Hans van Breukelen

Utrecht and Nottingham Forest

Van Breukelen started out in the Utrecht reserve team, but soon became the club's third goalkeeper behind Blagoje Istatov and Jan Stroomberg. On 20 March 1977, Van Breukelen made his official debut after being chosen to replace Istanov in the match against Sparta, which Utrecht lost 3–0 away from home. He would later become the first-choice between the sticks for four years.

In the 1980–81 season, Utrecht reached the third place (its highest ever position to date) and a year later, Van Breukelen and his team reached the KNVB Cup final. In 1982, Utrecht was facing bankruptcy and were willing to sell Van Breukelen in order to raise funds. Initially, there was no sign of a transfer and he played two matches in the 1982–83 season. But in September, Van Breukelen was eventually signed by Nottingham Forest. In total, he played 142 Eredivisie games for the club.

After Peter Shilton had left Nottingham Forest, coach Brian Clough went on to pick Van Breukelen as his new goalkeeper. The club paid £200,000 to Utrecht. In his first match, he immediately kept a clean sheet in the game against Brighton & Hove Albion. After thirteen league games, he suffered an injury which would sideline him for four months. After his recovery, Van Breukelen returned in the Nottingham Forest starting line-up and the team went on to qualify for the UEFA Cup. In the 1983–84 season, Van Breukelen played 36 league matches, keeping 11 clean sheets in the process. The…

Van Breukelen made his international debut on 11 October 1980 against West Germany. He played in qualification matches for the 1982 World Cup, Euro 1984 and the 1986 World Cup, but the Dutch team failed to qualify for any of the tournaments. In the Euro 1988 qualifiers, Van Breukelen was struggling with his form and before the qualification match against Hungary in 1987, coach Rinus Michels dropped him in favour of Joop Hiele as goalkeeper. Van Breukelen returned as the first choice in the next match. During the qualification round, he conceded only one goal in his seven matches, contributing to the first Dutch major tournament since 1980. At Euro 1988, the Netherlands narrowly progressed through the group stage but managed to beat rivals West Germany in the semi-finals (2–1). According to Van Breukelen, beating the Germans "meant more to us than reaching the European Championship Final". The Netherlands were named European champions after winning the final against the Soviet Union (2–0). Van Breukelen caused a penalty in that match, but saved the subsequent attempt by Igor Belanov. Later, he was named best goalkeeper of the tournament. Van Breukelen and the national team qualified for the 1990 World Cup, but were knocked out by West Germany in the second round. The Dutch team endured a disastrous tournament due to a lack of unity in the squad; Van Breukelen called the World Cup "the lowest point of his career". In the West Germany match, Rudi Völler collided with Van…

After Van Breukelen retired, he committed himself to the business world. From 1994 until 1997, he was vice-president of retail company Breecom. Desiring a return to football, Van Breukelen increasingly hoped for an offer from a team. Twente approached him to become their general manager in 1996, but Van Breukelen refused. In 1997, he was appointed as director of football at Utrecht. He embarked on a concept called the ‘Challenger-plan’, which stated Utrecht's style of play and main targets. Even though he signed a new contract without end date in January 2000, he left later that year after he sensed a lack of confidence from the Utrecht board. Van Breukelen returned to his role as an entrepreneur and in 2000, he founded his own company HvB Management, specialized in conducting lectures and trainings for businesses. Later, Van Breukelen also co-founded two other companies. In October 2001, Van Breukelen got his coaching diploma 'Trainer Coach I', which enabled him to become an assistant-manager at a professional club or a manager at an amateur club. Since 2005, he served as the director of Sports and Technology, a Dutch foundation working on innovation in the two areas. In July 2010, Van Breukelen joined the PSV Eindhoven board of directors. His appointment was endorsed by the 'Vereniging PSV' (association PSV), who have a partial say in the board membership. After his disappointment with PSV's football performances in 2013, Van Breukelen hoped to instigate a change of…

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