Michel Vonk (born 28 October 1968) is a Dutch football manager and former professional

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 ...

As a player, he was a defender from 1986 to 2001, notably playing in the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

for

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

. He also played in England for

Oldham Athletic Oldham Athletic Association Football Club is a professional football club in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. The history of Oldham Athletic ...

and

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history of cutlery production. The team have played home games at ...

, as well as also playing in his native land for AZ, SVV Dordrecht and

MVV Maastricht Maatschappelijke Voetbal Vereniging Maastricht (), commonly known as MVV Maastricht (, ) or simply as MVV, is a Dutch professional football club from the city of Maastricht. Founded on 2 April 1902, MVV Maastricht currently compete in the Eerst ...

. Since 2011 Vonk has managed several times in Dutch football with stints at both Sparta Rotterdam and

Telstar Telstar is the name of various communications satellites. The first two Telstar satellites were experimental and nearly identical. Telstar 1 launched on top of a Thor-Delta rocket on July 10, 1962. It successfully relayed through space the fi ...

Playing career

Vonk played as centre back and began his career in 1986 with AZ '67 for whom he played 111 times and scored 8 goals. He transferred to SVV Dordrecht in 1991 and played 51 times for the team scoring 1 goal. Then in 1992 he transferred to

Manchester City F.C. Manchester City Football Club are an England, English association football, football club based in Manchester that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English football. Fo ...

where he enjoyed three successful seasons playing a total of 91 league games for the club, scoring 4 times. He had been brought in by then City manager

Peter Reid Peter Reid (born 20 June 1956) is an English football manager, pundit and former player. A defensive midfielder in his playing days, Reid enjoyed a long and successful career. He built his reputation as one of England's brightest midfield tale ...

costing £500,000. He formed a successful partnership with

Keith Curle Keith Curle (born 14 November 1963) is an English football manager and former professional player, who is the current manager of League Two side Hartlepool United. He played as a centre back from 1981 to 2005, notably in the Premier League for ...

in the centre of the City defence. In 1995, he criticised then City manager

Brian Horton Brian "Nobby" Horton (born 4 February 1949) is an English former footballer and manager. He spent 16 years as a professional player and 22 years as a manager, making 689 appearances and managing 1,098 matches. In addition to this he spent four ...

in the

News of the World The ''News of the World'' was a weekly national Tabloid journalism#Red tops, red top Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published every Sunday in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the world's highest-selling En ...

which earned him a suspension and being fined 2 weeks wages. Subsequent City manager Alan Ball sold the player to

for £350,000, where he played 5 times and scored 1 goal. He was then transferred to

where he played until 1998. He played 37 times for the Blades scoring twice. His time with the club was hampered by injuries. In 1998, he returned to the Netherlands and began playing for

. His injuries continued however and he was released by the club when they were relegated.

Coaching career

After retiring from active football, Vonk became a youth coach for PSV. He successively served as assistant to

Wiljan Vloet Wiljan Vloet (born 10 September 1962) is a Dutch association football, football Manager (association football), manager, executive and former Football player, player. He serves as the sporting director of FC Den Bosch. Playing career As a footba ...

at Sparta Rotterdam for two seasons. In April 2011 Vonk agreed to return at Sparta as head coach for the 2011–12 season under supervision of newly appointed technical director Wiljan Vloet, who accepted to return at the Rotterdam club after two seasons as trainer of

NEC Nijmegen NEC Nijmegen (''Nijmegen Eendracht Combinatie''), commonly known as NEC (), is a professional Dutch association football club based in Nijmegen. The club currently competes in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football, following promotion fr ...

.He was fired after one season. In July 2014, he started working for

. He later worked as assistant manager of

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 ...

under Jurgen Streppel, but left the club in 2019 when his contract was not renewed.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vonk, Michel 1968 births Living people Sportspeople from Alkmaar Association football defenders Expatriate footballers in England Dutch footballers Dutch expatriate footballers Manchester City F.C. players Oldham Athletic A.F.C. players Sheffield United F.C. players Eredivisie players Eerste Divisie players Premier League players English Football League players Dutch football managers Sparta Rotterdam managers SC Telstar managers SC Heerenveen non-playing staff AZ Alkmaar non-playing staff Footballers from North Holland