Jan Kromkamp (born 17 August 1980) 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

right-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

. He manages CSV Apeldoorn. Kromkamp played a total of 201 games in the

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 ...

and scored eight goals in nine seasons, playing for both AZ and PSV. He also played in England and Spain, and started and finished his career at

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 ...

. Kromkamp was included in the Netherlands squad for the

2006 World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the event in July 2000. Teams represe ...

Club career

Early years, AZ

Born in Makkinga,

Friesland Friesland ( ; ; official ), historically and traditionally known as Frisia (), named after the Frisians, is a Provinces of the Netherlands, province of the Netherlands located in the country's northern part. It is situated west of Groningen (p ...

, Kromkamp made his professional debut for

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 ...

, his first appearance in the competition being on 12 September 1998 in a 3–0 home win against FC Top Oss. He played two full seasons with the team, scoring four goals in 33 games in his second. Kromkamp moved to the

with AZ for the 2000–01 campaign, being a regular first-team starter right away. In his fourth year he appeared in 34 league matches as the

Alkmaar Alkmaar () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands, located in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland. Alkmaar is well known fo ...

side finished fourth, thus qualifying for 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 ...

and reaching the semifinals in the continental competition.

Villarreal, Liverpool

At the start of the 2005–06 season, Kromkamp signed with

Villarreal Villarreal (officially, in ) is a city and municipality in the province of Castellón which is part of the Valencian Community in the east of Spain. The town is located at 42 m above sea level, 7 km to the south of the province's capital ( ...

of Spain. On 29 December 2005, however, the

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

club agreed on an exchange deal with

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

, with Josemi going in the opposite direction. Kromkamp made his debut for the ''Reds'' on 7 January 2006, in a 5–3 win over

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club is a professional association football, football club from Luton, Bedfordshire, England. The club currently competes in EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system. Nicknamed "The Hatters", L ...

in the

third round Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system Places * 3rd Street (di ...

of the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

. During his stint at

Anfield Anfield is a Association football, football stadium in the area of Anfield (suburb), Anfield, Liverpool, England, which has been the home of Liverpool F.C. since its formation in 1892. The stadium has a seating capacity of 61,276, making it the ...

, however, he was unable to dislodge Irish international Steve Finnan from the starting lineup, but did make a number of appearances from the bench, most notably in the domestic cup final; he was described as being a fair crosser of the ball with a lack of pace, who had difficulty in stopping opposition wingers getting crosses in.

PSV, later career

Kromkamp played one league game for Liverpool in the 2006–07 season. On 31 August 2006, he was sold to

PSV Eindhoven Philips Sport Vereniging (; ), abbreviated as PSV and internationally known as PSV Eindhoven (), is a Dutch sports club from Eindhoven, Netherlands. It is best known for its professional association football, football department, which has pla ...

, taking over the number 2 jersey from André Ooijer who left for

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second level of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...

. He appeared in 54 league games in his first two seasons combined, both ending in League championship wins, and also faced former club Liverpool in two

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

matches, PSV managing only one draw in four games. From 2008 to 2010, Kromkamp played rarely due to injuries. On 22 February 2011, he rejoined his first professional team, Go Ahead Eagles – effective as of July – again in the second division. On 23 June 2013, aged 33, Kromkamp announced his retirement from professional football due to chronic knee problems.

International career

Kromkamp was first called up by the Dutch national team under coach

Marco van Basten Marcel "Marco" Van Basten (; born 31 October 1964) is a Dutch former football manager and player who played as a striker for Ajax and AC Milan, as well as the Netherlands national team. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all t ...

. He won his first

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. The origin of the word "cap" comes from the Old French word "chapeau" which means "head co ...

on 18 August 2004 in a 2–2 draw in a friendly against

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

and in the following year he established himself as the first-choice

. Shortly after Kromkamp's move to Liverpool, however, van Basten admitted that he would rather see the player appear more regularly for his club – labelling the transfer as a bad move. Kromkamp hit back at this criticism by saying that he was very pleased to have joined Liverpool and that he would work hard to make it into van Basten's

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to FIFA World Cup hosts ...

squad; in May 2006 the manager announced his final list of 23, which included Kromkamp, although he was not used during the tournament itself.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Liverpool *

: 2005–06 PSV *

: 2006–07, 2007–08

References

External links

Stats at Voetbal International
* * * *
Liverpool historic profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kromkamp, Jan 1980 births Living people People from Ooststellingwerf Footballers from Friesland Dutch men's footballers Netherlands men's international footballers Men's association football defenders Go Ahead Eagles players AZ Alkmaar players PSV Eindhoven players Villarreal CF players Liverpool F.C. players Eerste Divisie players Eredivisie players La Liga players Premier League players 2006 FIFA World Cup players Dutch expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in England Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Dutch expatriate sportspeople in England Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Spain Dutch football managers