Dirk Wouter Johannes "Dick" van Dijk (15 February 1946 – 8 July 1997) was 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 played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

for

FC Twente Football Club Twente (), sometimes known internationally as FC Twente Enschede, is a Dutch professional Association football, football club from the city of Enschede. The club was formed in 1965 by the merger of 1926 Dutch champions Sportclub E ...

and

Ajax Amsterdam Amsterdamsche Football Club Ajax (), also known as AFC Ajax, Ajax Amsterdam, or commonly Ajax, is a Dutch professional Association football, football Football team, club based in Amsterdam, that plays in the , the top tier in Dutch football. ...

. He was a member of Ajax's

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by top-division European clubs. The competition begins with a round robi ...

victory in

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses (Solar eclipse of February 25, 1971, February 25, Solar eclipse of July 22, 1971, July 22 and Solar eclipse of August 20, 1971, August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 1971 lunar eclip ...

. He earned seven caps for the

Netherlands national football team The Netherlands national football team ( or simply ''Het Nederlands elftal'') has represented the Netherlands in international men's football matches since 1905. The men's national team is controlled by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNV ...

Club career

Dick van Dijk grew up in Gouda and played football in his youth in the local amateur club. When he was sixteen, he met coach

Hans Croon Hans Croon (25 May 1936 – 5 February 1985) was a Dutch football manager who won the 1976 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup Final with Anderlecht. Managerial career As well as Anderlecht, Croon coached in the Netherlands and Belgium with DWS, VER, HVC, FC ...

of SVV, with whom he played in the Second division. Van Dijk was the top scorer for the club in 1966 when SVV won promotion to the First Division. He was invited to the Dutch youth team and the Dutch military team. The scoring ability of the young star attracted the interest of

, but the asking price of 200,000 guilders was too much. A less impressive season ensured that the transfer fee a year later had dropped to 70,000 guilders, with Van Dijk joining FC Twente in the summer of 1967. Dick van Dijk 1969

At Twente, Van Dijk formed a strong attacking partnership with Theo Pahlplatz, scoring 22 times and helping a youthful side to a creditable eighth-place finish in his first season. The following year Van Dijk finished as top scorer in the Premier League with 30 goals. In a legendary home match against Ajax on 3 November 1968, Twente won 5–1 and Van Dijk scored three goals. It is believed that this contest sparked the interest of Ajax in Van Dijk, who in June 1969 moved to Amsterdam for a transfer fee of 750,000 guilders. While Van Dijk had been a star player at Twente, he had to fight for a spot at Ajax, becoming as a result a more complete footballer who knew how to defend. In his first season, he scored 23 goals in 32 matches. Although not a regular starter during his second season, he nonetheless scored 18 goals in 29 matches. Van Dijk started in the final of the European Cup in June 1971 against Panathinaikos, scoring with a header after five minutes in Ajax's 2–0 victory. After a third season at Ajax, where he was mainly a reserve player, Van Dijk departed in 1972 to

OGC Nice Olympique Gymnaste Club de Nice (), commonly referred to as OGC Nice or simply Nice, is a French professional association football, football club based in Nice. The club was founded in 1904 and currently plays in Ligue 1, the top tier of Footb ...

in France. There he scored frequently, helping the team to a second-place finish in 1972–73 season. On 19 September 1973, Nice achieved a remarkable 3–0 victory in the first leg of their UEFA Cup tie with

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly known as FC Barcelona and colloquially as Barça (), is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of ...

, whose coach was Dutchman

Rinus Michels Marinus Jacobus Hendricus "Rinus" Michels (; 9 February 1928 – 3 March 2005) was a Dutch Association football, football player and coach. He list of one-club men in association football, played his entire career for AFC Ajax, Ajax, which he ...

and whose star player (although he did not figure in the match) was

Johan Cruijff Hendrik Johannes Cruijff (25 April 1947 – 24 March 2016), internationally known as Johan Cruyff (), was a Dutch professional football player and manager. Regarded as one of the greatest players in history and as the greatest Dutch footballe ...

. (Nice would go on to win the tie 3–2 on aggregate.) In 1974, Van Dijk joined

Real Murcia Real Murcia Club de Fútbol, S.A.D., commonly known as Real Murcia (, "Royal Murcia"), is a Spanish football club based in Murcia, in the Región de Murcia. Founded in 1919, it currently plays in , playing home matches at Estadio Nueva Condo ...

in Spain, and a year later ended his football career.

International career

Meanwhile, Van Dijk had made his international debut on 26 March 1969 in a match for the Dutch national team against

Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...

. Van Dijk scored once in a 4–0 victory. On 10 October 1971 Van Dijk played his seventh and final international match against

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

Personal life

He was married to Wanda Kerbaum. After his playing career, he went back to Nice, working as a broker and living in nearby

Saint-Paul-de-Vence Saint-Paul-de-Vence (, literally ''Saint-Paul of Vence''; ; ) is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of Southeastern France. One of the oldest medieval towns on the French Riviera, Saint-Pau ...

Death

In 1997, he died suddenly at 51 years of age from acute endocarditis, a bacterial infection of the heart valves. In his memory, a benefit match was organized on 12 October 1997 between ONA Gouda and the Ajax of the Europe Cup I-finals from 1971. In May 2017, 20 years after his death, another matched was staged in his memory between former Ajax players and Nice.Speciale wedstrijd op De Toekomst ter ere van Dick van Dijk
- AD

Honours

Club

Ajax *

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 ...

: 1969–70, 1971–72 *

KNVB Cup The KNVB Beker (; ), branded as the TOTO KNVB Beker for sponsorship reasons, is a competition in the Netherlands organised by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) since 1898. It was based on the format of the English FA Cup. Outside the N ...

: 1970–71, 1971–72 *

: 1970–71, 1971–72

Individual

* Eredivisie top scorer: 1968–69

References

External links

*
Obituary
- NRC

at

Voetbal International ''Voetbal International'' (VI) is a Dutch football magazine. It is the oldest Dutch football magazine that is still running. History and profile ''Voetbal International'' was established in 1965. VI was one of the founding members of ESM. It l ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dijk, Dick van 1946 births 1997 deaths Footballers from Gouda, South Holland Men's association football forwards Dutch men's footballers Netherlands men's international footballers SV SVV players FC Twente players AFC Ajax players OGC Nice players Real Murcia CF players Eredivisie players Ligue 1 players La Liga players Dutch expatriate men's footballers Dutch expatriate sportspeople in France Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in France Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Infectious disease deaths in France UEFA Champions League–winning players 20th-century Dutch sportsmen