Nigel Cello Lonwijk (born 27 October 2002) 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 ...

or full back for

Huddersfield Town Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional association football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England. They compete in , the third tier of English football league system, English football. Huddersfield Town we ...

on loan from club

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club ( ), commonly referred to as Wolves, is a professional association football, football club based in Wolverhampton, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league s ...

Club career

After playing youth football for

PSV Eindhoven Philips Sport Vereniging (; ), abbreviated as PSV and internationally known as PSV Eindhoven (), is a Dutch sports club from Eindhoven, Netherlands. It is best known for its professional association football, football department, which has pla ...

, Lonwijk signed for

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

club

in January 2020, initially joining their under-18 side. Lonwijk joined the club's under-23 team for the 2020–21 season and appeared on the first-team bench four times, but failed to make his debut. On 31 August 2021, Lonwijk signed a new contract with the club, lasting until summer 2023 with the option for an additional year, and also joined

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

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. He made his debut for the club on 12 September 2021 as a substitute in a 3–1 Eredivisie defeat to

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 ...

. On 29 July 2022, Lonwijk signed for

EFL League One The English Football League One, known as Sky Bet League One for sponsorship reasons, or simply League One, is a professional association football league in England. EFL League One is the second-highest division of the English Football League an ...

club

Plymouth Argyle Plymouth Argyle Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Plymouth, Devon, England. The team currently competes in EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system. The club has played ...

on loan for the 2022–23 season. Following a successful spell with Plymouth, which saw them become champions of League One, he went on another loan, this time to

Grasshopper Club Zürich Grasshopper Club Zurich (GCZ), commonly referred to as Grasshopper Club or simply just GC, is a professional sports club, multisports club based in Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland. They are nicknamed the ''Grasshoppers'' or sometimes just ''Hopper ...

in Switzerland, where he was joined by fellow Wolves loanee

Theo Corbeanu Theodor Alexander Corbeanu (born May 17, 2002) is a Canadian professional soccer player who plays as a forward or a winger for Major League Soccer side Toronto FC, on loan from Segunda División club Granada, and the Canada national team. E ...

in the

Swiss Super League The Super League (also known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a professional association football league in Switzerland and the highest level of the Swiss football league system. It has been played in its current fo ...

. However, he suffered a

hamstring A hamstring () is any one of the three posterior thigh muscles in human anatomy between the hip and the knee: from medial to lateral, the semimembranosus, semitendinosus and biceps femoris. Etymology The word " ham" is derived from the Old ...

injury during pre-season preparation, which sidelined him until October. He finally made his debut on 28 October 2023 in a 1–3 away defeat to

FC St. Gallen Fussballclub St. Gallen 1879, commonly known as St. Gallen, is a Swiss professional football club based in the city of St. Gallen, Canton of St. Gallen. It is the oldest football club in continental Europe after Kjøbenhavns Boldklub. The tea ...

, playing the entire second half at right-back, during which he once again injured his hamstring. This injury caused his loan to be cut short on 16 November 2023. Nevertheless, on 1 February 2024 Lonwijk joined

Wycombe Wanderers Wycombe Wanderers Football Club () is a professional association football club based in the town of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third level of the English football league system. Founded in 188 ...

on loan for the remainder of the season. On 28 August 2024, Lonwijk joined League One club

on a season-long loan deal.

International career

Lonwijk was born in the Netherlands to a Surinamese father and Dutch mother. He has represented the Netherlands at under-16 level.

Style of play

Lonwijk is right-footed and plays as a

. In January 2020, Wolves' head of academy

Scott Sellars Scott Sellars (born 27 November 1965) is an English football coach and former professional Association football, footballer who was most recently technical director at Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C., Wolverhampton Wanderers. As a player, he was ...

stated Lonwijk is "very good physically, a good defender one-on-one, and has strong technical ability".

Personal life

Born in

Goirle Goirle () is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and town in the southern Netherlands, in the province of North Brabant. Part of the suburban area of the city of Tilburg, it shares with it its phone area code and public transport syst ...

, Lonwijk grew up in

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 ...

. He is the younger brother of Surinamese international

Justin Lonwijk Justin Antonius Lonwijk (born 21 December 1999) is a professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Ukrainian side Dynamo Kyiv. Born in the Netherlands, he represents the Suriname national team. Club career Jong PSV He made his professi ...

, who plays for Danish club Viborg, while his younger sister Jayden plays tennis.

Honours

Plymouth Argyle *

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

EFL Trophy The English Football League Trophy, officially known as the Vertu Motors, Vertu Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is an annual English association football, football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL League Two and ...

runner-up:

Wycombe Wanderers *EFL Trophy runner-up: 2023–24

References

External links

Under-16 national team profile
at Onsoranje.nl (in Dutch) {{DEFAULTSORT:Lonwijk, Nigel 2002 births Living people Dutch men's footballers Netherlands men's youth international footballers Dutch sportspeople of Surinamese descent Footballers from Goirle Men's association football defenders PSV Eindhoven players Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. players Fortuna Sittard players Plymouth Argyle F.C. players Grasshopper Club Zurich players Wycombe Wanderers F.C. players Huddersfield Town A.F.C. players Eredivisie players English Football League players Swiss Super League players Dutch expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in England Expatriate men's footballers in Switzerland Dutch expatriate sportspeople in England Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland 21st-century Dutch sportsmen