John Karelse (born 17 May 1970 in

Wemeldinge Wemeldinge is the oldest village in the Zuid-Beveland area of the Dutch province of Zeeland. It is located in the municipality of Kapelle, about 4 km northwest of Yerseke. It is located within the Eastern Scheldt national park. History T ...

) is a retired

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

football goalkeeper The goalkeeper (sometimes written as goal-keeper, abbreviated as GK, keeper, keeps, or goalie) is a position in association football. It is the most specialised position in the sport. The goalkeeper's main role is to stop the opposing team from ...

and unemployed manager after being fired by

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 ...

. He played for

AGOVV Apeldoorn AGOVV () is a Dutch association football club based in Apeldoorn. It was established on 25 February 1913. The club played in professional football from 1954 to 1971 and from 2003 to 2013. AGOVV's men's first squad plays in 2024–25 in the Derde ...

in his native country for a few years before moving to NAC Breda. It was here that he caught the attention of then

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Since th ...

manager

Ruud Gullit Ruud Gullit (; born Rudi Dil; 1 September 1962) is a former Dutch Association football, footballer and subsequent manager. Regarded among the greatest footballers of all time, he was also noted for his Utility player#Association football, abili ...

, who signed him for an undisclosed fee (thought to be in the region of £800,000) in August 1999. His time at Newcastle was largely unsuccessful, as he endured a terrible start to his career at the club, losing 4-2 to

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

on his debut. He found his first team opportunities very limited after this, not helped by the competition for his position being very high with the reliable

Shay Given Séamus John James Given (born 20 April 1976) is an Irish former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper. Widely regarded as one of the greatest Irish goalkeepers of all time ...

and

Steve Harper Stephen Alan Harper (born 14 March 1975) is an English former professional footballer, and currently first team coach for Newcastle United and goalkeeping coach for the Northern Ireland national team. He is best known for his time playing at ...

also at the club. Tony Caig was also ahead of him as third choice backup. He did, however, manage to keep a clean sheet against

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

Highbury Highbury is an area of North London, England, in the London Borough of Islington. Highbury Manor Highbury was once owned by Ranulf, brother of Ilger, and included all the areas north and east of Canonbury and Holloway Roads. The manor hou ...

, in what proved to be his third and final game for the club. A proposed move to

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 ...

broke down in 2000, but a year later a move back to the Netherlands seemed likely, with

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Netherlands, Dutch professional association football, football club based in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football league system, Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the ...

rumoured to be interested. No move materialised and the former Dutch Under-21 international had no choice but to stay in the Newcastle reserves. He retired in 2004 after one final season at AGOVV Apeldoorn. In 2006, he became interim manager of NAC and led the team successfully through the relegation play-offs. Karelse became manager of NAC in 2011.

References

Profile
1970 births Living people Dutch men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in England Men's association football goalkeepers Dutch expatriate men's footballers Eredivisie players NAC Breda players AGOVV players Newcastle United F.C. players Premier League players NAC Breda managers People from Kapelle Dutch football managers Footballers from Zeeland Dutch expatriate sportspeople in England {{netherlands-footy-goalkeeper-stub