Franciscus Johannes Antonius Gesthuizen "François" Gesthuizen (born 18 September 1972) is a Dutch professional

football manager ''Football Manager'', also known as ''Worldwide Soccer Manager'' in North America from 2004 to 2008, is a series of football management simulation video games developed by British developer Sports Interactive and published by Sega. The game beg ...

and former

player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who i ...

, who is currently coaching the

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 ...

U18-team.

Playing career

Club career

Born in

Millingen aan de Rijn Millingen aan de Rijn ( ) is a former municipality and a town in the eastern Netherlands, on the border with Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and th ...

Gelderland Gelderland ( , ), also known as Guelders ( ) in English, is a Provinces of the Netherlands, province of the Netherlands, located in the centre-east of the country. With a total area of of which is water, it is the largest province of the Nethe ...

, Gesthuizen started playing football at MVV '18 in his hometown as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

. Afterwards he played youth football at SV Hatert,

and PSV. He made his debut in the 1992–93 season on loan at NAC, for whom he made 82 total appearances during his time there. With the club he managed to achieve promotion to the

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 ...

in his first season. In 1994, NAC signed him on a permanent deal from PSV. In 1997, Gesthuizen moved to

Fortuna Sittard Fortuna Sittard (; ) is a professional football club from the municipality of Sittard-Geleen, Netherlands. The club currently plays its football in the 12,500 capacity Fortuna Sittard Stadion and features in the Eredivisie. The club was establi ...

. He made more than 50 appearances for the

Limburg Limburg or Limbourg may refer to: Regions * Limburg (Belgium), a province since 1839 in the Flanders region of Belgium * Limburg (Netherlands), a province since 1839 in the south of the Netherlands * Diocese of Limburg, Roman Catholic Diocese in ...

team in three seasons. In 2000, Gesthuizen moved to

SC Cambuur SC Cambuur, also known as Cambuur Leeuwarden, or simply Cambuur, () is a Dutch professional Association football, football club from the city of Leeuwarden formed on 19 June 1964. They currently play in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of Dutc ...

, where he would stay for two seasons. In 2002, he left for

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 ...

, where he retired from professional football three years later, in 2005. Gesthuizen made a total of 216 appearances in professional football, scoring 12 goals. As amateur level, he continued with

JVC Cuijk JVC Cuijk is a Dutch association football club from Cuijk, Netherlands. The club was founded in 1931 and plays in Derde Divisie, the fourth tier of Netherlands, Dutch football, in the Sunday league. The team plays home games at Sportpark De Groen ...

in the

Hoofdklasse The Vierde Divisie (; "Fourth Division"), formerly known as Hoofdklasse () is the second-highest league of amateur football in the Netherlands, and the fifth tier in general. Background The league was divided into two sections: Saturday and Sunda ...

until 2008.

International career

Gesthuizen was a Dutch youth international. He was part of the Netherlands national under-16 team at the

1989 UEFA European Under-16 Championship The 1989 UEFA European Under-16 Championship was the 7th edition of the UEFA's European Under-16 Football Championship. Denmark hosted the 16 teams that contested 4–14 May 1989. Spain unsuccessfully defended its first title. Portugal won thei ...

in Denmark.

Managerial career

Gesthuizen started his coaching career at his last professional club;

. For this club, he worked for several years as a youth coach at the regional football academy

FC 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 abbreviati ...

, for the U17 team, among others. In 2010, Gesthuizen was appointed head coach of eight tier

Derde Klasse The ('Third Class') is the eighth tier of football in the Netherlands Football is the most popular sport in the Netherlands. Association football, Football was introduced to the Netherlands by Pim Mulier in the 19th century when in 1879, a ...

club VV Rood Wit from Breedeweg, where he won the championship in his first season. He then moved to fifth-tier

club Blauw Geel '38 from

Veghel Veghel () is a town and a former municipality in Southern Netherlands. On 1 January 2017 Veghel, together with Schijndel and Sint-Oedenrode, merged into a new municipality called Meierijstad. This created the largest municipality of the provi ...

