Darren Maatsen (born 30 January 1991) 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 winger for

Excelsior Maassluis Excelsior Maassluis is a football club from Maassluis, Netherlands, founded in 1918. The club's home ground is the 5,000 capacity arena known as Sportpark Dijkpolder. History Excelsior won the Hoofdklasse of 2013 and became champions of the T ...

Career

Maatsen started playing football in his youth career at VV HVO,

FC Dordrecht Football Club Dordrecht, or simply FC Dordrecht () is a professional Dutch association football club based in Dordrecht, a city in the Western Netherlands, located in the province of South Holland. They currently compete in the Eerste Divisie, ...

and

SBV Excelsior

Maatsen joined

Excelsior Excelsior may refer to: Arts and entertainment Literature and poetry * "Excelsior" (Longfellow), an 1841 poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow * "Excelsior", an 1877 picture book in verse by Bret Harte, published as an advertisement for the Sa ...

in 2011, starting his professional football career. Maatsen made his début, in the opening game of the season, when he came on as a substitute in the 72nd minute in a 2–0 loss against

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Netherlands, Dutch professional association football, football club based in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football league system, Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the ...

. In numbers of games, he mostly came on the bench as a substitute. In a match against

Twente Twente ( , Tweants dialect: ''Tweante'') is a region in the eastern Netherlands. It encompasses the most urbanised and easternmost part of the province of Overijssel. Twente is most likely named after the Tuihanti or Tvihanti, a Germanic people ...

, on 2 October 2011, Maatsen came on as a substitute in the 82nd minute and with eight minutes remaining until full-time, he scored twice to make a comeback in a 2–2 draw. Later in the 2011–12 season, Maatsen scored three more goals against

Ajax Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * Ajax (play), ''Ajax'' (play), by the an ...

NAC Breda NAC Breda (), often simply known as NAC, is a Dutch professional football club, based in Breda, Netherlands. NAC Breda play in the Rat Verlegh Stadium, named after their most important player, Antoon 'Rat' Verlegh. They play in the Eredivisi ...

and

VVV-Venlo VVV-Venlo (, ''VVV'' stands for ''Venlose Voetbal Vereniging'' meaning "Venlo Football Club") is a Dutch association football, football club from Venlo, a city on the border with Germany. They play in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of Dutc ...

, to add a tally to his Excelsior career, but the club was relegated to

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 ...

, having finished eighteenth place with nineteenth points. Despite the relegation, his performance attracted interests from Polish side

Lech Poznań Kolejowy Klub Sportowy Lech Poznań S.A., commonly referred to as KKS Lech Poznań or simply Lech Poznań (), is a Polish professional football club based in Poznań and currently competing in the Ekstraklasa, the nation's highest division. ...

. In the 2012–13 season, Maatsen started to play on the right-wing mostly, though sometimes on the left, or even as a striker, making twenty-eight appearances in all competitions.

Ross County

Maatsen signed for

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, also known as the William Hill (bookmaker), William Hill Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Scotland and the highest level of the Scottish football league system. Th ...

club Ross County on 21 June 2013. After just three minutes of the opening match of the season, away to

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

, he scored with a powerful shot from the edge of the penalty area that went in off the crossbar with goalkeeper

Fraser Forster Fraser Gerard Forster (born 17 March 1988) is an English professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper for Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur F.C., Tottenham Hotspur. He will becom ...

well beaten; Ross County lost 2–1. It was awarded "goal of the week" by The Terrace Scottish Football Podcast. However, Mattsen's first team opportunities was soon limited and made only made ten appearances after suffering an ankle injury that kept him out for most of the season. The 2014–15 season saw Maatsen's playing time continued to be reduced, even though he scored two goals this season against

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

and

Dundee United Dundee United Football Club is a Scotland, Scottish professional association football, football club based in the city of Dundee. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1923. United are nickname ...

. By the time he made seven appearances and scored two times. He was released by Ross County on 2 February 2015.

After Ross County

Maatsen signed with Dutch

side

FC Den Bosch FC Den Bosch () is a professional football club from 's-Hertogenbosch, They currently compete in the Eerste Divisie. They were founded 18 August 1965, as FC Den Bosch/BVV. They are the successor of BVV (1906) and Wilhelmina (1890). Their stadiu ...

on the same day. Six days later, on 9 February 2015, he made his Den Bosch debut, coming on as a substitute for

Jort van der Sande #jortnation Jort van der Sande (born 25 January 1996) is a professional association football, footballer who plays as a forward (association football), forward for Scottish Premiership club Dundee United. Jort is an instant fan favourite at the ...

in the 83rd minute, in a 2–0 win over Emmen. Maatsen scored four days later after his debut, in a 5–1 win over

Helmond Sport Helmond Sport () is a Dutch professional football club based in Helmond, North Brabant. Founded in 1967 following the acquisition of the professional license of , the club achieved promotion to the top-tier Eredivisie in 1982. After two seasons ...

. In the last game of the season, he scored in a 3–3 draw against

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 ...

. Maatsen made sixteen appearances and scoring twice in his half season at Den Bosch. On 20 July 2017, Maatsen signed a contract with the recently promoted club of

Apollon Smyrni Apollon Smyrnis Football Club () is a professional football club based in Athens, Greece, which competes in the Athens FCA first division. It is part of GS Apollon Smyrnis (Γυμναστικός Σύλλογος Απόλλων Σμύρνης), ...

. At his interview after his transfer, he stated that he considered the transfer a big step in his career. On 23 August 2021, he joined

Quick Boys Quick Boys (Katwijkse Voetbal Vereniging Quick Boys) is an amateur football club from Katwijk aan Zee, Netherlands. The club, established on 1 February 1920, is the second most successful amateur football club in the Netherlands, behind IJsselme ...

Personal

His brother is professional footballer

Dalian Maatsen Dalian Maatsen (born 2 January 1994) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Katwijk Katwijk () is a coastal municipality and town in the province of South Holland, which is situated in the mid-western part of the ...

. Maatsen is of Surinamese descent.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Maatsen, Darren 1991 births Footballers from Vlaardingen Living people Dutch men's footballers Dutch sportspeople of Surinamese descent Men's association football wingers Excelsior Rotterdam players FC Den Bosch players Ross County F.C. players Ayia Napa FC players Excelsior Maassluis players Go Ahead Eagles players Apollon Smyrnis F.C. players RKC Waalwijk players Stabæk Fotball players NAC Breda players Quick Boys players Amsterdamsche FC players Eredivisie players Eerste Divisie players Scottish Professional Football League players Cypriot First Division players Super League Greece players Eliteserien players Tweede Divisie players Dutch expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Scotland Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Expatriate men's footballers in Cyprus Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Greece Expatriate men's footballers in Norway Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Norway 21st-century Dutch sportsmen