Léon Bergsma (born 25 January 1997) is a Dutch 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 plays as a

centre-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 ...

for

Veikkausliiga Veikkausliiga () is a professional association football league in Finland and the highest level of the Finnish football league system. The league comprises the top 12 clubs of the country. Its main sponsor is the Finnish national betting agenc ...

club

AC Oulu AC Oulu is a Finnish professional football club based in Oulu, currently playing in Finland's premier division, ''Veikkausliiga''. Formed in 2002, the club have played six seasons in Finland's highest football league Veikkausliiga and 16 seasons ...

Club career

Jong Ajax

Bergsma is a product of the youth system at

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 ...

, having joined the club at the age of eight after initially playing youth football for Blauw-Wit and RKSV Pancratius. On 8 May 2015, he made his professional debut for

Jong Ajax Jong Ajax (; ), also referred to as Ajax II or Ajax 2, is a Dutch association football team. It is based in Amsterdam and competes in the Dutch Eerste Divisie. Jong Ajax is the only reserve team to have won a title in Dutch professional foot ...

in an

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 ...

match against

TOP Oss TOP Oss (), is a professional association football club based in the town of Oss, North Brabant, Netherlands, that competes in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of the Dutch football league system. Founded in 1928 as T.O.P., a Dutch abbrevia ...

, replacing Leeroy Owusu in the 88th minute. In April 2016, Bergsma signed his first contract with Ajax, which tied him to the club until 2018. Ahead of the 2016–17 season, Bergsma officially moved up from the under-19 team to the squad of Jong Ajax. He scored his first professional goal on 14 April 2017, heading home Noa Lang's corner-kick as Jong Ajax beat

Dordrecht Dordrecht (), historically known in English as Dordt (still colloquially used in Dutch, ) or Dort, is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Western Netherlands, lo ...

1–0. With Bergsma as

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

, Jong Ajax won the

title in the 2017–18 season.

AZ

On 21 June 2018, Bergsma moved to AZ on a free transfer, and signed a four-year deal. He made his debut for the club on 12 August in a 5–0 victory against

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 ...

, replacing

Ron Vlaar Ron Peter Vlaar (; born 16 February 1985) is a Dutch former Association football, footballer who played as a Defender (association football)#Centre-back, centre-back. Vlaar came up through AZ Alkmaar, AZ's youth ranks. After making his professi ...

in the 81st minute. He made only three appearances for AZ's first team, as he primarily featured for their reserves,

Jong AZ Jong AZ is a Dutch association football team, based in Wijdewormer in the Zaanstreek. It is the reserve team of AZ, based in Alkmaar, and plays in the Eerste Divisie The Eerste Divisie (; ) is the second-highest tier of football in the Net ...

in the

Loan to Den Bosch

Bergsma joined Eerste Divisie club

Den Bosch s-Hertogenbosch (), colloquially known as Den Bosch (), is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands with a population of 160,783. It is the capital of ...

on a six-month loan on 31 January 2020. He made only four appearances for the club, as the

Royal Dutch Football Association 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 w ...

(KNVB) decided to cancel the remainder of 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 ...

due to effects of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

FC Aarau

In August 2020, Bergsma signed with Swiss club

FC Aarau FC Aarau is a Swiss professional football club based in Aarau. Founded in 1902, the club competes in the Swiss Challenge League, the second tier of Swiss football after being relegated from the Swiss Super League. History FC Aarau was form ...

. The transfer came about in an unusual manner. During a chance meeting in

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

, a stadium technician named Dany Bürge met the Dutch businessman Rob Been Jr., who had previously served as the director of

. Several months later, Bürge visited Been in the Netherlands, where during a dinner conversation, he mentioned that FC Aarau was in need of a

. Been, having an idea, immediately contacted Bergsma, who expressed interest. Bürge then facilitated a connection between Bergsma and FC Aarau's sports director, Sandro Burki. Following several trial training sessions, FC Aarau decided to sign Bergsma. Bergsma made his competitive debut for the club, starting in a

Swiss Cup The Swiss Cup (; ; ; ) is a football cup competition that has been organised annually since 1925–26 season by the Swiss Football Association. The Swiss Cup final is usually the most important game of the year with a high attendance. The co ...

second-round match against

FC Wil FC Wil (''Fussball Club Wil 1900'') is a Association football, football club based in Wil, Switzerland. They play in the ''Sportpark Bergholz'', which has a total capacity of 6,048. The club has consistently played in the Swiss Challenge League, ...

on 12 September 2020, where Aarau advanced after

penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

. One week later, he made his debut in the

Swiss Challenge League The Challenge League (known as the Dieci Challenge League for sponsorship reasons) is the second-highest tier of the Swiss football league system and lower of two professional leagues in the country. Ten teams play in the Challenge League; the wi ...

, also against FC Wil, as Aarau lost 3–1 at home. He remained a starter through two seasons with Aarau, scoring six goals in 78 total appearances.

Cambuur

On 28 July 2022, Bergsma returned to the Netherlands and signed a three-year contract with

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 ...

club Cambuur. He made his debut for the club on 6 August, the first matchday of the

, replacing Floris Smand in the second half of a 2–0 home loss to

Excelsior Excelsior may refer to: Arts and entertainment Literature and poetry * "Excelsior" (Longfellow), an 1841 poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow * "Excelsior", an 1877 picture book in verse by Bret Harte, published as an advertisement for the Sa ...

. He soon established himself as a starter at

, as Cambuur suffered relegation from the Eredivisie at the end of the season.

AC Oulu

On 27 August 2024, Bergsma signed with Finnish

club

on a contract running until June 2025, with an option to extend until the end of 2026. He made his debut on 1 September in a 2–1 league defeat to

IFK Mariehamn IFK Mariehamn is a Finnish football club based in Mariehamn, the capital of the Åland Islands. It plays in the Finnish Premier Division (''Veikkausliiga''), winning their first title in 2016. The club is managed by Gary Williams, and it plays ...

. He scored his first goal for the club on 7 May 2025 in a 5–1 victory over local rivals

JS Hercules JS Hercules is an association football club based in Oulu, Finland. Founded in 1998, the team started at the lowest level of the Football Association of Finland, Finnish league system and was playing in the Third Division until promoted to Kakkone ...

in the

Finnish Cup The Finnish Cup (; ) is Finland's main national cup competition in football. This yearly competition is open for all member clubs of the FA of Finland and has been played since 1955. The winner qualifies for the UEFA Europa Conference League ...

Career statistics

Honours

Jong Ajax *

: 2017–18

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bergsma, Leon 1997 births Living people Footballers from Amsterdam Men's association football central defenders Dutch men's footballers Dutch expatriate men's footballers Netherlands men's youth international footballers Blauw-Wit Amsterdam players Jong Ajax players AFC Ajax players AZ Alkmaar players Jong AZ players FC Den Bosch players FC Aarau players SC Cambuur players Eredivisie players Eerste Divisie players Swiss Challenge League players Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Expatriate men's footballers in Switzerland AC Oulu players Expatriate men's footballers in Finland Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Finland 21st-century Dutch sportsmen