Jan Jacobus "Sonny" Silooy (born 31 August 1963) 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 ...

and football manager. He is currently the assistant coach with

AFC Ajax Amsterdamsche Football Club Ajax (), also known as AFC Ajax, Ajax Amsterdam, or commonly Ajax, is a Dutch professional Association football, football Football team, club based in Amsterdam, that plays in the , the top tier in Dutch football. ...

. His last managing post was for the under-19 team for United Arab Emirates club Al Shabab. His most successful time as a player was in his period with

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 ...

. He won seven

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 ...

titles, four

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 ...

s, three Johan Cruyff Shields, one

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

, one

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European association football, football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The competition's official name was originally the European Cup Winners' Cup; it was renam ...

, one

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

, one

UEFA Super Cup The UEFA Super Cup is an annual super cup Association football, football match organised by UEFA and contested by the winners of the two main European club competitions: the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. The competition's offic ...

and one Intercontinental Cup.

Club career

Silooy was born in

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 ...

. He played as a

right Rights are law, legal, social, or ethics, ethical principles of freedom or Entitlement (fair division), entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal sy ...

central defender 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 ...

and is one of the legends of

, where he made his debut on 3 May 1981, playing over 250 league games for the

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 ...

club in two separate periods. Silooy also played for Matra Racing,

Arminia Bielefeld DSC Arminia Bielefeld (; full name: ; commonly known as Arminia Bielefeld (), also known as ''Die Arminen'' or ''Die Blauen'' ), or just Arminia (), is a German sports club from Bielefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia. Arminia is most well known as ...

, De Graafschap and the amateurs of GVV Unitas from

Gorinchem Gorinchem ( ), pronunciation respelling, also spelled Gorkum, is a city and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. The municipality covers an area of of which is water. It had a population of in . The munici ...

. He played in the 1996 UEFA Champions League Final against Juventus, but missed a key penalty in the shootout which Ajax ultimately lost.

International career

Silooy, a member of the Netherlands national team's 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 ...

, obtained 25 caps, including eight appearances in Euro 88 qualifying, but never played in a major international competition.

Coaching career

Silooy coached of the

Jong Ajax Jong Ajax (; ), also referred to as Ajax II or Ajax 2, is a Dutch association football team. It is based in Amsterdam and competes in the Dutch Eerste Divisie. Jong Ajax is the only reserve team to have won a title in Dutch professional foot ...

youth academy and juniors team. In 2010, he became the head coach of the new club Dayton Dutch Lions. He left Dayton Dutch Lions to become an assistant coach with the

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

club D.C. United. In 2015, he was appointed as head coach of Al Shabab under 19. He joined Ajax's women's team in 2024 with new head coach Hesterine de Reus.

Honours

Player

Ajax *

: 1981–82, 1982–83, 1984–85, 1989–90, 1993–94, 1994–95, 1995–96 *

: 1982–83, 1985–86, 1986–87, 1995–96 * Johan Cruijff Shield:

1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

: 1986–87 *

: 1991–92 *

* Intercontinental Cup:

References

External links

*
Profile
*

*
Ajax.nl – Sonny Silooy to leave Ajax, 7 February 2008
{{DEFAULTSORT:Silooy, Sonny 1963 births Living people Men's association football defenders Dutch men's footballers Dutch football managers Netherlands men's youth international footballers Netherlands men's international footballers AFC Ajax players Racing Club de France Football players Ligue 1 players Footballers from Rotterdam De Graafschap players Arminia Bielefeld players Dutch people of Indonesian descent Sportspeople of Indonesian descent Dutch people of Moluccan descent Eredivisie players Dutch expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in France Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Bundesliga players Dayton Dutch Lions coaches Dutch expatriate sportspeople in France Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Germany D.C. United non-playing staff UEFA Champions League–winning players UEFA Europa League–winning players Dutch expatriate football managers Dutch expatriate sportspeople in the United Arab Emirates Dutch expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate soccer coaches in the United States Expatriate football managers in the United Arab Emirates Dutch football coaches Sparta Rotterdam non-playing staff AFC Ajax non-playing staff 20th-century Dutch sportsmen