Norbert Alblas (born 12 December 1994) 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 ...

who plays for

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is ...

club

Excelsior Excelsior, a Latin comparative word often translated as "ever upward" or "even higher", may refer to: Arts and entertainment Literature and poetry * "Excelsior" (Longfellow), an 1841 poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow * ''Excelsior'' (Macedo ...

as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring 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 intercepting ...

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), by the ancient Gree ...

, with an option of a one-year extension. He made his professional debut for

Jong Ajax Jong Ajax () (''English: Young Ajax''), also referred to as Ajax II or Ajax 2 is a Dutch association football team, the reserve team of Ajax. It is based in Amsterdam and competes in the Dutch Eerste Divisie. History Jong Ajax (''formerly more ...

in an

Eerste Divisie The Eerste Divisie (, en, First Division) is the second-highest tier of football in the Netherlands. It is linked with the top-level Eredivisie and with the third-level Tweede Divisie via promotion/relegation systems. It is also known as th ...

match against

Fortuna Sittard Fortuna Sittard (; li, Fortuna Zitterd ) is a football club in Sittard, Netherlands. The club currently plays its football in the 12,500 capacity Fortuna Sittard Stadion and features in the Eredivisie. The club was established through a merger ...

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

KNVB Cup The KNVB Beker (; en, KNVB Cup), branded as the TOTO KNVB Beker for sponsorship reasons, is a competition in the Netherlands organized by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) since 1898. It was based on the format of the English FA Cup. O ...

match against SV Urk, Ajax manager

Frank de Boer Franciscus de Boer (; born 15 May 1970) is a Dutch football manager who was most recently the head coach of the Netherlands national team. A former defender, De Boer spent most of his professional playing career with Ajax, winning five Ered ...

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 football club based in Waalwijk, that is currently competing in the Eredivisie. Its name is derived from 'Rooms Katholieke Combinatie' ('Roman Catholic Combination' in Dutch) and was established as a merg ...

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 André Onana Onana (born 2 April 1996) is a Cameroonian professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Premier League club Manchester United. Onana joined Barcelona's youth system in 2010. He signed for Ajax in 2015, where he made 214 app ...

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 city and municipality in the Netherlands with a population of 157,486. It is the capital of the province of North Brabant and its fourth largest by population. The city is south of th ...

, 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, 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 f ...

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 city and municipality in the Western Netherlands, located in the province of South Holland. It is the province's fifth-largest city after R ...

. On 28 September 2018, Alblas injured his knee in a league match in the Eerste Divisie at home against Go Ahead Eagles and was replaced by

Marco van Duin Marco Rudolf van Duin (; born 11 February 1987) is a Dutch former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He had formerly played for Haarlem, FC Volendam, Sparta Rotterdam and Almere City, NEC and FC Groningen. Club career Van Du ...

. 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 Mattijs Branderhorst (born 31 December 1993) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays for Eredivisie club NEC as a goalkeeper. Club career Willem II Branderhorst came through the youth ranks at Willem II from his childhood club Theole. On 1 ...

. 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

, 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 Eerste Divi ...

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 in Minato, Tokyo. The company was known as the Nippon Electric Company, Limited, before rebranding in 1983 as NEC. It provides IT and network soluti ...

, 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 abbreviati ...

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

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 Stijn van Gassel (born 18 October 1996) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Eredivisie club Excelsior. Club career Helmond Sport Van Gassel made his professional debut in the Eerste Divisie for Helmond Sport on 22 ...

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 football club from the city of Maastricht. Founded on 2 April 1902, MVV Maastricht currently compete in the Eers ...

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Ajax *

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. ...

runners-up: 2016–17 Jong Ajax *

: 2017–18

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Alblas, Norbert 1994 births Living people Sportspeople from Amstelveen Dutch footballers Netherlands youth international footballers Association football goalkeepers AFC Ajax players Jong Ajax players NEC Nijmegen players TOP Oss players Excelsior Rotterdam players Eerste Divisie players Footballers from North Holland