Mattijs Branderhorst (born 31 December 1993) 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 for club

Fortuna Sittard Fortuna Sittard (; ) is a professional football club from the municipality of Sittard-Geleen, Netherlands. The club currently plays its football in the 12,500 capacity Fortuna Sittard Stadion and features in the Eredivisie. The club was establi ...

, on loan from

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 ...

as a

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

Club career

Willem II

Branderhorst came through the youth ranks at Willem II from his childhood club Theole. On 18 November 2011, he was included in the first-team squad for the first time. In a match against Almere City, manager

Jurgen Streppel Jurgen Streppel (born 25 June 1969) is a Dutch professional football manager and former player, who is the current technical director of Helmond Sport. Playing career Born in Voorst, Streppel began his professional career in 1990 as a midfield ...

kept him on the bench for the entire game. In the years that followed, Branderhorst became a regular starter in the reserve team of the

Tilburg Tilburg () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands, in the southern Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Brabant. With a population of 22 ...

-based side, which featured players such as

Virgil van Dijk Virgil van Dijk (; born 8 July 1991) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for and captains both club Liverpool and the Netherlands national team. Widely regarded as one of the best defenders of his generation and ...

and

Frenkie de Jong Frenkie de Jong (; born 12 May 1997) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays primarily as a midfielder for club Barcelona and the Netherlands national team. He is widely regarded as one of the best midfielders of his generation and as one ...

. Branderhorst was loaned to

MVV MVV may refer to: Groups, organizations, companies *Malaysia Vision Valley (MVV), an economic corridor, see Malaysian National Projects * (MVV GmbH; ), German city works of Mannheim * Militaire Voetbal Vereniging (M. V. V.), a military soccer team ...

in 2015. There, he made his professional debut on 13 September 2015 as a substitute for the injured Jo Coppens 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 ...

. He made his debut for Willem II on 15 October 2017 in the home match against

FC Twente Football Club Twente (), sometimes known internationally as FC Twente Enschede, is a Dutch professional Association football, football club from the city of Enschede. The club was formed in 1965 by the merger of 1926 Dutch champions Sportclub E ...

. In the match, he made the start for the injured

Timon Wellenreuther Timon Janis Wellenreuther (born 3 December 1995) is a German professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper for Dutch club Feyenoord. Club career Schalke 04 Born in Karlsruhe, Germa ...

NEC

On 28 January 2019, Branderhorst was loaned to

NEC is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered at the NEC Supertower in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It provides IT and network solutions, including cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), Inte ...

for the remainder of the season. On 1 February, he made his debut in the 4–1 home win over

Jong FC Utrecht Jong FC Utrecht (U23) is a Dutch football team, based in Utrecht. It is the reserve team of FC Utrecht and plays in the Eerste Divisie since the 2016–17 Eerste Divisie season. Current squad Out on loan Techni ...

. After the loan ended, NEC brought him to

Nijmegen Nijmegen ( , ; Nijmeegs: ) is the largest city in the Dutch province of Gelderland and the ninth largest of the Netherlands as a whole. Located on the Waal River close to the German border, Nijmegen is one of the oldest cities in the ...

on a permanent deal, with him signing a contract for two seasons. The second season he was the undisputed starter in goal and played all matches until the competition was shut down due to 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 ...

. He started the 2020–21 season as second goalkeeper, behind

Norbert Alblas Norbert Alblas (born 12 December 1994) is a Dutch former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Club career Ajax On 8 August 2013, Alblas signed a one-year contract with Ajax, with an option of a one-year extension. He made his ...

, who had recovered from an injury. He did, however, start the two

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 ...

matches against

and

VVV-Venlo VVV-Venlo (, ''VVV'' stands for ''Venlose Voetbal Vereniging'' meaning "Venlo Football Club") is a Dutch association football, football club from Venlo, a city on the border with Germany. They play in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of Dutc ...

. On 26 February 2021, manager

Rogier Meijer Rogier Meijer (born 5 September 1981) is a Dutch professional football coach and former player, who is the head coach of Eredivisie club NEC. As a player, Meijer appeared his entire professional career for De Graafschap as a midfielder. In Ma ...

decided to switch goalkeepers: after a number of unfortunate performances by Alblas, Branderhorst became the starting goalkeeper again. On 23 May, Branderhorst won promotion with NEC to 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 ...

, by beating NAC Breda 2–1 in the final of the play-offs. He signed a new two-year contract on 22 June 2021. In his first season with NEC in the Eredivisie, he was the starting goalkeeper after winning the position battle with

Danny Vukovic Daniel Vukovic ( ; born 27 March 1985) is a former Australian professional soccer player who played as a goalkeeper. He is currently the goalkeeping coach for Central Coast Mariners FC. Vukovic also represented the Australian national team duri ...

. He immediately managed to keep three clean sheets in the first four games. That season, only

Remko Pasveer Remko Jurian Pasveer (born 8 November 1983) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Eredivisie club Ajax. Club career Twente Pasveer started playing football at local SC Enschede. He then moved to FC Twente, where he wa ...

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 ...

and

Lars Unnerstall Lars Unnerstall (born 20 July 1990) is a German professional association football, footballer who plays as a goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper for Eredivisie club FC Twente, Twente. Club career Schalke 04 Born in Ibbenbüren, North ...

from

Twente Twente ( , Tweants dialect: ''Tweante'') is a region in the eastern Netherlands. It encompasses the most urbanised and easternmost part of the province of Overijssel. Twente is most likely named after the Tuihanti or Tvihanti, a Germanic people ...

had more clean sheets than Branderhorst. Despite his strong performances through the season, NEC brought back Netherlands international goalkeeper Jasper Cillessen, who they signed from

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

in August 2022, demoting Branderhorst to backup for the 2022–23 season.

Utrecht

In July 2023 he signed 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 ...

. On 24 July 2024, Branderhorst joined

on loan.

Career statistics

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Branderhorst, Mattijs Living people 1993 births Sportspeople from Tiel Footballers from Gelderland Men's association football goalkeepers Dutch men's footballers Willem II Tilburg players MVV Maastricht players NEC Nijmegen players FC Utrecht players Jong FC Utrecht players Fortuna Sittard players Eredivisie players Eerste Divisie players 21st-century Dutch sportsmen