Joris Mathijsen ( born 5 April 1980 in Goirle, North Brabant) is a professional Dutch footballer. He plays for national team as a centre back, usually on the left side as he is left footed.
- Joris Mathijsen
Club Career: Willem II – AZ – Hamburg: 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 of Willem II Tilburg. 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. After six seasons at Willem II, he was sold by manager Co Adriaanse to AZ Alkmaar. However he endured a harder time breaking into the first team at Alkmaar and his case was not helped by injuries.
After finishing as runners-up in the Eredivisie in 2006, Mathijsen opted to transfer to German Bundesliga side Hamburg for €6 million where he teamed up with fellow Dutchmen Rafael van der Vaart and Nigel de Jong. He scored Hamburg’s 2500th goal (his first for the club) on 20 October 2007 against Stuttgart.
In November 2008, Mathijsen signed a new contract extension, tying him to Hamburg until the summer of 2012.
2010 World Cup: Mathijsen was included in the preliminary squad for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. On 27 May 2010, Netherlands manager Bert van Marwijk announced that the player would be part of the final squad of 23 participating in the competition.
The player was in the starting line-up for their first match in the competition, a 2-0 victory over Denmark
Holland’s World Cup matches and can be found on our website.
July 11th, 2010 at 12:19 pm
[...] (4-2-3-1) : Stekelenburg, Van der Wiel, Heitinga, Mathijsen, Van Bronckhorst (c), De Jong, Van Bommel, Robben, Sneijder, Kuijt, Van [...]