Thomas Ouwejan (; born 30 September 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 ...

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

2. Bundesliga The 2. Bundesliga ( ) is the second division of professional football in Germany. It was implemented 11 years after the founding of the Fußball-Bundesliga as the new second division for professional football. The 2. Bundesliga is ranked below ...

club

Schalke 04 Fußballclub Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 e. V., commonly known as FC Schalke 04 (), Schalke 04 (), or abbreviated as S04 (), is a professional German football and multi-sports club originally from the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine ...

Career

AZ

Ouwejan joined the AZ youth academy from childhood club De Foresters in 2007. On 10 December 2015, he made his first appearance for the club, starting in a

UEFA 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. ...

match against Athletic Bilbao. He was replaced in the 75th minute for Pantelis Hatzidiakos, another debuting player. Three days later, Ouwejan also made his Eredivisie debut in a game against

PEC Zwolle PEC Zwolle is a Dutch football club based in Zwolle, Netherlands. They play in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of Dutch football, following relegation from the Eredivisie in the 2021–22 season. They have played in the Eredivisie for a total ...

. That season, he also came to 16 appearances and two goals for the reserve team, Jong AZ. In addition, he appeared once in the KNVB Cup and three times in the Eredivisie; with AZ finishing fourth and qualifying for the UEFA Europa League qualifying round. The following season, he played once for the reserve team and 16 times for the first team in all competitions. In the following play-off games for participation in the Europa League preliminary round, AZ reached the final, but eventually lost to FC Utrecht on penalties. In the 2017–18 season, Ouwejan became a regular starter and appeared in six matches in the KNVB Cup and 31 matches in the Eredivisie. AZ reached the final of the cup that year, in which they lost to

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club (association football), football club in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the club changed to various names bef ...

. In the Eredivisie, AZ took third place. He continued as a starter during the 2018–19 season, scoring two goals in 31 league appearances and one goal – his first in European tournaments – in the third qualifying round of the Europa League against Ukrainian side

Mariupol Mariupol (, ; uk, Маріу́поль ; russian: Мариу́поль) is a city in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. It is situated on the northern coast ( Pryazovia) of the Sea of Azov, at the mouth of the Kalmius River. Prior to the 2022 Russia ...

. At the start of the 2019–20 season, new head coach

Arne Slot Arend Martijn Slot (; born 17 September 1978) is a Dutch professional Association football, football coach and former player who is the head coach of Feyenoord. Playing career Slot played as midfielder for PEC Zwolle, NAC Breda and Sparta Rotter ...

preferred the newly emerged youngster

Owen Wijndal Owen Wijndal (born 28 November 1999) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a left-back for Eredivisie club Ajax and the Netherlands national team. Club career AZ Born in Paramaribo, Wijndal joined the AZ youth academy at the age of ...

at left back, which meant that Ouwejan mostly appeared 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 ...

, and found himself increasingly out of the starting lineup. He finished the season with 10 appearances in the Eredivisie and six in the Europa League.

Loan to Udinese

Ouwejan joined Italian

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Cop ...

club

Udinese Udinese Calcio, commonly referred to as Udinese, is a professional Italian football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, that currently plays in Serie A. It was founded on 30 November 1896 as a sports club, and on 5 July 1911 as a ...

on a season-loan from AZ for the 2020–21 season, with an option to buy. He made his debut for the side on 27 September 2020 in a 1–0 loss to

Verona Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city municipality in the region and the second largest in nor ...

Schalke 04

On 1 June 2021, Ouwejan agreed to join

on loan for the 2021–22 season with an option to make the move permanent. On 12 May 2022, Schalke exercised this option.

International career

Ouwejan gained five caps for the Netherlands under-17 team and took part with the under-19 team in the

2015 UEFA European Under-19 Championship The 2015 UEFA European Under-19 Championship was the 14th edition of the UEFA European Under-19 Championship (64th edition if the Under-18 and Junior eras are included), the annual European youth football competition contested by the men's under-1 ...

. He was utilised in all three of Netherlands' games in the tournament, which was eliminated after the group stage. He then gained eight caps for at under-20 level, and made his debut for the Netherlands U21 team on 15 November 2016 in the 2017 UEFA European Under-17 Championship qualifier 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 ...

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 ...

Career statistics

Honours

Schalke 04 *

: 2021–22

References

External links

Profile
at the FC Schalke 04 website *
Netherlands profile
at Ons Oranje {{DEFAULTSORT:Ouwejan, Thomas 1996 births Living people Men's association football midfielders Dutch men's footballers Netherlands men's under-21 international footballers Netherlands men's youth international footballers Eredivisie players Serie A players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players AZ Alkmaar players Jong AZ players Udinese Calcio players FC Schalke 04 players Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Dutch expatriate men's footballers Footballers from Alkmaar Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Italy