sittard Fortuna Sittard (; li, Fortuna Zitterd ) is a football club in Sittard, Netherlands. The club currently plays its football in the 12,500 capacity Fortuna Sittard Stadion and features in the Eredivisie. The club was established through a merger ...

six years later. Hofland played in various positions during his youth career, mainly as a

left midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

left back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

. In 1995, he was reconverted by manager

Henk Duut Henk Duut (born 14 January 1964 in Rotterdam) is a retired Dutch footballer who played as a defender. Currently, he works as a coach at the Guangzhou Evergrande youth academy. Playing career Club Duut started his football career at amateur side ...

into a central defender, where he remained for the rest of his career. On 10 September 1997, Hofland made his

debut with Fortuna, against Sparta Rotterdam (1–1 away draw). He finished his first season with only six league appearances, but subsequently became a starter, helping the side to the 12th-place in the 1999–00 campaign.

PSV

In summer 2000, Hofland signed with national giants

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, whi ...

. Despite his young age and the heavy competition within the team, he quickly became an important player in the team's defence but, after a serious

ankle The ankle, or the talocrural region, or the jumping bone (informal) is the area where the foot and the leg meet. The ankle includes three joints: the ankle joint proper or talocrural joint, the subtalar joint, and the inferior tibiofibular join ...

injury in a 2002–03 UEFA Champions League group stage match 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 ...

, he lost his starting position to

Wilfred Bouma Wilfred Bouma (; born 15 June 1978) is a Dutch former professional footballer who played most notably for PSV Eindhoven, Aston Villa and the Netherlands national team. Club career Early career Born in Helmond, North Brabant, Bouma started his ...

. Hofland played 20 matches in 2003–04 to help the

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...

outfit finished second in the domestic championship, to

AFC Ajax Amsterdamsche Football Club Ajax (), also known as AFC Ajax, Ajax Amsterdam, or simply Ajax, is a Dutch professional football club based in Amsterdam, that plays in the , the top tier in Dutch football. Historically, Ajax (named after the l ...

. After the arrival of

Alex Alex is a given name. It can refer to a shortened version of Alexander, Alexandra, Alexis. People Multiple *Alex Brown (disambiguation), multiple people * Alex Gordon (disambiguation), multiple people *Alex Harris (disambiguation), multiple pe ...

on loan from

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

he decided to leave the club, having won a total of four major titles.

Wolfsburg

Former PSV manager

Eric Gerets Eric Maria Gerets (, born 18 May 1954) is a Belgian football manager and former player who played as a right back. He started his playing career as an amateur for his local team AA Rekem, before achieving success with Standard Liège and PSV. ...

was one of the main reasons for Hofland to join

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 ...

. He went on to play three seasons in the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

, making his debut in the competition on 7 August 2004 in a 2–1 win at

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, commonly known as Borussia Dortmund (), BVB (), or simply Dortmund (), is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its men's professional footb ...

(90 minutes played). In his last two years with the '' Wölfen'', Hofland played in 49 games combined scoring twice, but the team ranked 15th on both occasions, being the first side above the relegation zone.

Feyenoord / AEK

On 28 June 2007, Hofland signed with

, for four years. He only managed to appear in eight league games in the 2009–10 season,

winning Winning may refer to: * Victory Film * ''Winning'' (film), a 1969 movie starring Paul Newman * '' Winning: The Racing Life of Paul Newman'', a 2015 documentary by Adam Carolla and Nate Adams Music * ''Winning'', an album by Ten Foot Pole, 2022 ...

the first and only

Dutch 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 ...

of his career in 2008. In the 2010 offseason Hofland was loaned to

Cypriot First Division The Cypriot First Division ( el, Πρωτάθλημα Α΄ Κατηγορίας) is the top tier football league competition in Cyprus, run by the Cyprus Football Association. Since February 2016, it is sponsored by Cyta and is thus officially ...

club

AEK Larnaca FC AEK Larnaca FC ( el, AEK; for short Αθλητική Έvωση Κίτιον Λάρνακας , translit=''Athletiki Enosi Kition Larnakas'', "Athletic Union Kition of Larnaca") is a Cypriot professional football club based in Larnaca. The club ...

, helping the team to the fourth position in both the regular season and the second stage, whilst scoring a career-best five goals and being

team captain In team sport, captain is a title given to a member of the team. The title is frequently honorary, but in some cases the captain may have significant responsibility for strategy and teamwork while the game is in progress on the field. In eithe ...

. Hofland signed a permanent deal with AEK in July 2011. On 17 March of the following year, however, he officially retired from professional football after another injury to his ankle.

International career

On 15 November 2000, Hofland played his first international match with

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 ...

, starting in an away friendly with

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

Sevilla Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spain, Spanish autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the Guadalquivir, River Gua ...

(2–1 win). Four of his seven

for the ''Oranje'' came during the ill-fated

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 ...

qualification campaign.

Managerial career

On 22 April 2020, it was announced that Hofland had signed a two-year contract as the new head coach of

, starting from the 2020–21 season. His predecessor

Sjors Ultee Sjors Ultee (born 23 May 1987) is a Dutch football manager, who is the current manager of the Eredivisie club SC Cambuur. Managerial career Ultee was briefly an amateur footballer, but at a young age was planning on becoming a sports doctor or ...

became

technical director A technical director (TD) is usually a senior technical person within e.g. a software company, engineering firm, film studio, theatre company or television studio. This person usually has the highest level of skill within a specific technical f ...

from that moment on. He was dismissed by Fortuna on 11 November 2020, after the club only gained 3 points in its first 8 league games of the season. On 2 June 2021, he was hired by

in Germany, a club he also played for, as an assistant coach to

Mark van Bommel Mark Peter Gertruda Andreas van Bommel (born 22 April 1977) is a Dutch football coach and former player who played as a midfielder. He is currently the manager of Belgian side Royal Antwerp. His FIFA World Cup profile describes him as "a tackli ...

. On 14 March 2022, Willem II appointed Hofland as head coach on a deal until the end of the 2021–22 season, replacing

Fred Grim Johann Georg Friedrich "Fred" Grim (born 17 August 1965) is a Dutch football coach and former player who most recently worked as head coach of Willem II. A former goalkeeper, Grim represented Ajax and Cambuur during his playing career. Playin ...

. Despite the club suffering relegation at the end of the season, Hofland extended his contract until 2024. Hofland was fired in December 2022.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Fortuna *

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 ...

: Runner-up 1998–99 PSV *

: 2000–01, 2002–03 *

Johan Cruijff Shield The Johan Cruyff Shield (, ) is a football trophy in the Netherlands named after Dutch footballer Johan Cruyff, also often referred to as the Dutch Super Cup. The winner is decided in one match only, played by the winner of the national footbal ...

: 2000, 2001 *

: Runner-up 2000–01 Feyenoord *

: 2007–08, runner-up: 2009–10

Personal life

Hofland is married. He and his wife have three sons and a daughter.

References

External links

Stats at Voetbal International
* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hofland, Kevin 1979 births Living people People from Heerlen Dutch footballers Association football defenders Eredivisie players Fortuna Sittard players PSV Eindhoven players Feyenoord players Bundesliga players VfL Wolfsburg players Cypriot First Division players AEK Larnaca FC players Netherlands international footballers Netherlands under-21 international footballers Members of the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy Dutch expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Germany Expatriate footballers in Cyprus Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Germany Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Fortuna Sittard managers Willem II (football club) managers Eredivisie managers Eerste Divisie managers Dutch football managers Footballers from Limburg (Netherlands)