Johannes "Jan" Wilhelmus Peters (born 18 August 1954) 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 ...

and

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of Athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Coac ...

Club career

Nicknamed ''Jantje Breed'', as he was renowned for his passes to the side, Peters started his career with VV Germania and then played for

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 ...

. He made his debut for NEC on 14 November 1971 in a home game against

FC Groningen Football Club Groningen () is a Dutch professional association football club based in Groningen, Groningen (province), Groningen province. Founded in 1971 as the successor of GVAV-Rapiditas, GVAV, Groningen compete in the Eredivisie, the first t ...

. In 1974, 19-year-old Peters attracted the interest of

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 ...

, where

Hans Kraay Sr. Hans Kraay (14 October 1936 – 27 October 2017) was a Dutch professional footballer who played as a defender. Subsequently, he became well known for his football management skills as well as analysis of matches on Dutch television. Biography ...

had just become manager, but the transfer eventually fell through. In July 1977, he signed with

AZ '67 Alkmaar Zaanstreek (), better known internationally as AZ Alkmaar, or simply and most commonly as AZ () in the Netherlands, is a Dutch professional football club from Alkmaar and the Zaan district. The club plays in the Eredivisie, the highest ...

, where Kraay Sr. had now become manager. At AZ, Peters played together with players such as

Ronald Spelbos Ronald Spelbos (born 8 July 1954 in Utrecht) is a Dutch former football player and manager. He played central defense. He earned 21 caps for the Netherlands, scoring a goal in his last international, against Cyprus on 28 October 1987 in an 8-0 w ...

Peter Arntz Peter Arntz (born 5 February 1953 in Leuth, Gelderland) is a Dutch retired footballer who played as a midfielder. Club career Arntz came through the famous Go Ahead Eagles youth system and made his debut for their senior team in February 1971 a ...

Kristen Nygaard Kristen Nygaard (27 August 1926 – 10 August 2002) was a Norwegian computer scientist, programming language pioneer, and politician. Internationally, Nygaard is acknowledged as the co-inventor of object-oriented programming and the programming ...

Kurt Welzl Kurt Welzl (born 6 November 1954) is an Austrian former professional association football, footballer who played as a striker (association football), striker. He scored 10 goals in 22 appearances for the Austria national football team, Austria n ...

Kees Kist Cornelis Kist (born 7 August 1952) is a Dutch former professional association football, footballer and manager. He played as a striker (association football), striker, and most notably won the European Golden Shoe for the 1978–79 season. Club ...

and Pier Tol, a team which in the 1980–81 season won 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 ...

title, the

KNVB Cup The KNVB Beker (; ), branded as the TOTO KNVB Beker for sponsorship reasons, is a competition in the Netherlands organised by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) since 1898. It was based on the format of the English FA Cup. Outside the N ...

, and reached the final of the

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

. After five seasons, in which AZ was constantly in the top 4 clubs in the Eredivisie and won the national cup three times, Peters left for

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

club

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

in the summer of 1982. In Italy he also played for

Atalanta Atalanta (; ) is a heroine in Greek mythology. There are two versions of the huntress Atalanta: one from Arcadia (region), Arcadia, whose parents were Iasus and Clymene (mythology), Clymene and who is primarily known from the tales of the Caly ...

, before returning to NEC, and to finish his career in amateur football with

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 h ...

International career

Peters obtained 31 caps for the Dutch national team, scoring four goals, in the 1970s and early 1980s. He is famous for scoring the goals that beat England 2–0 at

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in the London Borou ...

in 1977.

Managerial career

After his retirement from professional football, Peters began coaching amateur club SJN in 1992. In 1995, he took over as manager of his former club

from his hometown of

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 ...

. He later also coached the second team of

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 ...

, a club where he was also the caretaker coach shortly in 1999.

Honours

Player

NEC *

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 ...

: 1974–75 AZ '67 *

: 1980–81 *

: 1977–78, 1980–81, 1981–82 De Treffers * Netherlands Overall Amateur Championship: 1990–91 * Netherlands Sunday Amateur Championship: 1990–91 * Hoofdklasse Sunday B: 1989–90, 1990–91 Netherlands *

UEFA European Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro or Euros, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The competition ...

third-place:

1976 Events January * January 2 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 18 – Full diplomatic ...

Manager

De Treffers * Netherlands Overall Amateur Championship: 1997–98 * Netherlands Sunday Amateur Championship: 1997–98 * Hoofdklasse Sunday C: 1997–98, 2004–05

References

External links

*
Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Peters, Jan 1954 births Living people People from Groesbeek Footballers from Gelderland Dutch men's footballers Dutch expatriate men's footballers Netherlands men's international footballers UEFA Euro 1976 players Men's association football midfielders Eredivisie players Eerste Divisie players Serie A players Serie B players NEC Nijmegen players AZ Alkmaar players Atalanta BC players Genoa CFC players De Treffers players Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Italy Dutch football managers De Treffers managers TOP Oss managers 20th-century Dutch sportsmen