Romeo Eugene Zondervan (born 4 March 1959) is a Dutch 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 ...

who played as a

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 ...

. He played his early football with

FC Den Haag Alles Door Oefening Den Haag (), commonly known by the abbreviated name ADO Den Haag (), is a Dutch association football club from the city of The Hague. They play in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of Dutch football, following relegation ...

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 ...

before joining

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pl ...

, for whom he made 84 appearances. He signed for

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. They play in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in 1878 but did not turn profession ...

in 1984 for £70,000 and went on to make 274 appearances for the club. Then he moved to Dutch club NAC Breda in 1992 and played there until 1995, and then finished his playing career. He made one appearance for the Netherlands national team.

Club career

Dutch league clubs

Zondervan was 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' ...

in Suriname. He started his professional football career in The Netherlands with ADO Den Haag before moving to

West Bromwich Albion

Zondervan moved to England and joined former

team mate Martin Jol at

in March 1982 making his debut as a substitute against

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

. His biggest game was in his first season in the

FA Cup semi-final The FA Cup semi-finals are played to determine which teams will contest the FA Cup Final. They are the penultimate phase of the FA Cup, the oldest football tournament in the world. Location The semi-finals have always been contested at neutr ...

against

Queens Park Rangers Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England, which compete in the . After a nomadic early existence, they have played home matches at Loftus Ro ...

which they lost 1–0.

Ipswich Town

Zondervan was "discarded" by West Bromwich Albion's new manager,

Johnny Giles Michael John Giles (born 6 November 1940) is an Irish former association football player and manager best remembered for his time as a midfielder with Leeds United in the 1960s and 1970s. After retiring from management in 1985, Giles served as t ...

, and signed for Ipswich for £70,000, making his debut against

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, and ...

in March 1984. Ipswich were relegated to the

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

in 1986 and Zondervan was named Ipswich Town F.C. Player of the Year the following year in 1987. During the 1988–89 and 1989–90 seasons, he captained the club. His last season at Ipswich saw them win promotion to the newly formed

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 Fo ...

in 1992. In an interview with ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'', Zondervan stated that "''my football days at Ipswich were the best in my career''".

Return to the Netherlands

After winning promotion with Ipswich, Zondervan was offered a five-year contract with NAC Breda where he later retired.

International career

Zondervan made 15 appearances for the Dutch Under-21s. He was selected to play for his

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, while ...

as part of the Dutch qualification campaign for

UEFA Euro 1980 The 1980 UEFA European Football Championship finals tournament was held in Italy. This was the sixth UEFA European Championship, which is held every four years and endorsed by UEFA. It was the first European Championship to feature eight teams i ...

. His only appearance in the full team came in a 3–0 victory over

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...

in February 1981.

Later career

After retiring as a player, Zondervan went on to scout in Europe for Ipswich under

George Burley George Elder Burley (born 3 June 1956) is a Scottish former football player and manager. He had a professional career spanning 21 years as a player, making 628 league appearances and earning 11 Scotland caps. His most successful spell came whi ...

. He was also the

agent Agent may refer to: Espionage, investigation, and law *, spies or intelligence officers * Law of agency, laws involving a person authorized to act on behalf of another ** Agent of record, a person with a contractual agreement with an insuranc ...

for

Collins John Collins John (born 17 October 1985) is a professional footballer who plays as a forward for Buitenboys. Born in Liberia, he has represented the Netherlands national team. John notably played in the Premier League for Fulham where he notched ...

, whose sale from FC Twente to Fulham came under scrutiny from the

Royal Dutch Football Association The Royal Dutch Football Association (, ; KNVB ) is the governing body of football in the Netherlands. It organises the main Dutch football leagues (Eredivisie and Eerste Divisie), the amateur leagues, the KNVB Cup, and the Dutch Netherlands nati ...

in 2004. It was believed that Zondervan was not correctly registered with FIFA, but it was later determined that Zondervan was not involved in the transfer.

Personal life

Zondervan is a fully qualified pilot. He was arrested at British customs after they discovered a friend of his was carrying pornographic material from the Netherlands. British tabloid, '' The Sun'', referred to him as the "''Porno King''". He has three sons.

Honours

Ipswich Town *

Football League Second Division The Football League Second Division was the second level division in the English football league system between 1892 and 1992. Following the foundation of the FA Premier League, the Football League divisions were renumbered and the third t ...

: 1991–92 Individual * Ipswich Town Player of the Year: 1986–87

References

External links

Romeo Zondervan at Pride of Anglia
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zondervan, Romeo Living people 1959 births Surinamese emigrants to the Netherlands Sportspeople from Paramaribo Dutch footballers Association football midfielders Netherlands international footballers UEFA Euro 1980 players Eredivisie players English Football League players West Bromwich Albion F.C. players Ipswich Town F.C. players ADO Den Haag players FC Twente players NAC Breda players Dutch expatriate footballers Dutch expatriate sportspeople in England Expatriate footballers in England