Marnix Smit (born 10 December 1975) is a Dutch former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who played as 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 ...

. He spent all of his professional career, which lasted ten years, with Heracles Almelo.

Playing career

Smit was born in

Almelo Almelo () is a municipality and a city in the eastern Netherlands. The main population centres in the town are Aadorp, Almelo, Mariaparochie, and Bornerbroek. Almelo has about 72,000 inhabitants in the middle of the rolling countryside of Twente, ...

and played youth football for SV Rietvogels and

FC Twente Football Club Twente () is a Dutch professional football club from the city of Enschede, sometimes known internationally as Twente Enschede. The club was formed in 1965 by the merger of 1926 Dutch champions Sportclub Enschede with Enschedese ...

. In January 1999, while playing for the reserve team of FC Twente, he was approached by

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 t ...

side Heracles Almelo, who were looking to give the club a more regional image with players who were from the area. Smit subsequently made his debut in professional football on 16 August 1999, in an away match against FC Eindhoven. During the 2004–05 season, he helped Heracles become Eerste Divisie champions. During the next season, they were able to stay in the

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 ...

comfortably (reaching 13th place), of which he said in 2014: "it felt like winning another championship". Smit subsequently played for three more seasons in the Eredivisie with Heracles, before leaving the club in the summer of 2009. He then moved to amateur side SVZW, where he played until 2012.

Style of play

Smit was known as a player with good passing ability, and as a

free kick A free kick is an action used in several codes of football to restart play with the kicking of a ball into the field of play. Association football In association football, the free kick is a method of restarting the game following an offe ...

specialist.

Personal life

While playing professional football, Smit was a

public administration Public Administration (a form of governance) or Public Policy and Administration (an academic discipline) is the implementation of public policy, administration of government establishment (public governance), management of non-profit est ...

student at the

University of Twente The University of Twente (Dutch: ''Universiteit Twente''; , abbr. ) is a public technical university located in Enschede, Netherlands. The university has been placed in the top 170 universities in the world by multiple central ranking tables. I ...

. In 2010, he obtained a

PhD degree A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

urban planning Urban planning, also known as town planning, city planning, regional planning, or rural planning, is a technical and political process that is focused on the development and design of land use and the built environment, including air, water, ...

at the same university with a dissertation entitled "Safeguarding public interests in urban planning: A study on the impact of public-private partnerships on the public interest".

Honours

Heracles Almelo *

: 2004–05

References

1975 births Living people Dutch men's footballers Men's association football defenders Heracles Almelo players Eerste Divisie players Eredivisie players Sportspeople from Almelo SV Zwaluwen Wierden players Footballers from Overijssel {{Netherlands-footy-defender-stub