. In his first season, he finished in second place behind VV Gemert and in fifth place in his second season. Gesthuizen signed a two-year contract as head coach of

Achilles '29 Achilles '29 is a football club from Groesbeek, Netherlands, competing in the seventh-tier Tweede Klasse. The club is known for its successes in the Dutch domestic cup, having knocked FC Volendam, Heracles Almelo, RKC Waalwijk, Telstar and ...

in June 2013.

Arno Arts Arnoldus ("Arno") Johannes Theodorus Arts (born 26 June 1969) is a Dutch football coach and former player who played as a midfielder. He is currently the assistant coach of FC Utrecht's under-19 team. Playing career Arno Arts, born on 26 June 1 ...

had long been considered a favorite to succeed Jan van Deinsen in the position, but according to chairman Harrie Derks, both men matched the profile of the new head coach; a young coach with professional footballing experience from the region. The

Groesbeek Groesbeek () is a town and former municipality in the province of Gelderland, the Netherlands. In January 2015 the former municipality merged with Millingen aan de Rijn and Ubbergen. The larger area was known as Groesbeek until January 2016, whe ...

-based team made their first ever appearance in the second-tier

Eerste Divisie The Eerste Divisie (; ) is the second-highest tier of football in the Netherlands. It is linked with the top-level Eredivisie via promotion/relegation systems. It is also known as the Keuken Kampioen Divisie due to sponsorship reasons, while ...

that season. In Gesthuizen's debut in the Eerste Divisie, Achilles drew 2–2 at

FC Emmen FC Emmen is a Dutch professional football club based in Emmen, Drenthe. They currently play in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of Dutch football, following relegation from the Eredivisie in the 2022–23 season. Founded in 1925, the club ...

. In their debut season, Achilles '29 finished in last place and suffered relegation to the

Derde Divisie The Derde Divisie (; ), formerly known as Topklasse (; ), 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 is placed between the Tweede D ...

. In October 2014, it was announced that Gesthuizen's contract with Achilles would not be extended and that he was replaced by

Eric Meijers Eric Meijers (born 6 August 1963) is a Dutch professional football manager and former player who is the head coach of club TEC. Coaching career Meijers is mostly known for his ten-year spell as head coach of Achilles '29, which he turned into ...

. In May 2015, Gesthuizen passed for the coaching diploma. In June 2015, Gesthuizen was appointed as the new head coach of DFS. In the summer of 2016, he moved to

. He was dismissed half a season later, in February 2017, after a 2–7 home loss to

. At that time, TOP Oss was in 17th position in the Eerste Divisie. From the 2017–18 season, Gesthuizen coached the U17 side of the NEC/TOP Oss academy and worked as an analyst for the first team of

. In the 2019–20 season, he became joint head coach of NEC together with Adrie Bogers and

Rogier Meijer Rogier Meijer (born 5 September 1981) is a Dutch professional football coach and former player, who is the head coach of Eredivisie club NEC. As a player, Meijer appeared his entire professional career for De Graafschap as a midfielder. In Ma ...

, where he was mostly the face of the trio towards the media. In mid-2020, he became the coach of the NEC U18 team, after losing out to

Mark Otten Mark Otten (born 2 September 1985) is a Dutch former professional footballer who played as a defender. He currently manages the NEC U21 team. Club career NEC Born in Nijmegen, Otten developed into a professional football player within the NEC y ...

for the position of U21 coach.

Managerial statistics

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gesthuizen, Francois 1972 births Living people People from Millingen aan de Rijn Men's association football midfielders Dutch men's footballers Netherlands men's youth international footballers Netherlands men's under-21 international footballers PSV Eindhoven players Fortuna Sittard players NAC Breda players SC Cambuur players TOP Oss players JVC Cuijk players Dutch football managers Achilles '29 managers TOP Oss managers NEC Nijmegen managers NEC Nijmegen non-playing staff Footballers from Gelderland