Joris Mathijsen (born 5 April 1980) 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, rugb ...

who played as a

centre-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 ...

. He is the director of football at Willem II.

Club career

Mathijsen started his football career at SV VOAB in Goirle after he visited a training session of a friend as a young boy. At the age of nine, he left this club and came through the

youth system 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 ...

of Willem II. He was promoted to the first team for the 1998–99 season, making his debut on 27 February 1999 in a match against

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 merg ...

. After six seasons at Willem II, he was sold by manager

Co Adriaanse Co Adriaanse (born 21 July 1947) is a Dutch football manager and former player who played as a centre-back. Playing career As a professional player, Adriaanse played for six seasons with (now dissolved) De Volewijckers (from 1964 until 1970) and ...

to AZ. However, he endured a harder time breaking into the

first team First team may refer to: Sports * First team (association football) Association football (more commonly known as football) was first codified in 1863 in England, although games that involved the kicking of a ball were evident considerably e ...

with AZ and his case was not helped by injuries. After finishing as runners-up in 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 ...

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro votes to declare independence from Serbia; The 2006 ...

, Mathijsen opted to transfer to German

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footb ...

side

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its football section. Though the current HSV was founded in June 1919 from a merger of three ...

for €6 million, where he teamed up with fellow Dutchmen

Rafael van der Vaart Rafael Ferdinand van der Vaart (born 11 February 1983) is a Dutch former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder, and is currently the assistant manager of Danish 2nd Division club Esbjerg fB. Van der Vaart began his ca ...

and

Nigel de Jong Nigel de Jong (born 30 November 1984) is a Dutch former professional footballer who played as a defensive midfielder. He is currently the technical director of the KNVB, the national Dutch soccer federation. he has also worked as an English lang ...

. He scored Hamburg's 2,500th Bundesliga goal (his first for the club) on 20 October 2007 against

VfB Stuttgart Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e. V., commonly known as VfB Stuttgart (), is a German sports club based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. The club's football team is currently part of Germany's first division, the Bundesliga. VfB S ...

. In November 2008, Mathijsen signed a new contract extension, tying him to Hamburg until the summer of 2012. In mid-June 2011, however, he signed a two-year contract with Spanish

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Banco Santander, Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaL ...

side

Málaga Málaga (, ) is a municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 578,460 in 2020, it is the second-most populous city in Andalusia after Seville and the sixth most po ...

. In the summer of 2012, it became apparent that Málaga was willing to let Mathijsen transfer to another club, prompting several Dutch sides to show interest, including

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional 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 before settling on being called after i ...

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 Gree ...

; on 10 August, Mathijsen signed with the former.

International career

On 17 November 2004, Mathijsen made his international debut for 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 ...

against

Andorra , image_flag = Flag of Andorra.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Andorra.svg , symbol_type = Coat of arms , national_motto = la, Virtus Unita Fortior, label=none (Latin)"United virtue is stro ...

in a 3–0 away win. Since his international debut, Mathijsen became a mainstay figure in the national team, especially after impressing with Hamburger SV. He was usually positioned as left central defender, because of his strong left-foot. He was called up to the Dutch squad for

UEFA Euro 2008 The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2008 or simply Euro 2008, was the 13th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by the member nations of UEFA (the Union of Europea ...

in Austria and Switzerland. Initially in danger of losing his spot to

Wilfred Bouma Wilfred Bouma (; born 15 June 1978) is a Dutch former professional footballer who played most notably for PSV Eindhoven, Aston Villa and the Netherlands national team. Club career Early career Born in Helmond, North Brabant, Bouma started his ...

, he followed it up with a decent enough performance at the Euro 2008 and remained first-choice. Mathijsen was ever present for ''Oranje'' during the

2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying Qualifying for the 2010 FIFA World Cup was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. Each confederation — the AFC (Asia), CAF (Africa), CONCACAF (North, Central America and Caribbean), CONMEBOL (South America), OFC (O ...

. He played more minutes than any other player in the Dutch squad and played a key role in their record of having conceded the fewest goals in their qualifying group. Mathijsen was part of the Dutch team for the

2010 World Cup , image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg , size = 200px , caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...

, managed by

Bert van Marwijk Lambertus van Marwijk (; born 19 May 1952) is a Dutch football manager who was recently the head coach of the United Arab Emirates national team. As a player, he played for the Go Ahead Eagles, AZ, MVV and Fortuna Sittard amongst other clubs ...

. The player was in the starting line-up for their first match in the competition, a 2–0 victory over

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

, and started in all their matches on the way to the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

Career statistics

International

:''Scores and results list Netherlands' goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Mathijsen goal.''

References

External links

Joris Mathijsen
at ''

Voetbal International ''Voetbal International'' (VI) is a Dutch football magazine. It is the oldest Dutch football magazine that is still running. History and Profile ''Voetbal International'' was established in 1965. VI was one of the founding members of ESM but le ...

'' * * *
2010 FIFA World Cup profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mathijsen, Joris 1980 births Living people People from Goirle Dutch footballers Footballers from North Brabant Association football defenders Netherlands international footballers Eredivisie players Bundesliga players La Liga players Willem II (football club) players AZ Alkmaar players Feyenoord players Hamburger SV players Málaga CF players 2006 FIFA World Cup players 2010 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 2008 players UEFA Euro 2012 players Dutch expatriate footballers Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate footballers in Germany Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate footballers in Spain Willem II (football club) non-playing staff