Robert Molenaar (born 27 February 1969) is a Dutch professional football coach and former

player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who i ...

who works as an assistant coach at

Schalke 04 Fußballclub Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 e. V., commonly known as Schalke 04 (), and abbreviated as S04 (), is a professional sports club from the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its football team, w ...

. He 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 ...

for

FC Volendam Football Club Volendam () is a professional association football, football club based in Volendam, Netherlands. They play in the Eredivisie, the top tier of the Dutch football league system, following promotion from the Eerste Divisie in the 2024 ...

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The team compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league system. Leeds United have won the League Championship th ...

Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The club competes in , the third tier of English football, and is managed by Graham Alexander. The club was founded in 1903 and ...

and

RBC Roosendaal RBC, previously known as RBC Roosendaal, is a football club based in Roosendaal, Netherlands. RBC currently plays in the fifth-tier Vierde Divisie after bankruptcy in 2011, restarting the club in the tenth tier Vijfde Klasse. History 1912– ...

Playing career

Molenaar was born in

Zaandam Zaandam () is a city in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland, Netherlands. It is the main city of the municipality of Zaanstad and received City rights in the Netherlands, city rights in 1811. It is located on the river Zaan ...

North Holland North Holland (, ) is a Provinces of the Netherlands, province of the Netherlands in the northwestern part of the country. It is located on the North Sea, north of South Holland and Utrecht (province), Utrecht, and west of Friesland and Flevola ...

. He was signed for

by the then manager

George Graham George Graham (born 30 November 1944) is a Scottish former football player and manager. Nicknamed "Stroller", he made 455 appearances in England's Football League as a midfielder or forward for Aston Villa, Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester Unite ...

from

for £1,000,000 in January 1997 to try to shore up the defence. He became a regular in the side until the end of the 1996–97 season. In the 1997–98 season however his performances were not up to scratch and he fell down the pecking order playing around half the matches. In the 1998–99 he was once again a first choice centre-back, above David Wetherall but a challenge by

Nicolas Anelka Nicolas Sébastien Anelka (born 14 March 1979) is a French professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player who played as a Forward (association football), forward. As a player, he regularly featur ...

, then playing for

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 ...

, kept him out via ligament damage until 2000. He failed to make another appearance for Leeds United and was sold to

in the summer of 2000 to help their dog fight against relegation. He stayed there until 2003, scoring twice against Newcastle United and Nottingham Forest, when his contract was not renewed and he moved to

before eventually retiring in the summer of 2007.

Managerial career

After working as assistant manager of

NEC is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered at the NEC Supertower in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It provides IT and network solutions, including cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), Inte ...

and manager of amateur side RKSV Halsteren, Molenaar was appointed manager of

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 ...

side

from July 2015. In March 2017, it was announced that Molenaar would leave his role at the end of the season. He was appointed as manager of

Roda JC Sportvereniging Roda Juliana Combinatie Kerkrade (; ), shortly as Roda JC Kerkrade () or commonly Roda JC or simply Roda, is a Dutch professional football club based in Kerkrade, Netherlands. Roda JC Kerkrade plays in the Eerste Divisie. The c ...

in June 2017 on a one-year contract with the option of a further year. He was sacked from his role at the club in March 2019. In June 2019, he was appointed as manager of Almere City on a two-year contract, but was sacked in November of that year following a run of poor results. On 13 July 2021, Molenaar was appointed as manager of Jong NAC, the reserve team of

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 Eredivisi ...

. On 15 June 2022, NAC appointed Molenaar as head coach of the first team on a one-year deal, effective from 1 July 2022, replacing Edwin de Graaf. He was dismissed on 27 December 2022 due to poor results. In October 2024, Molenaar joined Kees van Wonderen at

. He started working there as Van Wonderen's assistant.

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Molenaar, Robert 1969 births Living people Footballers from Zaanstad Men's association football central defenders Dutch men's footballers Dutch expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in England Leeds United F.C. players Bradford City A.F.C. players RBC Roosendaal players FC Volendam players FC Volendam managers Roda JC Kerkrade managers Almere City FC managers NAC Breda managers NAC Breda non-playing staff FC Schalke 04 managers FC Schalke 04 non-playing staff Eredivisie players Premier League players Dutch football managers Eerste Divisie managers 20th-century Dutch sportsmen