René Paardekooper (born 17 April 1987) 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

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 ...

Career

Helmond Sport

Paardekooper was born in

Gemert Gemert is a town in the Dutch province of North Brabant. It is located in the municipality of Gemert-Bakel. Gemert was a separate municipality until 1997, when it merged with Bakel. The spoken language is Peellands (an East Brabantian dialec ...

North Brabant North Brabant ( ; ), also unofficially called Brabant, Dutch Brabant or Hollandic Brabant, is a province in the south of the Netherlands. It borders the provinces of South Holland and Gelderland to the north, Limburg to the east, Zeeland to ...

where he started playing football for local club VV Gemert before joining the youth teams of

Helmond Sport Helmond Sport () is a Dutch professional football club based in Helmond, North Brabant. Founded in 1967 following the acquisition of the professional license of , the club achieved promotion to the top-tier Eredivisie in 1982. After two seasons ...

. He made his professional in the

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 ...

on 16 September 2005, coming on as a substitute in injury time for Appie Yahia in a 0–0 draw against Cambuur. He made 88 total appearances for Helmond Sport between 2010 and 2015, scoring no goals. He left the club in 2010 after his contract expired.

VV Gemert

In 2010, Paardekooper returned to his boyhood club VV Gemert, recently promoted to the fourth-tier

Topklasse The Derde Divisie (; ), formerly known as Topklasse (; ), is the fourth tier of football in the Netherlands, which had its inaugural season as a third tier in 2010–11 and as a fourth tier in 2016–17. The league is placed between the Tweede Div ...

. He played for the club for five years before retiring from football in 2015.

After football

In 2016, Paardekooper became media advisor for local media outlet Gemert Media.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paardekooper, René 1987 births Living people Dutch men's footballers Helmond Sport players Eerste Divisie players Derde Divisie players Vierde Divisie players People from Gemert-Bakel Men's association football defenders Footballers from North Brabant VV Gemert players