Stijn Spierings (born 12 March 1996) 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 an

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an Glossary of association football terms#O, 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 #Cent ...

for club

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...

, on loan from

Lens A lens is a transmissive optical device which focuses or disperses a light beam by means of refraction. A simple lens consists of a single piece of transparent material, while a compound lens consists of several simple lenses (''elements''), ...

Club career

Born in

Alkmaar Alkmaar () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, located in the province of North Holland, about 30 km north of Amsterdam. Alkmaar is well known for its traditional cheese market. For tourists, it is a popular cultural destination. The ...

, Spierings began his youth career and professional career with his local team AZ. Having broken into the first team he played on just two occasions in his first season, against PSV and

Excelsior Excelsior, a Latin comparative word often translated as "ever upward" or "even higher", may refer to: Arts and entertainment Literature and poetry * "Excelsior" (Longfellow), an 1841 poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow * ''Excelsior'' (Macedo ...

. He was then loaned to

Sparta Rotterdam Sparta Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club based in Rotterdam. Established on 1 April 1888, Sparta Rotterdam is the oldest professional football team in the Netherlands. Sparta currently compete in the Eredivisie, the top flight ...

and played a role in their successful

campaign Campaign or The Campaign may refer to: Types of campaigns * Campaign, in agriculture, the period during which sugar beets are harvested and processed *Advertising campaign, a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme * Bl ...

to get promoted from the

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 ...

. At the end of that season Spierings signed a permanent deal with the club and has played in the

youth team In sporting terminology, a youth system (or youth academy) is a youth investment program within a particular team or league, which develops and nurtures young talent in farm teams, with the vision of using them in the first team in the future if t ...

. On 7 January 2019, he signed a one-and-a-half-year contract with

RKC Waalwijk RKC Waalwijk () is a Dutch professional football club based in Waalwijk, that is currently competing in the Eredivisie. Its name is derived from 'Rooms Katholieke Combinatie' ('Roman Catholic Combination' in Dutch) and was established as a merger ...

. One year later, on 13 January 2020, Spierings moved abroad, signing a three-year deal with

Bulgarian First League The First Professional Football League ( bg, Първа професионална футболна лига, Parva Profesionalna Futbolna Liga), also known as the Bulgarian First League or Parva Liga, currently known as the efbet League for spon ...

side

Levski Sofia Levski Sofia ( bg, Левски София) is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia, which competes in the First League, the top division of the Bulgarian football league system. The club was founded on 24 May 1914 b ...

. On 5 October 2020, Spierings signed a three-year contract with

Ligue 2 Ligue 2 (, League 2), also known as Ligue 2 BKT due to sponsor (commercial), sponsorship by Balkrishna Industries, is a French professional football league. The league serves as the second division of French football and is one of two divisions ...

club

. He thereby became the third Dutch player to wear the club's colours, after

Rob Rensenbrink Rob Rensenbrink (; 3 July 1947 – 24 January 2020) was a Dutch footballer and member of the Netherlands national team that reached two World Cup finals in 1974 and 1978. A creative and prolific left winger or forward, he became a legend in B ...

and Branco van den Boomen. Spierings was in head coach

Patrice Garande Patrice Garande (born 27 November 1960) is a French former professional footballer who played as a striker, currently a manager. Playing career Club Born in Oullins, Rhône, Garande finished his development at AS Saint-Étienne, but appeared ra ...

's starting lineup in his first match on 17 October against

Ajaccio Ajaccio (, , ; French: ; it, Aiaccio or ; co, Aiacciu , locally: ; la, Adiacium) is a French commune, prefecture of the department of Corse-du-Sud, and head office of the ''Collectivité territoriale de Corse'' (capital city of Corsica). ...

, in which he scored the later winner on a penalty-kick, securing the 1–0 victory. He scored five goals in his first eight games. On 23 June 2023, Spierings signed for

Ligue 1 Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. A ...

club

on a four-year contract.

International career

Stijn Spierings has also turned out appearances with the Netherlands national team at youth level as well. He has played for the U17s and the U19 teams.

Career statistics

Honours

Sparta Rotterdam *

: 2015–16 Toulouse *

Coupe de France The Coupe de France, formerly known as the Coupe Charles Simon, is the premier knockout cup competition in French football organized by the French Football Federation (FFF). It was first held in 1917 and is open to all amateur and profession ...

2022–23 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

* * * Living people 1996 births Footballers from Alkmaar Dutch men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Netherlands men's youth international footballers Eredivisie players Eerste Divisie players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players AZ Alkmaar players Sparta Rotterdam players RKC Waalwijk players PFC Levski Sofia players Toulouse FC players RC Lens players Dutch expatriate men's footballers Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Bulgaria Expatriate men's footballers in Bulgaria Dutch expatriate sportspeople in France Expatriate men's footballers in France {{Netherlands-footy-midfielder-stub