Reginald Waldie Blinker (born 4 June 1969) is a 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 is currently the team developer of the Indonesia national team. He mostly played as a

left winger In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

. During his 17-year senior career, he amassed

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 ...

totals of 307 games and 57 goals over 12 seasons, mainly with

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Netherlands, Dutch professional association football, football club based in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football league system, Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the ...

. He also played three years in Scotland with

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

. Born in

Suriname Suriname, officially the Republic of Suriname, is a country in northern South America, also considered as part of the Caribbean and the West Indies. It is a developing country with a Human Development Index, high level of human development; i ...

, he played for the Netherlands national team at international level.

Club career

Born in

Paramaribo Paramaribo ( , , ) is the capital city, capital and largest city of Suriname, located on the banks of the Suriname River in the Paramaribo District. Paramaribo has a population of roughly 241,000 people (2012 census), almost half of Suriname's p ...

, Blinker began his career with

in 1986. He stayed at

De Kuip Stadion Feijenoord (), more commonly known by its nickname De Kuip (, the Tub), is a stadium in Rotterdam, Netherlands. It was completed in 1937. The name is derived from the Feijenoord district in Rotterdam, and from the club with the same na ...

for ten seasons, including one on loan at

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 ...

, and formed an efficient winger partnership with Gaston Taument (from

1991 It was the final year of the Cold War, which had begun in 1947. During the year, the Soviet Union Dissolution of the Soviet Union, collapsed, leaving Post-soviet states, fifteen sovereign republics and the Commonwealth of Independent State ...

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

, the pair combined for 61

goals). On 4 March 1996, Blinker joined

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an off ...

for £275,000, scoring a brace on his debut, a 3–2 away defeat against

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club (commonly referred to as simply Villa) is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club, founded in 1874, compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The team have p ...

. He was suspended by

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

for a time at the end of the year, after it was discovered that he had signed for

Udinese Calcio Udinese Calcio (; "Udinese Football") is a professional association football, football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy. The team currently competes in the Serie A, the first tier of Italian football league system, Italian fo ...

without telling the management at Feyenoord and then subsequently signing for the English club. In August 1997, Blinker moved to

part exchange __NOTOC__ A part exchange or part exchange deal is a type of contract. In a part exchange, instead of one party to the contract paying money and the other party supplying goods/services, both parties supply goods/services, the first party supplyin ...

for

Paolo di Canio Paolo Di Canio (born 9 July 1968) is an Italian former professional footballer and manager. During his playing career he made over 500 league appearances and scored over one hundred goals as a Forward (association football), forward. He primari ...

as part of the club general manager Jock Brown's infamous 'trade' deal with Sheffield Wednesday. He re-joined former Feyenoord coach

Wim Jansen Wilhelmus Marinus Antonius "Wim" Jansen (; 28 October 1946 – 25 January 2022) was a Dutch professional association football, football player and manager. As a midfielder or defender (association football), defender, he spent most of his caree ...

, who had been appointed the previous month, going on to win the

Scottish Premier Division The Scottish Football League Premier Division was, from 1975 until 1998, the top division of the Scottish Football League and the entire Scottish football league system. It lay above the Scottish Football League First, Second and (from 1994) ...

and the

Scottish League Cup The Scottish League Cup, also known as the Premier Sports Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League cup in ...

in his first season and scoring 12 goals in 70 competitive games. Blinker returned to the Netherlands in the summer of 2000, signing for RBC Roosendaal. After suffering top flight relegation as last, he joined

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 ...

, meeting the same fate; he played for amateurs Deltasport Vlaardingen for a few more years, before retiring at the age of 37.

International career

Blinker won three

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

for the Netherlands national team, while at Feyenoord. He made his debut on 24 March 1993 in a 6–0 home win against

San Marino San Marino, officially the Republic of San Marino, is a landlocked country in Southern Europe, completely surrounded by Italy. Located on the northeastern slopes of the Apennine Mountains, it is the larger of two European microstates, microsta ...

for the

1994 FIFA World Cup The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the country. The United States w ...

qualifiers where he featured 70 minutes, in

Utrecht Utrecht ( ; ; ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city of the Netherlands, as well as the capital and the most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Utrecht (province), Utrecht. The ...

. Blinker made his last appearance nearly one year later, in a friendly with

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

Post-retirement career

Upon retiring, Blinker became a publisher of lifestyle magazines for the professional football world in the Netherlands, the company being named ''Life After Football''. In 2025, Blinker was appointed as a team developer for the Indonesian national football team with Bram Verbuggen.

Honours

Feyenoord *

: 1992–93 *

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 ...

: 1990–91, 1991–92, 1993–94, 1994–95 * Dutch Supercup:

Celtic *

: 1997–98 *

: 1997–98

References

External links

Beijen profile
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Blinker, Regi 1969 births Living people Footballers from Paramaribo Dutch men's footballers Netherlands men's international footballers Surinamese emigrants to the Netherlands Men's association football wingers Eredivisie players Eerste Divisie players DHC Delft players Feyenoord players FC Den Bosch players RBC Roosendaal players Sparta Rotterdam players Premier League players Sheffield Wednesday F.C. players Scottish Premier League players Scottish Football League players Celtic F.C. players Dutch expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in England Expatriate men's footballers in Scotland Dutch expatriate sportspeople in England Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Scotland 20th-century Dutch sportsmen