Robert Dekeyser

In 1980, at the age of 16, Dekeyser joined the Junior A-League team 1. FC Kaiserslautern as goalkeeper, staying with them until 1982, when he was called up for military service in Belgium. On his release, in 1984, he joined Royal Union Saint-Gilloise in Belgium's second division. In 1986, on the recommendation of the FC Bayern Munich goalkeeper Jean-Marie Pfaff, Dekeyser was brought in as a replacement for the team's reserve keeper, who was sidelined with a long-term injury. A year later he was transferred to another Bundesliga team, 1. FC Nürnberg, where he continued to serve as reserve goalkeeper. After a season at Belgium's first-division KRC Genk, Dekeyser transferred in 1989 to TSV 1860 München, where he served as starting goalkeeper. In his sixteenth appearance for the team, he was seriously injured by an elbow blow to the face and spent several weeks in hospital. While in hospital, he learned from the newspapers that he had been replaced as goalkeeper. Despite his anger at the manner of his dismissal, Dekeyser was persuaded to make a three-game comeback for 1860 Munich when the replacement goalkeeper himself was injured. He describes these as the "best three games of my career". Although numerous offers from first and second division teams followed, he retired from professional football at the end of the 1990–1991 season.

Dekeyser founded his first company, DEDON, while recovering from a facial injury in hospital. He readily admits that he had no business plan or clear idea of what DEDON would do or sell. His motivation was "to have fun working with family and friends", which he has since described as a motto of the company. DEDON's first products were hand-painted skis, 80 pairs of which were sold, 50 of them later returned. It was only after a stint selling raffia giraffes imported from Madagascar that the company changed its focus to outdoor furniture. In the late 1980s Dekeyser first began to develop his idea of an "outdoor living room", furnished with the attention to comfort, quality and aesthetics usually reserved for indoor living rooms. Following his retirement from professional football, he worked closely with his uncle, an engineer and expert at plastics extrusion, to create a durable, weather-resistant synthetic fiber (known today as DEDON Fiber) with a natural look and feel. Unsure of how to take his idea of the "outdoor living room" further, however, he put it on hold. Then during a visit to the Cologne furniture fair in 1991, Dekeyser met a furniture manufacturer from Cebu, a Philippine island known for the craftsmanship of its weavers. The manufacturer agreed to help him produce woven rattan furniture using DEDON Fiber. Soon thereafter Dekeyser moved his family to Cebu where he spent six months developing DEDON's first woven products. Upon returning to Germany he and his wife,…

Dekeyser was born in Leuven, Belgium, the eldest son of entrepreneurs who divorced when he was young. Raised in Belgium, Austria and Germany, he recalls his childhood as "chaotic", leaving him with a deep-seated longing for harmony. A self-described rebel and school truant, he turned to football as a source of discipline and self-esteem. At 14, he won a talent contest, earning himself a place at the New York football camp of his idol, the Brazilian striker Pelé, whom he credits with encouraging him to "follow your dreams". At the age of 15, having attended nine different schools, Dekeyser stood up in English class and announced that he was dropping out to become a professional footballer.

In 2009 Dekeyser co-founded the Dekeyser&Friends Foundation, which is based in Geneva and with a stated purpose "to inspire young people to follow their dreams and bring about change in the world". Since its inception, the foundation has brought young people aged 18 to 28 together for encounters with mentors, or 'friends', such as German Olympic double gold medalist skier Markus Wasmeier and Turkish traditional dance troupe leader Mustafa Erdoğan. One initiative of the foundation was the Hamburg-based D&F Academy, described as a "platform where knowledgeable and inspiring personalities can pass on their experience to young people from around the world in hands-on learning projects". The academy's inaugural program was led by British anthropologist and environmentalist Jane Goodall, its second program by the former Germany national team and Arsenal goalkeeper Jens Lehmann. One of the foundation's longest-running and most comprehensive projects is the Compostela Village Project, which began in 2009 on Cebu. This rehousing project has provided a new home to around 500 people (primarily families) who until then had been living on a dumpsite on Cebu. So that they can build thriving and independent lives, the residents learn skills such as farming, animal husbandry, weaving, jewellery-making, and sewing.