Michel Breuer (, born 25 May 1980 in Gouda) 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 ...

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, during his career, played in his home country for

Excelsior Excelsior, a Latin comparative word often translated as "ever upward" or "even higher", may refer to: Arts and entertainment Literature and poetry * "Excelsior" (Longfellow), an 1841 poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow * ''Excelsior'' (Macedo ...

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 ...

, NEC Nijmegen and Sparta Rotterdam. His father, Martin Breuer, played professionally for FC Den Bosch in the 1980s.

Club career

Youth career

Michel Breuer started to play football at his local football club in Haastrecht, at the age of 11. He moved to GCFC Olympia where he stayed for a year before joined the Youth academy of

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"Ne ...

side

SBV Excelsior

Breuer played his professional game for Excelsior on 3 May 1999, against FC Dordrecht in a 2-1 loss. Following this, Breuer broke into the first team squad week after week. He made over 100 league appearances for Excelsior.

SC Heereveen

Breuer had previously worked at a local secondary school in Heerenveen as a security guard. In summer 2004 he moved to

. He became captain of the Heerenveen team at the start of the

2008–09 Eredivisie The Eredivisie 2008–09 is the 53rd season of Eredivisie since its establishment in 1955. PSV were the reigning champions. The season began on 29 August 2008 with a game between Vitesse Arnhem and FC Groningen and ended on 10 May 2009. A total ...

season. In July 2012 Breuer left Heerenveen after eight years and 300 matches in all competitions and signed with

NEC is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. The company was known as the Nippon Electric Company, Limited, before rebranding in 1983 as NEC. It provides IT and network soluti ...

from Nijmegen.

NEC Nijmegen

However, the defender played less than 40 games over the course of two years and he signed on loan for Sparta Rotterdam in 2014.

Sparta Rotterdam

After his contract had expired with NEC in June 2014, he signed a permanent deal to return to Rotterdam for a third time. His no-nonsense, wholehearted playing style won him a cult-hero status with their supporters.Breuer: 'Ik ga niet voor lul lopen'
- Voetbal International This meant he earned himself the captaincy and after one promotion, a cup win and over 550 games in all competitions, Breuer retired from the professional game. However, it was slightly overshadowed by the fact Sparta were relegated back to the

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 ...

via the playoffs.

Honours

Club

;SC Heerenveen * KNVB Cup: 2009 ;Sparta Rotterdam *

: 2015-16

References

External links

Voetbal International profile
1980 births Living people Footballers from Gouda, South Holland Association football central defenders Dutch footballers Excelsior Rotterdam players SC Heerenveen players NEC Nijmegen players Sparta Rotterdam players Eerste Divisie players Eredivisie players {{Netherlands-footy-defender-stub