Jan Jacobus Wouters (born 17 July 1960) is a Dutch professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

coach and former player. He played as a defensive midfielder and was Dutch Footballer of the Year in 1990.

Career

Wouters played for several clubs including PSV,

Utrecht Utrecht ( ; ; ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city of the Netherlands, as well as the capital and the most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Utrecht (province), Utrecht. The ...

, Bayern Munich and

Ajax Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * Ajax (play), ''Ajax'' (play), by the an ...

. He was also a Netherlands international team member (70 caps, four goals) and was hugely influential in 1988 when the Netherlands won the European Football Championship. He was a coach of

Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the Scottish football league system, top-level league competition for professional Association football, football clubs in Scotland. The league was founded in 1998, when it broke away from the Scottish Foo ...

club Rangers under

Dick Advocaat Dirk Nicolaas "Dick" Advocaat (; born 27 September 1947) is a Dutch former association football, football player and coach. He is currently the manager of the Curaçao national football team. Advocaat was successful as a football player and as a ...

and then

Alex McLeish Alexander McLeish (born 21 January 1959) is a Scottish professional football manager and former player. He played as a defender for Aberdeen during their 1980s glory years, making nearly 500 League appearances for the club, and won 77 caps f ...

. He left Rangers at the end of the 2005–06 season, along with McLeish and Andy Watson. Wouters is infamous to England supporters after elbowing Paul Gascoigne and fracturing his cheekbone during a World Cup qualifier in 1993 at Wembley Stadium. Gascoigne was forced to wear a Phantom of the Opera style facemask to protect his fractured cheekbone until his injury healed. The following day, the ''Daily Mirror'' labelled Wouters a "Dutch thug". The match was drawn 2–2 and damaged England's hopes of qualifying for the 1994 World Cup finals in the United States, despite England leading the match 2–0.

Career statistics

Honours

Utrecht *

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 ...

: 1984–85 Ajax *

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 ...

: 1989–90 *

: 1986–87 *

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European association football, football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The competition's official name was originally the European Cup Winners' Cup; it was renam ...

: 1986–87 *

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 ...

: 1991–92 Bayern Munich *

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 ...

: 1993–94 PSV *

: 1995–96 Netherlands *

UEFA European Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro or Euros, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The competition ...

: 1988 Individual * Dutch Footballer of the Year: 1989–90 * UEFA European Championship Team of the Tournament: 1988 *'' kicker''

Team of the Season: 1992–93

In popular culture

Wouters was repeatedly referenced in a ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL'') is an American Late night television in the United States, late-night live television, live sketch comedy variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Michaels and Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC. The ...

'' sketch on 4 February 2023 featuring James Austin Johnson as a British rapper named Milly Pounds.

References

External links

profile Jan Wouters
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wouters, Jan 1960 births Living people Dutch men's footballers Footballers from Utrecht (city) Men's association football midfielders Netherlands men's international footballers 1990 FIFA World Cup players 1994 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 1988 players UEFA Euro 1992 players UEFA European Championship–winning players UEFA Europa League–winning players Bundesliga players Eredivisie players FC Utrecht players FC Bayern Munich footballers AFC Ajax players PSV Eindhoven players Dutch football managers Eredivisie managers FC Utrecht managers AFC Ajax managers Rangers F.C. non-playing staff PSV Eindhoven managers Dutch expatriate men's footballers Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Turkey 20th-century Dutch sportsmen