Sean Desmond Klaiber (born 31 July 1994) is a 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

right-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

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city and a List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, pro ...

and the Suriname national team. He formerly played for

FC Dordrecht Football Club Dordrecht, or simply FC Dordrecht () is a professional Dutch association football club based in Dordrecht, a city in the Western Netherlands, located in the province of South Holland. They currently compete in the Eerste Divisie, ...

and

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 Greek ...

, and represented his birth country of the Netherlands at youth international level.

Club career

Utrecht

Born in

Nieuwegein Nieuwegein () is a municipality and city in the Netherlands, Dutch province of Utrecht (province), Utrecht. It is bordered on the north by the city of Utrecht (city), Utrecht, the provincial capital. It is separated from Vianen to the south by the ...

, Klaiber played in the academies of VVIJ,

, JSV Nieuwegein and SV Geinoord before joining the

FC Utrecht Football Club Utrecht () is a Dutch professional football club based in Utrecht. The club competes in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football, and plays its home matches at the Stadion Galgenwaard. The club was formed in 1970 as a merge ...

youth academy in 2007. On 29 October 2013, Klaiber made his first appearance for the Utrecht first team in an official match. That day, the ''Domstedelingen'' played in

Werkendam Werkendam () is a town and a former municipality in the southern Netherlands. The municipality, part of Land van Heusden en Altena, contained a large part of De Biesbosch area as is located in the province of North Brabant. On January 1sth 2019 it ...

against

Kozakken Boys Kozakken Boys () is a Dutch football club based in Werkendam. It competes in Tweede Divisie, the highest amateur league of Dutch football. Formed as Steeds Voorwaarts Werkendam (SVW) in 1932, it adopted its current name in 1935. Kozakken Boys ...

in the

KNVB Cup The KNVB Beker (; en, KNVB Cup), branded as the TOTO KNVB Beker for sponsorship reasons, is a competition in the Netherlands organized by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) since 1898. It was based on the format of the English FA Cup. Ou ...

; a match which ended in a 1–2 away win after

extra time Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played onl ...

in which Klaiber made an appearance as a 116th minute substitute for Kai Heerings. He made his debut in the

some months later, on 23 February 2014, as a starter in a 1–0 win over

FC Groningen Football Club Groningen () is a Dutch professional association football club based in Groningen, province of Groningen. Founded on 16 June 1971 as the successor of GVAV, the team compete in the Eredivisie, the highest tier of Dutch football. G ...

. During the second half of the 2014–15 season, Klaiber was loaned out to

who also competed in the Eredivisie. He made 12 appearances for the side in which he scored two goals, as they suffered relegation. In the 2016–17 season, after returning from Dordrecht, Klaiber made seven appearances for the reserves,

Jong FC Utrecht Jong FC Utrecht (U23) is a Dutch football team, based in Utrecht. It is the reserve team of FC Utrecht and plays in the Eerste Divisie since the 2016–17 Eerste Divisie season. Current squad On loan Staff ...

. The following season, he grew out to become a regular starter for the first team. He scored his first goal for Utrecht on 20 July 2017 in a UEFA Europa League qualifier against Maltese side

Valletta Valletta (, mt, il-Belt Valletta, ) is an Local councils of Malta, administrative unit and capital city, capital of Malta. Located on the Malta (island), main island, between Marsamxett Harbour to the west and the Grand Harbour to the east, i ...

, which ended in a 3–1 win.

Ajax

On 1 October 2020, Klaiber signed a three-year contract with

, with an optional additional year. The move reunited him with his former Utrecht coach

Erik ten Hag Erik ten Hag (, born 2 February 1970) is a Dutch professional football coach and former player, who is currently the manager of Premier League club Manchester United. As a player, Ten Hag played as a centre-back in the Dutch league for 13 years ...

, as he was set to replace

Sergiño Dest Sergiño Gianni Dest (born November 3, 2000) is a professional soccer player who plays as a full-back for club AC Milan, on loan from Barcelona. Born in the Netherlands to a Dutch mother and Surinamese-American father, he represents the Unit ...

at right back, after the latter had joined

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça (), is a professional football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish football. Founded ...

some days earlier. On 18 October, he made his debut for Ajax as a substitute in the home match against

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 ...

. His first start for the club came on 24 October in a 0–13 win over VVV Venlo; an Eredivisie record. During the season, Klaiber was set to compete with

Noussair Mazraoui Noussair Mazraoui ( ar, نُصَيْر مَزرَاوِيّ; born 14 November 1997) is a professional footballer who plays as a full-back for Bundesliga club Bayern Munich. Born in the Netherlands, he represents Morocco at international level. ...

for the right back position. On 27 October, Klaiber made his debut in the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

as a substitute during the away game against Italian club

Atalanta Atalanta (; grc-gre, Ἀταλάντη, Atalantē) meaning "equal in weight", is a heroine in Greek mythology. There are two versions of the huntress Atalanta: one from Arcadia, whose parents were Iasus and Clymene and who is primarily known ...

Return to Utrecht

On 29 August 2022, Klaiber returned to

and signed a three-year contract.

International career

Born in the Netherlands, Klaiber is of

Suriname Suriname (; srn, Sranankondre or ), officially the Republic of Suriname ( nl, Republiek Suriname , srn, Ripolik fu Sranan), is a country on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north ...

se descent. Having played for the youth teams of the

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 ...

, on 13 June 2021 it was announced that Klaiber had opted to represent

internationally. On June 25 he was called up to represent the team at the

2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup The 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the 16th edition of the CONCACAF Gold Cup, the biennial international men's soccer championship of the North, Central American, and Caribbean region organized by CONCACAF. The tournament was originally scheduled t ...

. On 12 July 2021, Klaiber made his debut in the group stage match against

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

. The match ended in a 2–0 loss, in Suriname's Gold Cup debut, which saw Klaiber being cautioned in the 25th minute.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Ajax *

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

, 2021–22 *

References

External links

*
Netherlands profile
at Ons Oranje {{DEFAULTSORT:Klaiber, Sean 1994 births Living people People from Nieuwegein Dutch men's footballers Surinamese men's footballers Dutch sportspeople of Surinamese descent Men's association football defenders FC Utrecht players FC Dordrecht players AFC Ajax players Eredivisie players Eerste Divisie players 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup players Netherlands men's youth international footballers Netherlands men's under-21 international footballers Suriname men's international footballers Footballers from Utrecht (province)