Misjonne Juniffer Naigelino "Sontje" Hansen (born 18 May 2002) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a forward for club NEC.

Early life and career

Born in

Hoorn Hoorn () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the northwest of the Netherlands, in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland. It is the largest town an ...

, Hansen began his football career at the age of five with local amateur club HSV Sport 1889, where his older brother Ricky also played. Their mother, Sonaida, raised them as a single parent and faced challenges, including a lengthy sick leave, which made it difficult to cover club fees and football gear expenses. In their time of need, the Leergeld West-Friesland Foundation stepped in, providing assistance to families with limited financial means. Thanks to this support, Hansen was able to pursue his development at the club. In 2011, he moved to Zwaluwen '30, and two years later, he earned admission to the Ajax Youth Academy.

Club career

Ajax

Hansen signed his first senior contract 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 ...

in May 2018, keeping him at the club until 2021. On 13 December 2019, he made his professional football debut for Jong Ajax, starting in an Eerste Divisie match against Cambuur and immediately scoring his first goal as Ajax secured a 2–0 away victory. Five days later, he made his first-team debut for Ajax on 18 December 2019 in a

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 ...

match against

Telstar Telstar refers to a series of communications satellites. The first two, Telstar 1 and Telstar 2, were experimental and nearly identical. Telstar 1 launched atop of a Thor-Delta rocket on July 10, 1962, successfully relayed the first televisi ...

. Four days later again, on 22 December, he played his first

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 ...

match against

ADO Den Haag Alles Door Oefening Den Haag (), commonly known by the abbreviated name ADO Den Haag (), is a Dutch association football club from the city of The Hague. They play in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of Dutch football, following relegation ...

, coming on as a substitute in the 79th minute. In the 2020–21 season, he played for Jong Ajax again, participating in 28 out of 33 matches and contributing with three goals and five assists. During the first half of the 2021–22 season, a knee injury sidelined him for nearly two months, and after recovery, he struggled to regain form, managing only three goals and two assists in 23 matches. On 22 August 2022, he had a standout performance, scoring twice and providing one assist against De Graafschap in a 5–1 victory. However, for the remainder of the season, he only scored two more goals. In a total of 84 matches with Jong Ajax between 2019 and 2023, he ended up scoring thirteen goals and providing thirteen assists.

NEC

On 8 May 2023, it was officially announced that Hansen would join fellow

side NEC at the start of the 2023–24 season, signing a five-year contract with the club. He made his competitive debut for the club on the first matchday of the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

, also scoring his first goal for NEC in a 4–3 home loss to Excelsior on 13 August.

International career

Hansen has been a part of the Netherlands national youth football teams since February 2017. In May 2019, he won the

UEFA European Under-17 Championship The UEFA European Under-17 Championship, or simply the Euro Under-17, is an annual Association football, football competition contested by the men's under-17 national teams of the UEFA member associations. Spain national under-17 football team, ...

with the Netherlands U17 team and became the top goalscorer of the 2019 FIFA U-17 World Cup, with six goals. During his time with the Netherlands under-17 team, he scored 13 goals in 24 matches, with only Daishawn Redan (20) and Brian Brobbey (16) scoring more for the team. Additionally, he featured in the under-15, under-16, and under-18 national teams. On 8 September 2023, he made his debut for the Netherlands under-21 team with an assist to NEC Nijmegen teammate Dirk Proper in a 3–0 victory over Moldova U21.

Career statistics

Honours

Netherlands U17 *

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

Individual * FIFA U-17 World Cup Golden Boot:

* UEFA European Under-17 Championship Team of the Tournament:

References

External links

*
Profile
at Voetbal International {{DEFAULTSORT:Hansen, Sontje 2002 births Living people Footballers from Hoorn Dutch men's footballers Netherlands men's youth international footballers Netherlands men's under-21 international footballers Men's association football forwards Jong Ajax players AFC Ajax players NEC Nijmegen players Eerste Divisie players Eredivisie players Dutch people of Curaçao descent 21st-century Dutch sportsmen