Paul Leon Vaessen (16 October 1961 – 8 August 2001) was an English

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 ...

Football career

Vaessen was born in Gillingham to a footballing family – his father

Leon Leon, Léon (French) or León (Spanish) may refer to: Places Europe * León, Spain, capital city of the Province of León * Province of León, Spain * Kingdom of León, an independent state in the Iberian Peninsula from 910 to 1230 and again ...

had played for

Millwall Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, ea ...

and Gillingham. A

centre-forward Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...

, he joined

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

in 1977 as an apprentice, and made his debut aged 16 against

Lokomotive Leipzig 1. Fußballclub Lokomotive Leipzig e.V. is a German football club based in the locality of Probstheida in the Südost borough of Leipzig, Saxony. The club may be more familiar to many of the country's football fans as the historic side VfB L ...

in the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, cla ...

on 27 September 1978. He made his league debut the following year, against

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament const ...

on 14 May 1979. He turned professional in July the same year, scoring five goals in 13 appearances in 1979–80. The most famous of these goals was the one Vaessen scored against

Juventus Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football league system. Founded in ...

at the Stadio Comunale, in the second leg of a 1980 Cup Winners Cup Semi Final on 23 April 1980. Arsenal had drawn the first leg 1–1 and thus, trailing on the

away goals rule The away goals rule is a method of tiebreaking in association football and other sports when teams play each other twice, once at each team's home ground. Under the away goals rule, if the total goals scored by each team are equal, the team that ...

, needed to score to stand any chance of getting to the final. Arsenal manager Terry Neill sent Vaessen on as a substitute after 75 minutes and he headed home a late goal from a

Graham Rix Graham Cyril Rix (born 23 October 1957) is an English former professional football player who later became a coach and manager. He is the current manager of Fareham Town. He played for Arsenal for thirteen years, then Brentford (on loan), Ca ...

cross in the 88th minute to make the score 2–1 to Arsenal, which put them into the final. It was the first time Juventus had lost to a British team on home soil. Vaessen did not play in the final, which Arsenal lost on

penalties Penalty or The Penalty may refer to: Sports * Penalty (golf) * Penalty (gridiron football) * Penalty (ice hockey) * Penalty (rugby) * Penalty (rugby union) * Penalty kick (association football) * Penalty shoot-out (association football) * P ...

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...

Heysel Stadium The King Baudouin Stadium (french: Stade Roi Baudouin , nl, Koning Boudewijnstadion ) is a sports ground in north-west Brussels, Belgium. Located in the Heysel district of the City of Brussels, it was built to embellish the Heysel Plateau in ...

. Vaessen's career was blighted by injury; he was unable to play regularly over the next two seasons. He ruptured ligaments in his knee and had to have three operations. He was forced to retire from football in the summer of 1982, before he was 21. In all, he scored 9 goals in 39 matches for Arsenal.

Later life

After leaving Arsenal, Vaessen performed a variety of jobs, such as postman and also worked on a construction site. In 1985, Vaessen almost died from stab wounds suffered when a drug deal went wrong and dealers knifed him in a side street off the

Old Kent Road Old Kent Road is a major thoroughfare in South East London, England, passing through the London Borough of Southwark. It was originally part of an ancient trackway that was paved by the Romans and used by the Anglo-Saxons who named it Wæce ...

in South East London. Vaessen was stabbed six times, from his armpit to his waist. He lost 40 pints of blood and his heart stopped twice on the operating table. In 1998, he was charged with assaulting a policeman after stealing women's tights from a supermarket in

Farnborough, Hampshire Farnborough is a town in northeast Hampshire, England, part of the borough of Rushmoor and the Farnborough/Aldershot Built-up Area. Farnborough was founded in Saxon times and is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086. The name is formed fro ...

. Vaessen's solicitor told magistrates: "This is a very tragic case. Twenty years ago, my client was on top of the world with everything to look forward to. But, at 21, he was told by doctors he would be crippled if he played professional football again. His whole life was turned upside down and he was totally desperate."

Death

In August 2001, he was found dead in the bathroom of his Bristol flat, aged 39. A

post mortem An autopsy (post-mortem examination, obduction, necropsy, or autopsia cadaverum) is a surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse by dissection to determine the cause, mode, and manner of death or to evaluate any dis ...

found he had a high level of drugs in his bloodstream and the coroner recorded a verdict of accidental death. It was later revealed that Vaessen had been a heroin addict for several years and had several convictions for crimes including robberies and muggings.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vaessen, Paul 1961 births 2001 deaths English footballers Association football forwards Arsenal F.C. players Drug-related deaths in England Accidental deaths in England People from Gillingham, Kent English people of Dutch descent