Joshua Gerardus Petrus Wilhelmus Smits (born 6 November 1992) is a Dutch 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 ...

who plays as a

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

. Smits started his football career at Astrantia and

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 ...

, before moving to

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 ...

in 2011. In the 2014–15 season, he made his debut in professional football for NEC, a club with which he reached promotion to 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 ...

. After a two-year stint with

Almere City Almere City Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Almere, Netherlands. Founded in 2001, the club currently compete in the Eerste Divisie, following relegation from the Eredivisie in 2024–25 Eredivisie, 20 ...

, he joined Norwegian club Bodø/Glimt, winning the league title in his first season at the club.

Career

Early career

Smits started in the youth department of Astrantia SV in Middelaar as a five-year-old, first as an outfielder and from the age of 10 as a goalkeeper. He had already received goalkeeping practice at

, before he made the definitive move to the club's youth department at age 11. In the 2010–11 season, he played for the U17 team and was also the third goalkeeper for the first team. Due to an accident by the starting goalkeeper of De Treffers, Smits was on the bench in the

Topklasse The Derde Divisie (; ), formerly known as Topklasse (; ), is the fourth tier of football in the Netherlands, which had its inaugural season as a third tier in 2010–11 and as a fourth tier in 2016–17. The league is placed between the Tweede Div ...

for a few matches.

NEC

In the summer of 2011, Smits was signed by

and was added to the first team as the third goalkeeper in September of that year after the departure of

Jasper Cillessen Jacobus Antonius Peter Johannes "Jasper" Cillessen (born 22 April 1989) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for club Las Palmas. Cillessen joined NEC's youth team in 2001, making his professional debut for them in 2010 ...

. He initially played for the reserve team of Jong NEC/FC Oss. In April 2012, he sat on the bench of

FC 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 abbreviati ...

for the home game against

MVV MVV may refer to: Groups, organizations, companies *Malaysia Vision Valley (MVV), an economic corridor, see Malaysian National Projects * (MVV GmbH; ), German city works of Mannheim * Militaire Voetbal Vereniging (M. V. V.), a military soccer team ...

behind Vincent van Trier. In January 2013, NEC signed Kalle Johnsson actively demoting Smits to fourth goalkeeper on the depth chart. He finished the season on loan at cooperation club FC Oss, where starter

Luuk Koopmans Luuk Koopmans (born 18 November 1993) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for club Fortuna Sittard. He formerly played for Oss '20, NEC, FC Oss, MVV Maastricht, PSV and ADO Den Haag. Early life Koopmans was born on 18 ...

had become injured. Smits, however, did not play and was reserve behind Richard Arends. He made his professional debut on 10 August 2014 against FC Eindhoven, in which NEC booked a 3–1 win. He was the starting goalkeeper of NEC in the 2014–15 season and was part of the team winning the league title. Three games before the end of the competition, it turned out that Smits had suffered a broken wrist and walked around with it for a long time. Smits had to miss the entire season after the club's comeback to the

. In the 2016–17 season, Smits was fit again, but was kept out of the starting lineup by starter Joris Delle. On 28 May 2017, he was relegated with NEC back to the Eerste Divisie. That season, Smits became the starter again and he was in the pecking order above Delle. He started the first league match against

, which NEC won 3–1.

Almere City

On 24 January 2018, Smits signed a contract for a season and a half with Almere City. He had an injury-riddled start with his new club, as he broke his arm in February 2018 and suffered a serious knee injury in August 2018. After Almere City had extended his contract for one year, Smits was finally able to make his debut for the club at the start of the 2019–20 season. He became the starting goalkeeper and in October 2019 his contract was extended until mid-2021.

Bodø/Glimt

On 12 June 2020, Smits signed a four-year contract with Norwegian club Bodø/Glimt playing in the top-tier

Eliteserien Eliteserien () is a professional association football league in Norway and the highest level of the Norwegian football league system. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the Norwegian First Division ...

. Smits quickly obtained the starting job, but did not return as a starter after another injury. In November 2020, Smits won the Eliteserien title with Bodø/Glimt; it was the club's first league title.

Willem II

On 25 June 2022, Smits signed a three-year contract with Willem II.

De Graafschap

On 23 August 2024, Smits moved to

De Graafschap Vereniging Betaald Voetbal De Graafschap, simply known as De Graafschap () is a professional association football club based in Doetinchem, Netherlands. The team competes in the , the second level of the Dutch football league system. Founded o ...

. He established himself as the club's starting goalkeeper before sustaining a knee injury in a match against

Jong PSV Jong PSV is a Dutch football team based in Eindhoven. It is the reserve team of PSV Eindhoven and plays in the Eerste Divisie since the 2013–14 season. History Until 2013, Jong PSV played in the Beloften Eredivisie, a league exclusively fo ...

on 28 February 2025, which ruled him out for the remainder of the season.

Career statistics

Club

Honours

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 ...

: 2014–15 Bodø/Glimt *

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Smits, Joshua Living people 1992 births Footballers from Nijmegen Men's association football goalkeepers Dutch men's footballers De Treffers players NEC Nijmegen players TOP Oss players Almere City FC players FK Bodø/Glimt players Willem II Tilburg players De Graafschap players Eredivisie players Eerste Divisie players Eliteserien players Dutch expatriate men's footballers Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Norway Expatriate men's footballers in Norway 21st-century Dutch sportsmen