Danny Petrus Hesp (born 19 October 1969) 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 lea ...

who played as a defender.

Football career

Born in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

, Hesp started at local

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), ''Ajax'' (play), by the an ...

, but only appeared in nine

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; "Honour Division" or "Premier Division") is a professional association football league in the Netherlands and the highest level of the Dutch football league system. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start o ...

games in three seasons combined, all in his first. A very promising player, he broke his leg after a sliding tackle in 1988 and never fully recovered to reach his full potential. Released in 1990, Hesp resumed his career with

Heerenveen Heerenveen (, ) is a town and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Friesland (Fryslân), in the Northern Netherlands. In 2021, the town had a population of 29,790 (1 January) while the m ...

, going to play until 2005 with several clubs in the top level ( Roda, AZ,

NEC is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered at the NEC Supertower in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It provides IT and network solutions, including cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), Inte ...

and RBC) and also spending three seasons – two complete, two halves – with

second division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

Top Oss TOP Oss (), is a professional association football club based in the town of Oss, North Brabant, Netherlands, that competes in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of the Dutch football league system. Founded in 1928 as T.O.P., a Dutch abbrevia ...

Life after football

In 2005, Hesp became president of the '' Vereniging van Contractspelers'' (VVCS), the Dutch union for professional soccer players, and in 2013 announced he would function as a contact for gay soccer players, to assist them in their coming-out; a 2014 poll by the VVCS and the John Blankenstein Foundation indicated that soccer's culture of machismo was an important cause of homophobia in the sport.

Personal life

Hesp's older brother,

Ruud Ruud and Rud are surnames of Norwegian origin. Both are also Norwegian place names of numerous farmsteads named Rud or Ruud from Old Norse ''ruð'' meaning clearing. Ruud is also a Dutch masculine given name meaning "famous wolf" although it is als ...

, was also a professional footballer. A

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

, he was best known for his three-year stint with Spain's

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

; the pair played together in the 1995–96 campaign, at Roda.

References

External links

Beijen profile

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hesp, Danny 1969 births Living people Footballers from Amsterdam Dutch men's footballers Men's association football defenders Eredivisie players Eerste Divisie players AFC Ajax players SC Heerenveen players TOP Oss players Roda JC Kerkrade players AZ Alkmaar players NEC Nijmegen players RBC Roosendaal players Dutch trade union leaders 20th-century Dutch sportsmen