Roel Wiersma

Club career

In 1949, Wiersma debuted for the Donar first team, which played in the Dutch Fourth Division at the time. In his first season, the club was immediately promoted to the Third Division. Wiersma played for Donar until the 1954-55 season, when the team again won promotion; this time to the Second Division. His games at Donar were combined with his performances on the national Air Force football team (as part of his conscription). For Wiersma’s military service, he was stationed in Eindhoven as a sports instructor sergeant. He arranged a match for the Air Force team against an English military team. After Heerenveen’s Imke de Jong was outplayed by his English counterpart, Wiersma decided to substitute De Jong and bring himself onto the field. During his service, Wiersma trained several times at PSV Eindhoven and his performances at Donar and the Air Force football team meant that PSV decided to sign him in 1954.

After PSV appointed Bram Appel as the new coach, he announced a new focus on younger players and notified Wiersma that he was not needed anymore. Disappointed, Wiersma left for rivals EVV in 1965 on a free transfer. In 15 of his matches, Wiersma served as captain of the Dutch side. His national team career ended after a row with coach Elek Schwartz, who benched Wiersma after a 4-1 loss against Denmark in 1962. Schwartz blamed Wiersma’s bad performance on a disproportionate attention to his engineering study; Wiersma simply condemned his teammates’ mentality. The Denmark match later turned out to be his last for The Netherlands.

Style of play

Wiersma was a right-footed right wing back. He was known to be a powerful, physical defender with great stamina. Wiersma usually played a rough but fair game. He was lacking in technical abilities, but he was strong in the air. Wiersma commented about his own game in 1962: “I am a player with very average technical skills. I could only manage so many years at this level because of my combativeness and because apparently, there are no better defenders around.”

Post-career

After his retirement, Wiersma remained involved in sports. He became coach for the PSV waterpolo team and also coached amateur football sides TOP Oss and ASV ‘33. In the 1976-77 season, he coached another amateur side, VV Oirschot Vooruit. In 1961 he was one of the founders of the Vereniging van Contractspelers (VVCS), a union for professional football players. Wiersma started out as vice-chairman and between 1967 and 1975 he served as the chairman of the VVCS. Starting from 1979, Wiersma was also a board member for technical affairs at the KNVB. After he quit his position as board member, he also served in several commissions at the KNVB. He also worked as analyst for Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf. On 4 February 1995, Wiersma died of a heart failure during a game of tennis.

Awards and honours

Club PSV Eindhoven Eredivisie (1): 1962-63

Career statistics

International

Notes and references