Michel Breuer (; born 25 May 1980) 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 ...

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, during his career, played in his home country for

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 ...

SC Heerenveen Sportclub Heerenveen (; West Frisian language, West Frisian: Sportklub It Hearrenfean) is a Dutch professional association football, football club from Heerenveen. They currently play in the Eredivisie, the top level of football in the Netherla ...

NEC Nijmegen NEC Nijmegen (''Nijmegen Eendracht Combinatie''), commonly known as NEC (), is a professional Dutch association football club based in Nijmegen. The club currently competes in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football, following promotion ...

and

Sparta Rotterdam Sparta Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club based in Rotterdam. Established on 1 April 1888, Sparta Rotterdam is the oldest professional football team in the Netherlands. Sparta currently competes in the Eredivisie, the top flig ...

. His father, Martin Breuer, played professionally for

FC Den Bosch FC Den Bosch () is a professional football club from 's-Hertogenbosch, They currently compete in the Eerste Divisie. They were founded 18 August 1965, as FC Den Bosch/BVV. They are the successor of BVV (1906) and Wilhelmina (1890). Their stadiu ...

in the 1980s.

Club career

Youth career

Michel Breuer started to play football at his local football club in Haastrecht, at the age of 11. He moved to GCFC Olympia where he stayed for a year before joined the Youth academy of

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

side

SBV Excelsior

Breuer played his professional game for Excelsior on 3 May 1999, against

FC Dordrecht Football Club Dordrecht, or simply FC Dordrecht () is a professional Dutch association football club based in Dordrecht, a city in the Western Netherlands, located in the province of South Holland. They currently compete in the Eerste Divisie, ...

in a 2-1 loss. Following this, Breuer broke into the first team squad week after week. He made over 100 league appearances for Excelsior.

SC Heereveen

Breuer had previously worked at a local secondary school in Heerenveen as a security guard. In summer 2004 he moved to

. He became captain of the Heerenveen team at the start of the

2008–09 Eredivisie The 2008–09 Eredivisie was the 53rd season of Eredivisie since its establishment in 1955. PSV were the reigning champions. The season began on 29 August 2008 with a game between Vitesse Arnhem and FC Groningen and ended on 10 May 2009. A t ...

season. In July 2012 Breuer left Heerenveen after eight years and 300 matches in all competitions and signed with

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 ...

from

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 ...

NEC Nijmegen

However, the defender played less than 40 games over the course of two years and he signed on loan for

in 2014.

Sparta Rotterdam

After his contract had expired with NEC in June 2014, he signed a permanent deal to return to Rotterdam for a third time. His no-nonsense, wholehearted playing style won him a cult-hero status with their supporters.Breuer: 'Ik ga niet voor lul lopen'
- Voetbal International This meant he earned himself the captaincy and after one promotion, a cup win and over 550 games in all competitions, Breuer retired from the professional game. However, it was slightly overshadowed by the fact Sparta were relegated back to the

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 ...

via the playoffs.

Honours

Club

;SC Heerenveen *

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 ...

: 2009 ;Sparta Rotterdam *

: 2015-16

References

External links

Voetbal International profile
1980 births Living people Footballers from Gouda, South Holland Men's association football central defenders Dutch men's footballers Excelsior Rotterdam players SC Heerenveen players NEC Nijmegen players Sparta Rotterdam players Eerste Divisie players Eredivisie players {{Netherlands-footy-defender-stub