Mark van der Maarel (born 12 August 1989) 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 his entire professional career for

FC Utrecht Football Club Utrecht () is a Dutch professional association football, football club based in Utrecht. The club competes in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football league system, Dutch football, and plays its home matches at the Stadion ...

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 ...

. Born in the Netherlands, he is of Indonesian descent.

Club career

Born in

Arnhem Arnhem ( ; ; Central Dutch dialects, Ernems: ''Èrnem'') is a Cities of the Netherlands, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality situated in the eastern part of the Netherlands, near the German border. It is the capita ...

, Van der Maarel played for

Argon Argon is a chemical element; it has symbol Ar and atomic number 18. It is in group 18 of the periodic table and is a noble gas. Argon is the third most abundant gas in Earth's atmosphere, at 0.934% (9340 ppmv). It is more than twice as abu ...

in his youth, and after a spell in the

Haarlem Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English language, English) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the Provinces of the Nether ...

youth, he joined

in May 2008. He made his debut on 22 August 2009 in a friendly against non-league side

USV Elinkwijk Utrechtse Sportvereniging Elinkwijk, known as USV Elinkwijk is a Dutch football club, based in Utrecht. It played professional football during the years 1955–1970. Marco van Basten was a player of the club during his youth years. History The ...

. His first league match was on 20 September at

ADO Den Haag Alles Door Oefening Den Haag (), commonly known by the abbreviated name ADO Den Haag (), is a Dutch association football club from the city of The Hague. They play in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of Dutch football, following relegation ...

, where he replaced the injured Sander Keller after 67 minutes. Due to injuries to regular right back and team captain Tim Cornelisse, he kept his place in the first team and made an impressive contribution to the best start to a season ever for Utrecht. In the 1–0 win against champions AZ he was voted Man of the Match. In the 2017–18 season, Van der Maarel was named FC Utrecht Player of the Year by the club's supporters and thereby won the ''

David di Tommaso David di Elias Alemu Tommaso (6 October 1979 – 29 November 2005) was a French professional footballer who played as a central defender. Early life Di Tommaso was born in Échirolles, Isère. His father Pascal Di Tommaso and uncle Louis Di T ...

Trophy''. The fans rewarded him for his perseverance and the fact that during the season he broke the iconic boundary of 200

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 ...

matches for Utrecht. In addition, the defender managed to score four goals. On 22 February 2021, Van der Maarel signed a two-year contract extension, keeping him part of Utrecht until 2023. At that point, he had made 307 official appearances for the club, making him sixth on the all-time list of most games played for Utrecht. On 15 March 2024, Van der Maarel announced his retirement at the end of the 2023–24 season.

International career

On 5 October 2011, Van der Maarel was called up for Netherlands U21, for the European U21 Championship group 4 qualifiers at Finland and Poland. Here he also benefited from injury problems by his replacing

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 ...

defender

Kelvin Leerdam Kelvin Leerdam (; born 24 June 1990) is a Surinamese professional footballer who plays as a right-back for Heracles Almelo and Suriname national team. Club career Early career Leerdam was born in Paramaribo, the capital and largest city of Su ...

.Pot haalt Utrechter Van der Maarel bij Jong Oranje
(Dutch)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Maarel, Mark Van Der 1989 births Living people Dutch people of Indonesian descent Sportspeople of Indonesian descent Men's association football fullbacks Footballers from Arnhem Dutch men's footballers SV Argon players HFC Haarlem players FC Utrecht players Jong FC Utrecht players Eredivisie players Eerste Divisie players