Ruben Kogeldans (4 January 1967 – 7 June 1989) was a Dutch

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 defender. During his career he served

VVV-Venlo VVV-Venlo (, ''VVV'' stands for ''Venlose Voetbal Vereniging'' meaning "Venlo Football Club") is a Dutch association football, football club from Venlo, a city on the border with Germany. They play in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of Dutc ...

and

Willem II Tilburg Willem II Tilburg (), commonly known simply as Willem II, is a Dutch football club (association football), football club based in Tilburg, Netherlands. They play in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of Dutch football league system, Dutch footb ...

. He died at the age of 22, when on 7 June 1989 he was killed in the Surinam Airways Flight PY764 air crash 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 ...

. His father,

Leo Leo is the Latin word for lion. It most often refers to: * Leo (constellation), a constellation of stars in the night sky * Leo (astrology), an astrological sign of the zodiac * Leo (given name), a given name in several languages, usually mas ...

was also a footballer and played for the Suriname national team. One of his passions off the pitch were the drums. Kogeldans was born in

Venlo Venlo () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in southeastern Netherlands, close to the border with Germany. It is situated in the province of Limburg (Netherlands), ...

. With his father as his idol he was determined to succeed as a professional footballer. He was talented and was able to sign his first professional contract with

. Media and fans were not convinced of his qualities and he received a lot of criticism from the media, but every time he was able to response with his feet. He was a strong defender with a lot of professional discipline in both the matches as on the training pitch. Among the Willem II fans he was a popular player and his status was still growing. Kogeldans left VVV-Venlo and moved to

. Here he was no key player, but was occasionally used in their line-ups in which he performed well and again was able to response on criticism with his efforts on the pitch. He was invited by Sonny Hasnoe, the founder of the

Colourful 11 Surinam Airways Flight 764 was an international scheduled passenger flight from Amsterdam Airport Schiphol in the Netherlands to Paramaribo-Zanderij International Airport in Suriname on a Surinam Airways Douglas DC-8, DC-8-62. On Wednesday 7 June ...

to be part of the team and travel to Suriname to play in the "Boxel Kleurrijk Tournament" with three Surinamese teams. The Surinam Airways Flight PY764 crashed during approach to

Paramaribo-Zanderij International Airport Johan Adolf Pengel International Airport , also known as Paramaribo-Zanderij International Airport, and locally referred to simply as JAP, is an airport located in the town of Zanderij and hub for airline carrier Surinam Airways, south of Param ...

, killing 176 of the 187 on board, including Kogeldans, making it the worst ever aviation disaster in Suriname's history. Among the dead were a total of 15 members of the Colourful 11, only three of them survived. Ruben's parents still are in a process against the

Surinam Airways Surinam Airways (), also known by its initials ''SLM'', is the flag carrier of Suriname, based in Paramaribo. It operates regional and long-haul scheduled passenger services. Its hub is at Johan Adolf Pengel International Airport (Zanderij). Sur ...

. Due to the mistakes made at the company they were not satisfied with the fact that they blamed the crew for their mistakes that caused the disaster.

References

Profile at Willem II

* * Iwan Tol: Eindbesteming Zanderij; het vergeten verhaal van het Kleurrijk Elftal () {{DEFAULTSORT:Kogeldans, Ruben 1967 births 1989 deaths Dutch sportspeople of Surinamese descent Dutch men's footballers Footballers from Venlo Men's association football defenders Eredivisie players VVV-Venlo players Willem II Tilburg players Footballers killed in the Surinam Airways Flight 764 crash 20th-century Dutch sportsmen