Wilmer Kousemaker (born 12 July 1985) 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 le ...

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 ...

Football career

NAC Breda

Born in

Tholen Tholen () is a 25,000 people municipality in the southwest of the Netherlands. The municipality of Tholen takes its name from the town of Tholen, which is the largest population center in the municipality. The municipality consists of two peninsu ...

Zeeland , nl, Ik worstel en kom boven("I struggle and emerge") , anthem = "Zeeuws volkslied"("Zeelandic Anthem") , image_map = Zeeland in the Netherlands.svg , map_alt = , m ...

, Kousemaker started playing football at a young age at amateur club Tholense Boys. In 2000, he was brought to the

NAC Breda NAC Breda (), often simply known as NAC, is a Dutch professional football club, based in Breda, Netherlands. NAC Breda play in the Rat Verlegh Stadium, named after their most important player, Antoon 'Rat' Verlegh. They play in the Eerste Divi ...

youth academy at the age of 15. There he went to play with the under-17 team. On 18 April 2004, Kousemaker made his senior debut against

Volendam Volendam () is a fishing town in the municipality of Edam-Volendam, province of North Holland, Netherlands. As of 1 January 2021, it has a population of 22,715. It is twinned with Coventry, England. History Originally, Volendam was the location o ...

, replacing the injured Robbie Haemhouts, who had substituted the similarly injured Nebojsa Gudelj earlier in the match. NAC lost this game 4–2. In January 2005, he made a few more appearances for NAC, also due to injuries to starters. Because

Mark Schenning Mark Schenning (born 18 October 1970) is a Dutch professional football manager and former player. He spent his entire career in the Netherlands, playing for clubs such as Go Ahead Eagles, Willem II, Den Bosch and NAC Breda. After retirement ...

suffered an injury, Kousemaker was added to the first team squad. He played a few games and at the end of the season his amateur status was turned into a two-year professional contract. During the 2005–06 season, NAC struggled and head coach

Ton Lokhoff Antonius Johannes Jacobus "Ton" Lokhoff (born 25 December 1959) is a Dutch football manager and former player, currently serving as assistant coach and interim head coach of NAC Breda. Playing career Lokhoff is named ''Mister NAC'' due to his l ...

was fired as a result. His replacement Cees Lok soon announced that he did not see future prospects for Kousemaker. He was removed from the first-team squad and transfer-listed. A few months later, Lok was also dismissed and Kousemaker's future remained uncertain. Before the start of the 2006–07 season, Kousemaker made multiple appearances in pre-season games and left a good impression with new manager

Ernie Brandts Ernstus "Ernie" Wilhelmus Johannes Brandts (born 3 February 1956) is a Dutch football manager and former player. Playing career Club Born in Didam, he played for local club De Sprinkhanen before joining De Graafschap at 17. After three seasons ...

. However, this did not immediately result in playing time during the season, and Kousemaker opted ahead of the 2007–08 season to move to

HFC Haarlem HFC Haarlem was a Dutch football club from the city of Haarlem, established in 1889 and dissolved in 2010. The club won the Eredivisie in 1946 and reached five Cup finals, winning in 1902 and 1912. Haarlem reached the second round of the 1982 ...

in the second-tier

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 ...

Den Bosch and Dordrecht

On 31 December 2009, it was announced that Kousemaker would finish the ongoing season with

Den Bosch s-Hertogenbosch (), colloquially known as Den Bosch (), is a city and municipality in the Netherlands with a population of 157,486. It is the capital of the province of North Brabant and its fourth largest by population. The city is south of th ...

as the successor to

Adnan Barakat Adnan Barakat (born 3 September 1982) is a Dutch former professional footballer who played as a right winger for Dutch sides Ajax Amsterdam, NAC Breda, FC Eindhoven, Cambuur Leeuwarden, FK Baku, FC Den Bosch and Muangthong United among other ...

who had moved to Azerbaijani club

FC Baku FC Baku ( az, "Bakı" Futbol Klubu) is an Azerbaijani football club based in Baku that has been an amateur club since 2016. Prior to that, Baku played 18 seasons in the Azerbaijan Premier League, winning the championship twice and earning the Nat ...

. In May 2011, Kousemaker moved to

Dordrecht Dordrecht (), historically known in English as Dordt (still colloquially used in Dutch, ) or Dort, is a city and municipality in the Western Netherlands, located in the province of South Holland. It is the province's fifth-largest city after R ...

. In 2013, he was sidelined for a substantial period due to

infectious mononucleosis Infectious mononucleosis (IM, mono), also known as glandular fever, is an infection usually caused by the Epstein–Barr virus (EBV). Most people are infected by the virus as children, when the disease produces few or no symptoms. In young adult ...

. At the end of the 2013–14 season, he won promotion with Dordrecht 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 ...

Later career and retirement

On 1 August 2014, he signed with

Topklasse The Derde Divisie (; en, Third Division), formerly known as Topklasse (; en, Top Class), is the fourth tier of football in the Netherlands, which had its inaugural season as a third tier in 2010–11 and as a fourth tier in 2016–17. The league ...

club

VV Capelle Voetbalvereniging Capelle is a Dutch football team, founded on 20 February 1930. Its home venue is Sportpark 't Slot in Capelle aan den IJssel. Since 2018, VV Capelle competes in the Hoofdklasse The Vierde Divisie, formerly known as Hoofdklass ...

. Kousemaker retired from football in May 2020 as part of his first club, Tholense Boys.

References

External links

*
Voetbal International profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kousemaker, Wilmer Living people 1985 births People from Tholen Association football midfielders Dutch footballers Eredivisie players Eerste Divisie players Derde Divisie players HFC Haarlem players NAC Breda players FC Den Bosch players FC Dordrecht players VV Capelle players Footballers from Zeeland