Eduard Karel Alexander de Neve (1 January 1882 or 2 January 1885 – 30 August 1943) was a Dutch

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 for Velocitas Breda, HBS Craeyenhout and the Netherlands national team.

Early life

De Neve was born in either 1882 or 1885 in

Batavia, Dutch East Indies Batavia was the capital of the Dutch East Indies. The area corresponds to present-day Jakarta, Indonesia. Batavia can refer to the city proper or its suburbs and hinterland, the , which included the much larger area of the Residency of Batavia ...

, the son of Eduard Karel Alexander de Neve, a major in the Royal Dutch East Indies Army, and Johanna Christina Fokker. His father died when De Neve was 9 or 10 years old, and the family moved to the Netherlands.

Football career

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

, De Neve joined football club

Quick Quick, as an adjective, refers to something moving with high speed. Quick may also refer to: In business * Quick (restaurant), a Belgian fast-food restaurant chain * Quick (sportswear), a Dutch manufacturer of sportswear * Quick (automobile), a ...

. When he joined the

Royal Netherlands Army The Royal Netherlands Army (, KL) is the Ground warfare, land branch of the Netherlands Armed Forces. Though the Royal Netherlands Army was raised on 9 January 1814, its origins date back to 1572, when the was raised making the Dutch standing a ...

, he started to play football for Velocitas Breda, which was affiliated with the Royal Military Academy of the Netherlands. He moved to HBS Craeyenhout (football club) in 1905, and won the Dutch national football title in his first season back in

. De Neve was part of the first Netherlands national team, which played for the Coupe Vanden Abeele against

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

on 30 April 1905. De Neve made the opening goal of the match after 80 minutes., based on An

own goal An own goal occurs in sports when a player performs actions that result in scoring points for the opposition, such as when a Association football, footballer puts a ball into their own net. In some parts of the world, the term has become a met ...

by Dutchman Ben Stom in the 86th minute was the equalizer, and the score was 1–1 after regular time. De Neve scored three goals in

extra time Overtime (OT) or extra time (ET) is an additional period of play to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only if the game is required t ...

, after 106, 117 and 119 minutes, and the final score of the match was 4–1. The Netherlands had won its first match ever, and De Neve had scored all four Dutch goals. He was also in the Dutch squad for a return match in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

two weeks later, on 14 May 1905. The Netherlands won the match 4–0, with De Neve having scored two goals. De Neve played the third and final international match of his career on 13 May 1906, again against Belgium, this time resulting in a 2–3 loss. De Neve had scored six goals in three caps. He would remain the top scorer of the Netherlands national team until 21 March 1909, when Edu Snethlage of De Neve's former club

scored the opening goal of a match against Belgium, his seventh goal for the Netherlands national team. A knee injury and military service in the Dutch East Indies forced De Neve to end his career as a football player in 1907. He published his memoirs, entitled ''Koning Voetbal'' ("King Football"), in 1938, on the occasion of the Dutch East Indies taking part in the

1938 FIFA World Cup The 1938 FIFA World Cup was the 3rd edition of the FIFA World Cup, World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football championship for senior men's national teams. It was held in France from 4 to 19 June 1938. Italy national ...

Military career

He was promoted to the rank of

First Lieutenant First lieutenant is a commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces; in some forces, it is an appointment. The rank of lieutenant has different meanings in different military formations, but in most forces it is sub-divided into a se ...

on 27 July 1909, and was honourably discharged from the army two months later. In the same year, his brother Gilles was eaten by cannibals on the island of Sumba in the Dutch East Indies.

Personal life

De Neve worked for several Dutch companies and plantations in the Dutch East Indies, but he struggled to get by. In 1913, he was engaged to Daisy Maud Green in the port of

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

, Italy. The two were married on 14 August 1914 in Lubuk Sinapeng in the Dutch East Indies. They had one son, Gilles Pieter Cornelis de Neve, known as 'Gilles Jr.'https://www.nationaalarchief.nl/onderzoeken/archief/2.19.255.01/invnr/109572A/file/NL-HaNA_2.19.255.01_109572A_0001 Dutch National Archives file on Gilles Jr in service records. The couple were divorced after 12 years; Daisy Maud and Gilles Jr. moved to The Hague, while De Neve remained in the Dutch East Indies.

Death

Eddy de Neve died during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

on 30 August 1943, in a

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

ese

concentration camp A concentration camp is a prison or other facility used for the internment of political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or ethnic minority groups, on the grounds of national security, or for exploitati ...

in the Dutch East Indies. His only child, Gilles Jr., died in the crash of his

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

Supermarine Spitfire The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was used by the Royal Air Force and other Allies of World War II, Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. It was the only British fighter produced conti ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

in 1944.

International goals

:''Netherlands score listed first, score column indicates score after each de Neve goal.''

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Neve, Eddy de 1880s births 1943 deaths Dutch men's footballers Netherlands men's international footballers People from Batavia, Dutch East Indies HBS Craeyenhout players Men's association football forwards Royal Netherlands Army officers Dutch people who died in Japanese internment camps