Geert Arend Roorda (, born 2 March 1988) is a Dutch professional

football manager ''Football Manager'', also known as ''Worldwide Soccer Manager'' in North America from 2004 to 2008, is a series of football management simulation video games developed by British developer Sports Interactive and published by Sega. The game beg ...

and former

player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who i ...

who is the

head coach A head coach, senior coach, or manager is a professional responsible for training and developing athletes within a sports team. This role often has a higher public profile and salary than other coaching positions. In some sports, such as associat ...

Tweede Divisie Tweede Divisie (; ) is the highest amateur (and historically the lowest professional) football league in the Netherlands. It was established in 1956, together with the Eredivisie and the Eerste Divisie. Between 1956 and 1960 and between 1962 and 19 ...

club

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

Early career

Roorda started out by playing for amateur club "vv Noordbergum" but since he was eight years old he could be found around the

Abe Lenstra Stadion Abe Lenstra Stadion () is a association football, football stadium, located in Heerenveen, Netherlands. It is currently used mostly as a home ground for Eredivisie club SC Heerenveen, Heerenveen. The current capacity is 27,224. Naming The stad ...

. When he was a second year D he played with the C team and a second years C he played with the B team. He was always a year ahead of the curve.

sc Heerenveen

At age 19 he finished high school at the havo level (which combined school and football with an adapted timetable) and focuses now fully on his professional career and

sc Heerenveen Sportclub Heerenveen (; West Frisian language, West Frisian: Sportklub It Hearrenfean) is a Dutch professional association football, football club from Heerenveen. They currently play in the Eredivisie, the top level of football in the Netherla ...

. Roorda is since season 2007/2008 part of the first selection after he impressed in the pre-season, in which he scored a wonderful free kick versus

Sivasspor Sivasspor Kulübü, known as Net Global Sivasspor due to sponsorship reasons, is a Turkish sports club based in Sivas. The primary department of the club is men's football. Formed in 1967, its football department has competed in Süper Lig since t ...

Gertjan Verbeek Gertjan Verbeek (; born 1 August 1962) is a Dutch former professional footballer who last managed Eerste Divisie side Almere City. Coaching career Netherlands After retiring from his playing career in 1994, Verbeek stayed with SC Heerenveen as ...

used him as a substitute five times in season 2007/08 so far. On 19 September 2007 he was named by the coach to be one of the starting eleven in the

UEFA cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

game versus

Helsingborgs IF Helsingborgs Idrottsförening, commonly referred to as Helsingborgs IF, Helsingborg or (especially locally) HIF (), is a Swedish professional football club located in Helsingborg. They play in the Swedish second tier, Superettan, following releg ...

. Verbeek said Roorda compelled admiration for his appearance in the competition versus

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 ...

on 15 September. He commented: "Geert is a good player, age doesn't matter whether you're 18 or 21". It meant his debut as a starter for Heerenveen. After missing a year due to injuries, he made his return to Eredivisie football on 12 April 2009.

NEC

After losing prospect on play time, he left 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 the summer of 2012. Unfortunately, his staying at his new club turned out to be a disappointment. After only playing 14 matches in one and a half season, partly caused by injuries, he left as a free agent in January 2014.

Sparta Rotterdam

He signed with Sparta in January 2014, but could not impress and was released half a season later, having played just seven matches for the Rotterdam side.

Dordrecht

On 31 July 2015, it was announced that Roorda had signed a one-year deal with

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 ...

side

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, ...

Richmond SC

In December 2015, it was announced that Roorda would be moving to

Victoria, Australia Victoria, commonly abbreviated as Vic, is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state (after Tasmania), with a land area of ; the second-most-populated state (after New South Wales), with a population of over 7 million; ...

, Australia to join

Richmond SC Greater Dandenong Football Club is an Australian association football, soccer club from Dandenong, Victoria, an eastern suburb of Melbourne, Australia. Greater Dandenong most recently competed in the Victorian State League Division 1, Victorian ...

in the

National Premier Leagues Victoria The National Premier Leagues Victoria (NPL Victoria or NPL VIC) is a semi-professional soccer league in Victoria, Australia. The league is a part of the National Premier Leagues, and is the highest level within the Victorian soccer league syst ...

