Jacques Visschers (6 December 1940 – 21 August 2020) 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 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 ...

. He spent his entire football career at

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 ...

, from 1948 until 1971, when he retired from football. After his football career, Visschers was NAC Breda's team manager, one of the founders and a board member of the VVCS and a board member of the S.C.F. Jacques Visschers was a member of the

KNVB The Royal Dutch Football Association (, ; KNVB ) is the governing body of football in the Netherlands. It organises the main Dutch football leagues (Eredivisie and Eerste Divisie), the amateur leagues, the KNVB Cup, and the Dutch men's and women ...

’s arbitration committee and was a member of NAC Breda's supervisory board. Visschers also was a member of the

Order of Orange-Nassau The Order of Orange-Nassau () is a civil and military Dutch order of chivalry founded on 4 April 1892 by the queen regent, Emma of the Netherlands. The order is a chivalric order open to "everyone who has performed acts of special merits for ...

and a member of honour of NAC Breda.

Club career

Early years

Born in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

in 1940, Jacques Visschers only lived shortly in the Dutch capital. His father was originally from Breda and was temporarily transferred there for his work. At the age of 7 Visschers wanted to play for NAC Breda, but because he was Catholic, his neighbourhood supported Breda's V.V. Baronie and he was too young, he did not join NAC Breda. When he turned 9 years old, he played his first youth match for NAC Breda.Jeroen Baldwin (2008), ‘NAC, a Way of Life’. Breda: van Ierland Uitgeverij, , page 14–18 During his younger career he played as an attacking midfielder. Cor Kools advised him at the age of 18 to become a striker.

Senior career

On 6 March 1960 Visschers made his debut for NAC Breda in the away match against Sittardia.John de Leeuw and Rob Lemmens (1992), ’80 jaar NAC’. In 1961 he became a semi professional football player, in which he earned 1500

guilder Guilder is the English translation of the Dutch and German ''gulden'', originally shortened from Middle High German ''guldin pfenninc'' (" gold penny"). This was the term that became current in the southern and western parts of the Holy Rom ...

s a year.http://www.derat.nl/int/nl/club/historiepersoonsinfo.asp?persid=286, Profile page on NAC Fanzine De Rat ONLINE In 1965 NAC was relegated to the

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 ...

, an event which Visschers held himself responsible for. “I always say it's my fault. Normally I scored 10 to 15 goals a season. That season I only scored two goals”. At that time Visschers also thought about retirement. In his opinion football became too harsh and the technical players became the victim. On 6 June 1971 Visschers played his last match for NAC against

MVV MVV may refer to: Groups, organizations, companies *Malaysia Vision Valley (MVV), an economic corridor, see Malaysian National Projects * (MVV GmbH; ), German city works of Mannheim * Militaire Voetbal Vereniging (M. V. V.), a military soccer team ...

. After 282 matches, in which he scored 129 goals, he retired from professional football.

Post-playing career

After his football career Visschers worked in several roles in the financial sector. He ended up as a financial director for Nimox. Besides his work, he was still actively involved in football. From 1967 until 1977 he was a board member of the VVCS, the Dutch Association for Professional Football players. In 1978 Visschers was asked to join the

’s arbitrary commission and later he joined the KNVB's financial commission. After his professional football career, Visschers was NAC's team manager. From the nineties onwards, Visschers postponed his voluntary activities and supported NAC Breda from the stands. In 2003 Visschers joined NAC's supervisory board, after the club was saved from near bankruptcy. From 2003 onwards, he was responsible for football affairs and scouting. Despite earlier denials towards fans and stakeholders by management and the Board members, it appeared at the end of season 2009–2010 that NAC's financial position was not stable. The club lost €3.2 million that season, due to rebuilding the stadium and buying too expensive players. Board members Visschers, Willem van der Hoeven, and Bas Koomans resigned and

Bas van Bavel Balthassar Jozef Paul "Bas" van Bavel (born 24 June 1964) is a Dutch historian. He has held the chair of Transitions of Economy and Society at Utrecht University since 2011, and has been professor of Economic and Social History since 2007. His res ...

became new chairman.

Honours

For his services to Dutch football, Visschers received the KNVB distinction De Nederlandse Leeuw (English: Dutch Lion). NAC's chairman Willem van der Hoeve granted Visschers NAC Breda's Member of Honour title for his services for the club. On 24 August 2008 Visschers was crowned as a member of the Order of Orange-Nassau. He received his membership for his great contributions to football in Breda and his special contributions to the Dutch football.http://www.bredavandaag.nl/nac/2008-08-25/onderscheiding-voor-visschers, Jacques Visscher becomes member of Order of Orange-Nassau

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Visschers, Jacques 1940 births 2020 deaths Footballers from Breda Men's association football forwards Dutch men's footballers NAC Breda players Eredivisie players Recipients of the Order of Orange-Nassau 20th-century Dutch sportsmen