Serginho Greene (; born 24 June 1982) 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 ...

. Besides the Netherlands, he has played in Bulgaria, Serbia, Cyprus and India.

Early life

Greene's life revolved around football from a young age, growing up in the southeastern part of

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

, where playing street football was a daily ritual.Jeugd biografie Serginho Greene
feyenoord.nl Unlike other sports such as tennis or basketball, he was only dedicated to football. He delighted in controlling the ball and honing his skills through tricks and street matches on the streets of Amsterdam. At the age of six, his father introduced him to FC Abcoude, where he played in their youth teams until he turned twelve. He then transitioned 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 ...

's renowned football academy. He progressed through the youth ranks until he reached the under-19 squad. There, the coaches recognised his exceptional talent but believed he wasn't quite ready for Ajax's senior team. They suggested a loan move to

Haarlem Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English language, English) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the Provinces of the Nether ...

, which he initially hesitated about. However, he eventually made the decision to embark on that journey and kickstart his professional career.

Club career

Haarlem

At Haarlem, he spent one season in de

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 ...

, playing 34 matches and scoring one goal.Paspoort Serginho Greene
vi.nl He still had a three-year remaining contract at Ajax, which he gave up, because he did not want to play in the Eerste Divisie any longer.Serginho Greene's pre-Feyenoord career
feyenoord.nl Ajax decided to release him and fellow

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 ...

contenders

RKC Waalwijk RKC Waalwijk () is a Dutch professional association football, football club based in Waalwijk. They currently play in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of Dutch football league system, Dutch football, following relegation from the Eredivisie i ...

showed interest in him. Working with

Martin Jol Maarten Cornelis "Martin" Jol (born 16 January 1956) is a Dutch football manager and former midfielder. He played over 400 games during his career which included spells in the Netherlands, Germany and England, as well as earning three caps wi ...

Željko Petrović Željko Petrović ( sr-Cyrl, Жељко Петровић; born 13 November 1965) is a Montenegrin professional football manager and former player. As a player, he represented the FR Yugoslavia national team at the 1998 FIFA World Cup. Club car ...

(who still was a player at RKC in those days) and Erwin Koeman he learned a lot about professional football and he developed quickly.

RKC Waalwijk

Greene played on many positions during his RKC spell. In his first season at the club he played as a left fullback, while in his second season he played both in the centre of defence and as a right fullback. During his second season at the club he became one of RKC's key players and teams like

VfL Wolfsburg Verein für Leibesübungen Wolfsburg e. V., commonly known as VfL Wolfsburg (), is a German professional sports club based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony. The club grew out of a multi-sports club for Volkswagen workers in the city of Wolfsburg. I ...

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tottenham (, , , ) or Spurs, is a professional Association football, football club based in Tottenham, North London, England. The club itself has stated that it should always ...

Galatasaray Galatasaray Spor Kulübü (, ''Galatasaray Sports Club''), more commonly referred to as simply Galatasaray and familiarly as Cimbom, is a Turkish sports club based on the European side of the city of Istanbul including basketball, wheelchair ...

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), or HSV (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its Association football, football department. Though the current HSV was founde ...

, Rangers, AZ and

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 ...

showed interest in signing him. Eventually, Feyenoord announced signing Greene on a free transfer on 14 April 2005.Greene day for Feyenoord
uefa.com The main reasons for Greene to join Feyenoord were the club's reputation and their well known fanatic supporters.Serginho Greene's Feyenoord career
feyenoord.nl

Feyenoord

Greene finished the 2004–05 season in

Waalwijk Waalwijk () is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and a city in the southern Netherlands. It had a population of in and is located near the A59 and N261 motorways. The villages of Capelle, Vrijhoeve-Capelle, Sprang (the former mun ...

and joined the Feyenoord squad in the summer of 2005. At Feyenoord's presentation day on 27 July 2004, Greene flew into

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 ...

by helicopter, along with other newly signed players Maikel Aerts, Timothy Derijck, Gianni Zuiverloon, Tim Vincken and Ali Boussaboun. Feyenoord also appointed a new coach to replace

Ruud Gullit Ruud Gullit (; born Rudi Dil; 1 September 1962) is a former Dutch Association football, footballer and subsequent manager. Regarded among the greatest footballers of all time, he was also noted for his Utility player#Association football, abili ...

and to Greene's surprise it was his latest RKC coach Erwin Koeman who was given the job. At Feyenoord, Greene impressed right from the start and gained his first team spot right away playing in the center of

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

defence. Late December 2005, Feyenoord signed fellow central defender Ron Vlaar from AZ, and questions arose about who was going to play where. As right-back

Alexander Östlund Jan Alexander Östlund (born 2 November 1978), known as Alexander Mezan after his career, is a Swedish former professional footballer who played as a right-back. He began his professional career with AIK in 1995, and went on to play professio ...

left the club, it was decided that Vlaar and

André Bahia André Luiz Bahia dos Santos Viana (born 24 November 1983) is a former Brazilian association football, footballer who played as a centre-back. Early life André Bahia was born and raised in the Tijuca area of Rio de Janeiro. He has four brothe ...

would play in the center and Greene would play further as a right defender. Since joining Feyenoord, Greene hardly missed a match; the team, however, was struggling in both finances and results. In the season of 2008–09, Greene's contract, which expired in the summer of 2009, was not renewed, as Feyenoord announced the release of Greene at the end of the season.

