Owen Wijndal (born 28 November 1999) is a Dutch 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 ...

who plays as a

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 ...

for

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 ...

club

Ajax Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * ''Ajax'' (play), by the ancient Gree ...

and the Netherlands national team.

Club career

AZ

Born in

Paramaribo Paramaribo (; ; nicknamed Par'bo) is the capital and largest city of Suriname, located on the banks of the Suriname River in the Paramaribo District. Paramaribo has a population of roughly 241,000 people (2012 census), almost half of Suriname' ...

, Wijndal joined the AZ youth academy at the age of 10, having formerly played for local sides ZVV Zaandijk and HFC Haarlem. He was promoted to the second team for the 2016–17 season playing in the third-tier

Tweede Divisie Tweede Divisie ( en, Second Division) is the highest amateur (and historically the lowest professional) football league in the Netherlands. It was established in 1956, together with the Eredivisie and the Eerste Divisie. Between 1956 and 1960 and b ...

. On 4 February 2017, Wijndal made his first-team debut for AZ, starting in a 2–4 home loss to

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, w ...

in the

due to injuries to regular starter

Ridgeciano Haps Ridgeciano Delano Leandro Haps (born 12 June 1993) is a professional footballer who plays as a left-back for Italian club Genoa on loan from Venezia. Born in the Netherlands, he plays for the Suriname national team. Club career Born in Utrech ...

and backup Thomas Ouwejan. The end of the 2016–17 season saw AZ end on sixth place and thereby qualifying for domestic play-offs for participation in the

third qualifying round Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (disambiguation) * Third Avenue (disambiguation) * Hig ...

of the

Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

the following season. They eventually missed out on European football, losing to FC Utrecht on penalties after two legs. That season, Wijndal also made 24 league appearances for the reserves in the third division, helping them win the third division title and thereby reach promotion to the second tier of Dutch football. During the 2017–18 season, Wijndal featured in the first-team side more regularly, making seven league appearances. For the newly promoted reserves, he made 16 appearances and scoring two goals. At the end of the season he signed a new five-year deal with AZ on 22 June 2018. After struggling to break into the first team during the 2018–19 season, he began playing as a regular starter during the 2019–20 season. On 25 July 2019, Wijndal also made his debut in the

in a 0–0 home draw against

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

club

BK Häcken Bollklubben Häcken, more commonly known as BK Häcken or simply Häcken (), is a Swedish professional football club based in Gothenburg. It currently plays in Allsvenskan, the top tier of Swedish football. Formed on 2 August 1940, Häcken has p ...

. He scored his first professional goal on 7 March 2020 in a 4–0 league win over ADO Den Haag. Ahead of the 2021–22 season, Wijndal was made captain of AZ following the departure of

Teun Koopmeiners Teun Koopmeiners (; born 28 February 1998) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for club Atalanta B.C., Atalanta and the Netherlands national football team, Netherlands national team. Having represented the Netherlands ...

Ajax

On 12 July 2022, he joined

club

from AZ on a five-year deal for €10 million.

International career

Born in the Suriname to a

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 ...

father and Surinamese mother. Wijndal is eligible for both Suriname and

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 ...

. He has represented the Netherlands at every age group from under-15 to under-21 level. Between 2015 and 2016, he made 12 appearances for the Netherlands under-17 team, and participated in the

2016 UEFA European Under-17 Championship The 2016 UEFA European Under-17 Championship was the 15th edition of the UEFA European Under-17 Championship (34th edition if the Under-16 era is included), the annual European international youth football championship contested by the men's under- ...

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of t ...

where he made five appearances. The Dutch team made the semi-finals, where they stranded against

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

. Wijndal was a regular starter for the Netherlands under-19 team between 2016 and 2018, making 16 appearances for the team. In the same period, he also appeared for the Netherlands under-20 team. On 31 May 2019, Wijndal made his debut for the Netherlands under-21 team in a friendly match against

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

Doetinchem Doetinchem (; Low Saxon: ) is a city and municipality in the east of the Netherlands. It is situated along the Oude IJssel (Old IJssel) river in a part of the province of Gelderland called the Achterhoek. The municipality had a population of in ...

that ended in a 5–1 win for the Dutch. Wijndal was called up to the senior Netherlands squad for the

UEFA Nations League The UEFA Nations League is a biennial international football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the member associations of UEFA, the sport's European governing body. The first tournament began in September 2018. The ...

matches against

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

and

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

in September 2020. On 7 October 2020, he made his first appearance for the Netherlands in the friendly match against

which Mexico won 1–0.

Career statistics

Club

International

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wijndal, Owen 1999 births Living people Sportspeople from Paramaribo Dutch footballers Association football defenders Netherlands international footballers Netherlands under-21 international footballers Netherlands youth international footballers Dutch sportspeople of Surinamese descent Eredivisie players Eerste Divisie players HFC Haarlem players AZ Alkmaar players Jong AZ players AFC Ajax players UEFA Euro 2020 players Footballers from Zaanstad