Rob de Wit (born 8 September 1963) is a Dutch former

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player.

Career

De Wit made his debut for

FC Utrecht Football Club Utrecht () is a Dutch professional association football, football club based in Utrecht. The club competes in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football league system, Dutch football, and plays its home matches at the Stadion ...

in the 1982–83 season. He was a member of the Dutch squad at the

1983 FIFA World Youth Championship The 1983 FIFA World Youth Championship was the fourth edition FIFA World Youth Championship tournament, hosted from 2 June to 19 June 1983 in seven venues in Mexico — Guadalajara, Irapuato, León, Mexico City, Monterrey, Puebla and Toluca — w ...

. He was transferred to

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 ...

Amsterdam two seasons later, July 1984, as successor of left wing attacker

Jesper Olsen Jesper Olsen (born 20 March 1961) is a Danish former professional association football, footballer who played as a Midfielder#Winger, left winger. He is best remembered for representing AFC Ajax, Ajax of the Netherlands and Manchester United F.C ...

, who left to

Manchester United Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional association football, football club based in Old Trafford (area), Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, Engl ...

. At Ajax, he quickly became a crowd favourite, and played nearly all of the matches, the 1984–1985 and 1985–1986 seasons. On 1985-05-01, still in his first season at Ajax, De Wit made his debut for the Dutch national team in a

World Cup qualifier The FIFA World Cup qualification is a set of competitive matches that a national association football team plays in order to qualify for one of the available berths at the final tournament of the men's FIFA World Cup. Qualifying tournaments ar ...

against

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

. Nearly two weeks later, De Wit scored the winning goal against

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

(0–1 away win), which won the Netherlands a play-off match against

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

for the

1986 FIFA World Cup The 1986 FIFA World Cup was the 13th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in Mexico from 31 May to 29 June 1986. The tournament was the second to feature a 24-tea ...

. De Wit's career came to an abrupt end in 1986, due to a

cerebral hemorrhage Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as hemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain (i.e. the parenchyma), into its ventricles, or into both. An ICH is a type of bleeding within the skull and one kind of stro ...

while on holiday in Spain. At first, the consequences didn't seem to be serious. After an unsuccessful treatment in Sweden, it became clear that Rob de Wit would never play professional football again. He sustained two more cerebral hemorrhages later in life: one in 1993 and one in January 2005. De Wit played 103 league matches in four seasons, scoring 23 goals.

References

External links

Statistics of Rob de Wit
for the

Netherlands national football team The Netherlands national football team ( or simply ''Het Nederlands elftal'') has represented the Netherlands in international men's football matches since 1905. The men's national team is controlled by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNV ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wit, Rob de 1963 births Living people Dutch men's footballers FC Utrecht players AFC Ajax players Eredivisie players Netherlands men's youth international footballers Netherlands men's international footballers Footballers from Utrecht (city) Men's association football wingers 20th-century Dutch sportsmen