Ruud Swinkels (born 23 February 1987) 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 le ...

who plays as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

for Esperanza Pelt in the Belgian fifth-tier

Belgian Division 3 The Belgian Division 3, commonly referred to as simply Derde Afdeling (in Dutch) or Division 3 (in French) is the fifth-highest division in the Belgian football league system, one level below the Belgian Division 2. It was created by the Royal Be ...

. He formerly played for

FC Eindhoven FC Eindhoven is a Dutch football club based in Eindhoven, North Brabant. They currently play in the Eerste Divisie (second tier of Dutch football), and are one of two professional clubs which are based in the city of Eindhoven, the other one bei ...

, PSV,

SC Cambuur SC Cambuur, also known as Cambuur Leeuwarden, or simply Cambuur, () is a Dutch football club from the city of Leeuwarden formed on 19 June 1964. They currently play in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football, after winning the 2020–21 Ee ...

, Willem II and Witgoor Sport Dessel.

Career

Swinkels started his professional career with

in the Dutch

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 the ...

, where he was the first goalkeeper for three years. In the summer of 2012, Swinkels moved to PSV, where he was the third goalkeeper. He was released on 31 December 2012. In June 2013, Swinkels signed for two seasons with

, which promoted to 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 ...

. However, Cambuur and Swinkels agreed to dissolve his contract with the club on 12 August 2013. Swinkels lost the competition of fellow goalkeeper Leonard Nienhuis and refused to spend the season as the second goalkeeper. On 30 July 2021, he joined Belgian club Esperanza Pelt.

Honours

Club

Willem II *

(1): 2013–14

References

External links

* 1987 births People from Oisterwijk Living people Dutch men's footballers Men's association football goalkeepers FC Eindhoven players PSV Eindhoven players SC Cambuur players Willem II (football club) players Eredivisie players Eerste Divisie players Dutch expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Footballers from North Brabant {{Netherlands-footy-goalkeeper-stub