Norbert Alblas (born 12 December 1994) 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 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

Ajax

On 8 August 2013, Alblas signed a one-year contract with

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 ...

, with an option of a one-year extension. 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

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 16 August 2014. On 27 October 2014, a day before the

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 ...

match against

SV Urk SV Urk is a football club from Urk, Netherlands. Urk plays in the Derde Divisie. History The club became champions in the Hoofdklasse The Vierde Divisie (; "Fourth Division"), formerly known as Hoofdklasse () is the second-highest league of am ...

, Ajax manager

Frank de Boer Franciscus de Boer (; born 15 May 1970) is a Dutch former professional footballer and current manager. A former defender, De Boer spent most of his playing career with Ajax, winning five Eredivisie titles, two KNVB Cups, three Super Cups, o ...

announced that Alblas was part of the first-team match squad. This was the first time for Alblas that he was included in the first team. In a match against

RKC Waalwijk RKC Waalwijk () is a Dutch professional association football, football club based in Waalwijk. They currently play in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of Dutch football league system, Dutch football, following relegation from the Eredivisie i ...

for Jong Ajax, Alblas was forced off after having torn his anterior cruciate ligament, which meant that he was out for the rest of 2015. Despite his injury, Ajax reached an agreement with Alblas at the end of May 2015 about the extension of his contract. His contract, which ran until 30 June 2015 was extended for one season. After 14 months of injury, he made his comeback in early-February 2016 in a friendly between Jong Ajax and Ajax Amateur which ended in a 3–3 draw. His official return to the pitch came late – mainly because third goalkeeper André Onana was often preferred as the starter for Jong Ajax – on 19 August 2016. On that day, Jong Ajax played a home match against

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 ...

, where Alblas was the

team captain In team sport, captain is a title given to a member of the team. The title is frequently honorary, but in some cases the captain may have significant responsibility for strategy and teamwork while the game is in progress on the field. In eithe ...

. In January 2017 it was announced that goalkeeper

Tim Krul Timothy Michael Krul (; born 3 April 1988) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for club Luton Town. Krul's career began at youth clubs RAS and ADO Den Haag before moving to Newcastle United in 2005. At Newcastle, he m ...

, at that time on loan with Ajax, would leave for AZ. As a result, Alblas became third goalkeeper in the first team of Ajax. In the 2017–18 season, Alblas won the Eerste Divisie with Jong Ajax. Afterwards, his contract expired and he left the club.

NEC

On 7 August 2018, Alblas signed a contract with

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 ...

for two seasons with an option for two more seasons. He made his debut for the club on 31 August in a 1–0 win at home against

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 ...

. On 28 September 2018, Alblas injured his knee in a league match in the Eerste Divisie at home against

Go Ahead Eagles The Go Ahead Eagles are a Dutch professional football club from the city of Deventer in the province of Overijssel. They play in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football, having achieved promotion from the second tier Eerste Divisie in th ...

and was replaced by Marco van Duin. He resumed practice in January 2019 but suffered a torn cruciate ligament after a week. Alblas did not play again for NEC and when the club did not exercise the option in his contract, his contract was set to expire in mid-2020. On 16 June, he signed a new one-year contract with an option for another season. Alblas started the 2020–21 season as the first goalkeeper, in favor of Mattijs Branderhorst. In the middle of the season, Alblas became second keeper again after some errors. On 23 May 2021, Alblas 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 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 ...

2–1 in the final of the play-offs.

TOP Oss

After having played three seasons for

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 ...

, Alblas signed with

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 ...

on 25 June 2021. He made his debut on 6 August, keeping a clean sheet in a 1–0 away win over

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 ...

Excelsior

On 31 August 2022, Alblas signed a one-season contract with recently promoted Eredivisie club

. He was assigned as backup goalkeeper to starter Stijn van Gassel for the 2022–23 season. He made his Excelsior debut on 19 October in a 5–1 victory in the

against

MVV Maastricht Maatschappelijke Voetbal Vereniging Maastricht (), commonly known as MVV Maastricht (, ) or simply as MVV, is a Dutch professional Association football, football club from the city of Maastricht. Founded on 2 April 1902, MVV Maastricht currently ...

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Ajax *

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

runners-up: 2016–17 Jong Ajax *

: 2017–18

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Alblas, Norbert 1994 births Living people Footballers from Amstelveen Dutch men's footballers Netherlands men's youth international footballers Men's association football goalkeepers AFC Ajax players Jong Ajax players NEC Nijmegen players TOP Oss players Excelsior Rotterdam players Eerste Divisie players 21st-century Dutch sportsmen