Vitesse

On 4 November 2009, Greene joined Vitesse on a free transfer, agreeing a one-year deal with the Dutch

club. In June 2010, he went on trial with a Russian side Terek Grozny, but Terek decided not to sign him.

Levski Sofia

On 8 August 2010, it was announced that Greene arrived in

Sofia Sofia is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain, in the western part of the country. The city is built west of the Is ...

, Bulgaria in order to negotiate terms with Bulgarian side

Levski Sofia PFC Levski Sofia () is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia, which competes in the First League, the top division of the Bulgarian football league system. The club was founded on 24 May 1914 by a group of high sc ...

. On the next day, he made his first training with Levski. Greene signed his contract with Levski, two days later, on 10 August 2010. The contract was for two years. During the 2010–11 season, Levski qualified for

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

after eliminating

Dundalk Dundalk ( ; ) is the county town of County Louth, Ireland. The town is situated on the Castletown River, which flows into Dundalk Bay on the north-east coast of Ireland, and is halfway between Dublin and Belfast, close to and south of the bor ...

Kalmar Kalmar (, , ) is a city in the southeast of Sweden, situated by the Baltic Sea. It had 41,388 inhabitants in 2020 and is the seat of Kalmar Municipality. It is also the capital of Kalmar County, which comprises 12 municipalities with a total of ...

and AIK. Levski was drawn in

Group C Group C was a category of sports car racing introduced by the FIA in 1982 and continuing until 1993, with ''Group A'' for Touring car racing, touring cars and ''Group B'' for Grand tourer, GTs. It was designed to replace both Group 5 (motorspor ...

, facing Gent,

Lille Lille (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city in the northern part of France, within French Flanders. Positioned along the Deûle river, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Prefectures in F ...

and

Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP or simply Sporting (particularly within Portugal), or as Sporting Lisbon in other countries,

. Greene quickly became a first team regular playing as a defensive midfielder alongside Vladimir Gadzhev. He scored his first goal for Levski on 16 September 2010 against Gent. This goal gave Levski a 3–2 home win in their first Europa League Group stage match. Greene started playing as a defensive midfielder, but due to Levski's defensive problems he was moved to

. With the January purchase of midfielder Daniel Dimov Greene continued playing centre-half in 2011. On 4 August 2011, he was sent off in the second leg of the

match against Slovak side

Spartak Trnava FC Spartak Trnava () is a professional football club based in Trnava, Slovakia. The club competes in Slovak First Football League, the top flight in the Slovak league system, having participated in more seasons than any other club. Founded in ...

Vojvodina

On 4 July 2012, Greene signed a two-year contract with Serbian club

Vojvodina Vojvodina ( ; sr-Cyrl, Војводина, ), officially the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, is an Autonomous administrative division, autonomous province that occupies the northernmost part of Serbia, located in Central Europe. It lies withi ...

Delhi Dynamos

On 10 September 2015, Greene signed with Delhi Dynamos and played in their second pre-season friendly match in the same day.

Waalwijk

In the summer of 2016, Greene returned to his former club

, signing a two-year deal. He left the club as his contract expired in June 2018, having scored eight goals in 72 appearances. In October 2018, Greene announced his retirement from professional football during an interview with ''ELF Voetbal''. He expressed his desire to prioritise his family and pursue projects outside of football.

International career

Greene was a member of the Netherlands U-16 and U-21 football teams.

Honours

Feyenoord *

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 ...

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

Serginho Greene
at Soccerway

References

External links

* *
Serginho Greene's profile at vi.nl

Profile at LevskiSofia.info
{{DEFAULTSORT:Greene, Serginho 1982 births Living people Footballers from Amsterdam Dutch sportspeople of Surinamese descent Dutch men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Netherlands men's under-21 international footballers HFC Haarlem players RKC Waalwijk players Feyenoord players SBV Vitesse players PFC Levski Sofia players FK Vojvodina players AEK Larnaca FC players Othellos Athienou FC players Odisha FC players FC Dordrecht players FC Lienden players Eredivisie players Eerste Divisie players Tweede Divisie players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Serbian SuperLiga players Cypriot First Division players Dutch expatriate men's footballers Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Bulgaria Expatriate men's footballers in Bulgaria Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Serbia Expatriate men's footballers in Serbia Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Expatriate men's footballers in Cyprus Dutch expatriate sportspeople in India Expatriate men's footballers in India FC Abcoude players