Retirement

In November 2016, Roorda joined

Hoofdklasse The Vierde Divisie (; "Fourth Division"), formerly known as Hoofdklasse () is the second-highest league of amateur football in the Netherlands, and the fifth tier in general. Background The league was divided into two sections: Saturday and Sunda ...

club

Flevo Boys Flevo Boys is a Dutch association football club from Emmeloord. It plays home matches at the 3,000-capacity home ground Sportpark Ervenbos. Honours ; Vierde klasse : Winners 1969 ; Derde klasse : Winners 1971 ; Tweede klasse : Winners 1982, 1 ...

, close to his residence in

Lemmer Lemmer () is a town in the municipality of De Fryske Marren, in the Dutch province of Friesland. Lemmer lies adjacent to the IJsselmeer and the Frisian Lakes and is one of Friesland's best-known surface water sports locations. Lemmer is a bustli ...

. In April 2017, Roorda announced his retirement from football, instead choosing to focus on a career as a youth coach.

International career

He played for the national youth teams Oranje −17 and Oranje −19. Due to many injuries (

hamstring A hamstring () is any one of the three posterior thigh muscles in human anatomy between the hip and the knee: from medial to lateral, the semimembranosus, semitendinosus and biceps femoris. Etymology The word " ham" is derived from the Old ...

, ankle,

hip In vertebrate anatomy, the hip, or coxaLatin ''coxa'' was used by Celsus in the sense "hip", but by Pliny the Elder in the sense "hip bone" (Diab, p 77) (: ''coxae'') in medical terminology, refers to either an anatomical region or a joint on t ...

and both knees), of which the heaviest was a knee injury that kept him off the pitch for almost ten months (hence missing out one year of international youth football).

Under 17 and under 19

In October 2004 he got his first invitation for Oranje −17. Thereafter he played two games, versus

Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...

and

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. He scored in the European Cup qualification game against Turkey. Due to a hip injury he had to mis out on the

European Championships A European Championship is the top level international sports competition between European athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs. In the plural, the European Championships also refers t ...

in Italy. In September 2005 he flew with his team to

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

for the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

. The Oranje −17 squad lost to

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

(0–4) in the semi-finals, but the ''équipe'' of coach

Ruud Kaiser Ruud Kaiser (born 26 December 1960) is a Dutch football manager, coach and former player who played as a midfielder. He is currently the coach of Helmond Sport's under-19 team. Playing career Born in Amsterdam, Kaiser began his career with his h ...

had its revenge in the third place play-off against Turkey (2–1). Roorda played just 75 minutes in all the tournament in very many positions. He was used as a defender,

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

and striker. Kaiser described his pupil as follows: 'He is a right wing midfielder and he can also be used as an attacking

. He's a skilled player with a good pass and he can create chances. He's got insight, power and can also be used as a target man'

Under-21

He was called up by

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

coach

Foppe de Haan Foppe Geert de Haan (, born 26 June 1943) is a Dutch football coach. He is known for his long association with Frisian club Heerenveen. De Haan was the manager of the Tuvalu national team during 2011 and then rejoined Heerenveen's youth prog ...

as one of the three new faces (together with

Lorenzo Davids Lorenzo Davids (born 4 September 1986) is a Dutch footballer who plays as a midfielder for ninth-tier Vierde Klasse side SV Nijmegen. Club career Feyenoord Lorenzo Davids started playing football at a young age and joined various youth teams, w ...

and

Dirk Marcellis Dirk Antoon Nico Marcellis (born 13 April 1988) is a Dutch former association football, footballer who played as a centre back. After a non-playing period at PSV, Marcellis fought back at AZ and became one of its important players. After sufferin ...

) to take on Estonia on 12 October 2007. In

Tallinn Tallinn is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Estonia, most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a Tallinn Bay, bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and ...

he made his debut in the 2009 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifier. De Haan commented: "He does very well at the moment, he has a strong physique and a certain drive. I think this debut will get him even further, besides, he gives the team a ''lift''" With his debut he tread in the steps of other (former) Frisian footballers such as Ronnie Pander and Max Houttuin.

Statistics

Honours

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 ...

: 1 :: 2009

References

External links

Voetbal International profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Roorda, Geert Arend 1988 births Living people Dutch men's footballers Men's association football midfielders SC Heerenveen players Excelsior Rotterdam players NEC Nijmegen players Sparta Rotterdam players FC Dordrecht players Greater Dandenong FC players Flevo Boys players Eredivisie players Eerste Divisie players Vierde Divisie players National Premier Leagues players Footballers from Heerenveen Dutch expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's soccer players in Australia Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Australia