Christopher James van Huizen (born 28 November 1992) is a Singaporean 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 ...

who plays as a full-back or winger for

Singapore Premier League The Singapore Premier League, commonly abbreviated as SPL, officially known as the AIA Singapore Premier League for sponsorship reasons, is a men's professional football league sanctioned by the Football Association of Singapore (FAS), which ...

club

Lion City Sailors Lion City Sailors Football Club, commonly referred to as The Sailors or LCS, is a Singaporean professional football club competing in the Singapore Premier League, the top tier of the Singapore football league system. Since the 2021 season, the ...

and the Singapore national team.

Club career

Van Huizen went for trials with

Geylang International Geylang International Football Club is a professional football club based in Bedok, Singapore, which plays in the Singapore Premier League, the top division of football in Singapore. The club was founded in 1973 with the purpose of building ...

when he was young and duly impressed the coaches at Geylang was rewarded with a place at the Geylang U-16 squad. He was due to play for

S.League The Singapore Premier League, commonly abbreviated as SPL, officially known as the AIA Singapore Premier League for sponsorship reasons, is a men's professional football league sanctioned by the Football Association of Singapore (FAS), which ...

giants

Tampines Rovers Tampines Rovers Football Club is a professional football club based in Tampines, Singapore, that competes in the Singapore Premier League, the top tier of Singapore football league system. Founded in 1945, the club have won the national league ...

Prime League The Prime League was the reserve and youth team soccer league of Singapore's S.League. Teams involved in the league are primarily made up of youth players from the S.League clubs. The Prime League was founded in 1997. S.League clubs are required ...

squad when he turned 17 but saw his opportunity derailed by

National Service National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939. The ...

. Van Huizen rejected the chance to play for the SAFSA team during his 2 years of service and almost gave up on continuing professional football. A second chance came calling for Van Huizen when he entered the professional football scene in Singapore through his involvement in a

MediaCorp Channel 5 Channel 5 (Chinese: 五頻道) is a free-to-air, English-language television channel in Singapore. Owned by state broadcaster Mediacorp, it broadcasts general entertainment, news, and sports programming. The channel's logo is a big white number ...

TV series, First XI.

Tampines Rovers

Following his performance in the reality TV series,

coach

Rafi Ali Rafi Ali (born 11 December 1972) is a former Singaporean footballer and coach. He is part of the Singapore national football team that won the 1998 Tiger Cup. He started his career with Geylang United. His preferred playing position is either as ...

offered Van Huizen a two-year contract to play for both the

and the

teams.

LionsXII

Alongside

Sahil Suhaimi Mohamad Sahil bin Suhaimi (born 8 July 1992) is a Singaporean professional footballer who plays as a forward for Singapore Premier League side Hougang United and the Singapore national team. Club career Young Lions Sahil Suhaimi made his S.L ...

Wahyudi Wayid Wahyudi (born on April 4, 1978, in Kediri, East Java) is an Indonesian former 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 ...

and

Izzdin Shafiq Muhammad Izzdin Shafiq bin Yacob (born 14 December 1990) is a Singaporean professional footballer who plays for Singapore Premier League club Geylang International FC. He played for the Singapore Selection XI at the 2015 Premier League Asia Tro ...

, Van Huizen was unveiled as one of the new LionsXII signings by

Fandi Ahmad Fandi bin Ahmad (born 29 May 1962) is a Singaporean professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Association football, player. During his professional career, he mainly played as a Forward (association football), st ...

for the

2015 Malaysia Super League The 2015 Liga Super ( en, 2015 Super League) is the 12th season of the Liga Super, the top-tier professional football league in Malaysia.http://www.rsssf.com/tablesm/malay2015.html 2015 Liga Super The season was held from 31 January and conclud ...

season. This marks a remarkable turnaround for the "boy from the reality series" to a potential national team player. Van Huizen made his LionsXII debut as a substitute in the opening game of the season, coming on to make a brief cameo appearance against

PDRM FA Royal Malaysia Police Football Club (), well known as PDRM FC, is a Malaysian professional football club associated with the entity of the Royal Malaysia Police, that participate in the Malaysia Super League. The club is based in Kuala Lumpur. ...

in a 5-3 victory for the Lions.

Tampines Rovers

Following the exit of LionsXII from the

Malaysia Super League The Malaysia Super League ( ms, Liga Super Malaysia) is the men's top professional football division of the Malaysian football league system. Administered by the Football Malaysia Limited Liability Partnership (FMLLP), now known as the Malay ...

, Van Huizen rejoined Tampines Rovers. He scored his first goal of the season in a 1-2 win over Garena Young Lions, helping the Stags climb to joint-top of the 2016 S.League season.

Garena Young Lions

Van Huizen signed for Garena Young Lions on 1 July 2016. This was following a season at Tampines Rovers where he was used sparingly only.

Home United

Van Huizen then signed for the Protectors but only managed to play a small role in the squad.

Geylang International

Van Huizen had a stellar season in the

2019 Singapore Premier League The 2019 Singapore Premier League (also known as the AIA Singapore Premier League due to sponsorship reasons) was the 2nd season of the Singapore Premier League, the top-flight Singaporean professional league for association football clubs, since ...

season, when he racked up 10 assists, the highest in the league. On 11 November 2021, he leaves Geylang International, considering retirement from football.

Tampines Rovers

Van Huizen rejoined Tampines Rovers in 2022 with a one year deal.

Lion City Sailors

Van Huizen joined the Lion City Sailors in 2023.

International career

Having impressed in his first season in the

2014 S.League The 2014 S.League was the 19th season since the establishment of the S.League, the top-flight Singaporean professional league for association football clubs. The league was also known as the Great Eastern Yeo's S.League due to sponsorship reason ...

Season, Van Huizen was rewarded with a call-up to the Singapore U-21 squad, by

Richard Bok Richard Bok is a Singaporean soccer coach and former football player. He is currently Head Coach Serangoon Centre with ActiveSG Football Academy. Bok is the most successful coach in the history of Singapore's S.League.Thanh Niên Cup in

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making it ...

. In 2015, Van Huizen was called up to the senior team for the

2018 World Cup qualifiers Eighteen or 18 may refer to: * 18 (number), the natural number following 17 and preceding 19 * one of the years 18 BC, AD 18, 1918, 2018 Film, television and entertainment * ''18'' (film), a 1993 Taiwanese experimental film based on the short ...

. He made his senior team international debut in a 3-0 loss against Japan, coming on with 10 minutes left on the clock. He earned his third cap in a friendly against

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

, coming on for the final 15 minutes of the game. In 2022, Van Huizen was included in the team for the

2022 FAS Tri-Nations Series The 2022 FAS Tri-Nations Series was a three-team association football tournament held at the National Stadium in Kallang, Singapore between 23 and 29 March 2022 for the men's competition and at Jalan Besar Stadium between 4 and 11 April for the w ...

and

2022 AFF Championship The 2022 AFF Championship (officially AFF Mitsubishi Electric Cup 2022 due to sponsorship reasons) was the 14th edition of the AFF Championship, the football championship of nations affiliated to the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) and was the ...

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Club

;LionsXII *

FA Cup Malaysia The Malaysia FA Cup ( ms, Piala FA) is an annual national knock-out football tournament in Malaysia. The cup was first held in 1990. The competition was previously managed by Football Association of Malaysia (FAM), before being transferred to F ...

: 2015

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Van Huizen, Christopher Living people 1992 births Singaporean people of Dutch descent Singaporean footballers Singapore international footballers Tampines Rovers FC players Singapore Premier League players Association football midfielders Singapore youth international footballers