Harry Decheiver (born 8 March 1970) is a Dutch former 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 striker in the Netherlands and Germany. After having played four seasons for

Go Ahead Eagles The Go Ahead Eagles are a Dutch professional football club from the city of Deventer in the province of Overijssel. They play in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football, having achieved promotion from the second tier Eerste Divisie in th ...

(1986–1990) he served

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 ...

(1990–1991),

RKC Waalwijk RKC Waalwijk () is a Dutch professional association football, football club based in Waalwijk. They currently play in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of Dutch football league system, Dutch football, following relegation from the Eredivisie i ...

(1991–1994), Go Ahead Eagles (1995),

SC Freiburg Sport-Club Freiburg e.V., commonly known as SC Freiburg (), is a Football in Germany, German professional football club, based in the city of Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg. It plays in the Bundesliga, having been promoted as champions ...

(1995–1997),

FC Utrecht Football Club Utrecht () is a Dutch professional association football, football club based in Utrecht. The club competes in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football league system, Dutch football, and plays its home matches at the Stadion ...

(1997) and, finally,

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, often known simply as Borussia Dortmund () or by its initialism BVB (), or just Dortmund by International fans, is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is ...

(1997–1999). He retired early due to injury.

Club career

SC Freiburg

Decheiver joined

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

side

from

in winter 1995 for a reported transfer fee of DM 700,000, signing a contract until 1997. Upon his arrival, the club ranked last in the Bundesliga table but finished the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

in 11th spot with Decheiver contributing 11 goals. Two of these goals came in March 1996 as Freiburg managed a rare win against

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), commonly known as Bayern Munich (), FC Bayern () or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. They are most known for their men's professional football team, ...

. In March 1997, Decheiver agreed to the termination of his contract parting in anger with the club. He had been criticised for his lack of defensive work while his teammates had accused him of "arrogant und provocative" behaviour and spoken out in favour of his rivals

Uwe Wassmer Uwe Wassmer (born 22 January 1966) is a German former professional footballer who played as a striker during the 1980s and 1990s. Career Wassmer was born in Wehr, Baden-Württemberg. He began his career in Switzerland with FC Aarau in 1985 and ...

and Uwe Spies. Freiburg was relegated from the

at the end of 1996–97 season. During his time at Freiburg, he was nicknamed "Knipser" and scored a total of 21 goals in 49 appearances for the club across all competitions.

Utrecht

In April 1997, Decheiver surprisingly returned to the Netherlands joining

. He rejected offers from

1. FC Köln 1. Fußball-Club Köln 01/07 e. V., better known as simply 1. FC Köln () or FC Cologne in English language, English, is a German professional association football, football club based in Cologne in North Rhine-Westphalia. It was formed in 1948 ...

VfB Stuttgart Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e. V. (), commonly known as VfB Stuttgart (), is a German professional sports club based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. The club's Association football, football team is currently part of Germany's f ...

, and

SBV Vitesse SBV Vitesse Arnhem (''Stichting Betaald Voetbal Vitesse Arnhem, Eng: Professional Football Foundation Vitesse Arnhem''), widely known as Vitesse () or internationally known as Vitesse Arnhem, is a Dutch professional association football, footba ...

. He signed a four-year contract.

Borussia Dortmund

In November 1997, Decheiver signed a three-and-a-half-year contract with

. The transfer fee paid to Utrecht was reported as DM2.7 million.

Honours

Borussia Dortmund * Intercontinental Cup:

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

References

External links

*
Profile
1970 births Living people Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Dutch men's footballers Dutch expatriate men's footballers Men's association football forwards Go Ahead Eagles players SC Heerenveen players RKC Waalwijk players FC Utrecht players SC Freiburg players Borussia Dortmund players Bundesliga players Eredivisie players Footballers from Deventer Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Germany {{netherlands-footy-forward-stub