Leroy Martin Giovanni George (born 21 April 1987) is a Dutch

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 plays as a winger. Aside from the Netherlands, he has played in Turkey, Australia, Azerbaijan, and the United Arab Emirates. His natural position is as a right forward or right winger, but he has also proven to be useful on the

left wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in so ...

, as a striker and as an

attacking 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 ...

while at

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 ...

NEC is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. The company was known as the Nippon Electric Company, Limited, before rebranding in 1983 as NEC. It provides IT and network soluti ...

and the Victory.

Club career

Youth career

Being born in

Paramaribo Paramaribo (; ; nicknamed Par'bo) is the capital and largest city of Suriname, located on the banks of the Suriname River in the Paramaribo District. Paramaribo has a population of roughly 241,000 people (2012 census), almost half of Suriname's po ...

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 nor ...

and growing up in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

, George started his youth career at the local clubs DWS, Fortius and ZSGOWMS before being noticed by FC Utrecht.

FC Utrecht

He made his debut for the senior side on 13 April 2007, in an away-match against

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 ...

, ending 1–1. He replaced Etienne Shew-Atjon in the beginning of the second half, and scored a debut goal in the 68th minute, sealing the draw. He played two more matches this season. The following year, George had established himself into the

starting lineup In sports, a starting lineup is an official list of the set of players who will participate in the event when the game begins. The players in the starting lineup are commonly referred to as ''starters'', whereas the others are ''substitutes'' ...

; he only missed one match because of a

suspension Suspension or suspended may refer to: Science and engineering * Suspension (topology), in mathematics * Suspension (dynamical systems), in mathematics * Suspension of a ring, in mathematics * Suspension (chemistry), small solid particles suspende ...

, and scored seven times that season. At the end of the season, it was announced that he had signed a contract extension with Utrecht, keeping him in the '' Domstad'' until mid-2011, despite of some problems with his agent. The forward started the 2008–09 season well, but because of growing problems with his physical shape, he lost his place in the starting eleven after a couple of weeks. After showing an unmotivated behavior, he was sent back to the reserve squad by manager

Willem van Hanegem Willem "Wim" van Hanegem (; born 20 February 1944) is a Dutch former football player and coach who played as a midfielder. In a playing career spanning over 20 years, he won several domestic honours in the Netherlands, as well as a European Cu ...

. A week later his behavior had improved, and he was forgiven and put back on the first team, and since then he played a majority of the games. After the 2008–09 season, he lost track and almost never played anymore. In the 2009–10 season he only played eight matches, and after the season was over, he was told that he was not needed anymore at the club, and thus put on the transfer list.

NEC

On 20 July 2010, it was published that George had signed a one-year deal with

The club put an option in his contract to extend his contract with two more seasons if he lives up to the expectations of the club. In the second round of the 2010–11 Eredivisie season, George was awarded as the best player of the round, after having two assists in an away-match against Willem II. The match ended in a 3–5 victory for NEC.

Qarabağ

On 6 June 2013, George signed a two-year contract with

Azerbaijan Premier League The Azerbaijan Premier League ( az, Azərbaycan Premyer Liqası) is a professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the Azerbaijan football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. It is conteste ...

side Qarabağ. George made his debut for Qarabağ away to Metalurg Skopje in the

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. ...

first qualifying round match on 2 July 2013, coming on as an 84th-minute substitute for fellow debutante

Nikoloz Gelashvili Nikoloz Gelashvili ( ka, ნიკოლოზ გელაშვილი; born 5 August 1985) is a Georgian footballer who plays for FC Dila Gori. Career Gelashvili joined Zestaponi in January 2008. Flamurtari In June 2014 Gelashvili left ...

. George already scored twice for Qarabağ in the Europa League – one against Metalurg Skopje (11 July 2013, second leg) and another against Piast Gliwice (25 July 2013, second leg) on away match. George left Qarabağ at the end of his contract in June 2015.

Göztepe

On 8 July 2015, George signed a two-year contract with Göztepe S.K.

Melbourne Victory

Melbourne Victory Melbourne Victory Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Melbourne, Victoria. Competing in the country's premier men's competition, the A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL), Victory ...

announced that George had signed a one-year deal with the club on 16 September 2017. He played a key role in the Victory's championship winning season, scoring 9 goals, and registering a league high 14 assists. His successful season saw him crowned as the 2017-18 Victory Medallist with 53 votes.

Baniyas

In July 2018, George signed with

UAE First Division League UAE First Division League is the second tier of football league competition in the United Arab Emirates. As of 2020–21, the league features 15 sides who play each other in a home and away round-robin format, with a total of 28 games for each t ...

club

Baniyas Baniyas ( ar, بَانِيَاس ') is a Mediterranean coastal city in Tartous Governorate, northwestern Syria, located south of Latakia (ancient Laodicea) and north of Tartous (ancient Tortosa). It is known for its citrus fruit orchards and ...

Fortuna Sittard

On 26 January 2021, Fortuna Sittard announced that they had signed George for the remainder of the season. George made his debut two days after signing against RKC Waalwijk coming off the bench in a 2–1 win.

De Treffers

On 27 August 2021, he joined

De Treffers De Treffers is an amateur football club from Groesbeek, Netherlands. The club plays in the Tweede Divisie, the highest amateur league of Dutch football. History It was founded in 1919, and its first chairman was Jan Piepenbreier. De Treffers ha ...

in the Dutch third tier.

International career

George was called up for the Netherlands under-21 team various times in 2007 and 2008 by national team coach, Foppe de Haan, but only managed to play once. Having been born in Paramaribo in Suriname, George was eligible to play for the Surinamese national team. He was called up for the

Parbo Bier Cup The Parbo Bier Cup is a bi-annual International football(soccer) tournament, which is organized by the Stichting Internationaal Voetbal Suriname (SIVS) of which former Surinamese-Dutch International Stanley Menzo is the chairman. The beer brewery ...

in 2009 with a mixed team of Surinamese and Dutch-Surinamese players.

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Club

;Qarabağ *

(2): 2013–14, 2014–15 *

Azerbaijan Cup The Azerbaijan Cup is a major association football competition in Azerbaijan. In its original form, it started in 1936, when Azerbaijan was a republic of the Soviet Union and it was not disputed by Azerbaijani teams in the Soviet league pyramid. ...

(1): 2014–15 ;Melbourne Victory *

A-League Championship A-League Men (known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons) is the highest-level professionalism in association football, professional men's association football, soccer league in Australia and New Zealand. At the top of the Austral ...

: 2017–18

Individual

* Pacific Metal Group Balls of Steel Trophy

References

External links

Official Leroy George profile
o
NEC-Nijmegen.nl
*

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 ...

Leroy George
*
Video about career of Leroy George
{{DEFAULTSORT:George, Leroy 1987 births Living people Footballers from Paramaribo Men's association football wingers Dutch men's footballers Netherlands men's youth international footballers Surinamese emigrants to the Netherlands Dutch expatriate men's footballers AFC DWS players FC Utrecht players NEC Nijmegen players Qarabağ FK players Melbourne Victory FC players Baniyas Club players Fortuna Sittard players De Treffers players Eredivisie players UAE Pro League players Azerbaijan Premier League players Tweede Divisie players Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Azerbaijan Dutch expatriate sportspeople in the United Arab Emirates Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Australia Expatriate men's footballers in Azerbaijan Expatriate men's footballers in the United Arab Emirates Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey Expatriate men's soccer players in Australia