Stefano Wilfred Denswil (born 7 May 1993) is a 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 plays 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 ...

. Born in the Netherlands, he plays for the Suriname national team.

Club career

Ajax

Denswil began his footballing career with local amateur side Hellas Sport in Zaandam, before being recruited to join the youth ranks of

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 2001. In the 2011–12 season, Denswil helped the Ajax A1 team win the Nike Eredivisie league title as well as reach the finals of the NextGen Series, the Champions League equivalent for under-20 youth squads. Ajax lost the final to

Inter Milan Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football ...

5–3 on penalties, following a 1–1 draw after extra time. Denswil scored the only goal in regular time from a free kick in the 48th minute, with his team finishing the tournament as runners-up. Denswil was promoted to the first team squad and was given the number 34 shirt by manager

Frank de Boer Franciscus de Boer (; born 15 May 1970) is a Dutch former professional footballer and current manager. A former defender, De Boer spent most of his playing career with Ajax, winning five Eredivisie titles, two KNVB Cups, three Super Cups, o ...

in the 2012–13 season. He made his debut for the first team in the third round of the

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 ...

against

ONS Sneek ONS Sneek is a Dutch football club from Sneek. Club history 20th century: Foundation and move Oranje Nassau Sneek was founded on 4 April 1932 and initially played its matches at the Sportpark Leeuwarderweg. In 1973, it moved to Zuidersportpark. ...

on 31 October 2012. It was an away match the Amsterdam side won 2–0, with Denswil scoring off a free kick in the 88th minute. On 3 November 2012, he made his league debut in the home fixture against

SBV Vitesse SBV Vitesse Arnhem (''Stichting Betaald Voetbal Vitesse Arnhem, Eng: Professional Football Foundation Vitesse Arnhem''), widely known as Vitesse () or internationally known as Vitesse Arnhem, is a Dutch professional association football, footba ...

, starting as left center back in place of

Niklas Moisander Niklas Kristian Moisander (born 29 September 1985) is a Finnish former professional association football, footballer who played as a centre-back. Moisander was born in Turku, where he played for the local Turun Palloseura, TPS youth team before ...

, who was side-lined due to a

red card A red card is a type of penalty card that is shown in many sports after a rules infraction. Red card may also refer to: Art, entertainment, and media * ''Red Card'' (album), 1976 release by Streetwalkers * Red card, suit (cards) of hearts or di ...

from the club's previous fixture against

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 ...

. On 18 September 2013, Denswil made his continental debut for the Ajax during the group stage of the

2013–14 UEFA Champions League The 2013–14 UEFA Champions League was the 59th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 22nd season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League. The final was ...

campaign in the 4–0 away loss to

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, in which he formed a central defensive partnership with Niklas Moisander. On 2 October 2013 he made his second appearance in the Champions League group stage against

AC Milan (), commonly referred to as Milan or AC Milan () mainly outside of Italy, is an Italian professional Football club (association football), football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Founded in 1899, the club competes in the Serie A, the top tie ...

. Denswil scored through a header in the 90th minute but his goal would not be decisive as

Mario Balotelli Mario Balotelli Barwuah (; ''Birth name, né'' Barwuah; born 12 August 1990) is an Italian professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Striker (association football), striker for club Genoa CFC, Genoa. Balotelli started his ...

converted a penalty in the 94th minute of a 1–1 draw. Following the match against AC Milan, it was announced on 5 October 2013, that Denswil had been included in the official UEFA Champions League Team of the Week, finding himself mentioned amongst the likes of

Mesut Özil Mesut Özil (, ; born 15 October 1988) is a German former professional association football, footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. Known for his ball control, technical skills, creativity, passing skills, and vision, he is widely re ...

Arjen Robben Arjen Robben (; born 23 January 1984) is a Dutch former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Winger (association football), winger. Known for his Dribbling#Association football, dribbling skills, speed, and long-range s ...

as well as former Ajax players

Gregory van der Wiel Gregory Kurtley van der Wiel (born 3 February 1988) is a Dutch former professional association football, footballer who played as a right-back. Born in Amsterdam, Van der Wiel is a product of the AFC Ajax youth system. In 2010, he was awarded t ...

and

Zlatan Ibrahimović Zlatan Ibrahimović (born 3 October 1981) is a Swedish former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Striker (association football), striker. Ibrahimović is known for his acrobatic strikes and Volley (association footba ...

Club Brugge

On 3 January 2015, it was announced that Stefano Denswil would transfer to

Belgian Pro League The Belgian Pro League (; ; ), officially the Jupiler Pro League () for sponsor Jupiler, is a professional association football league in Belgium and the highest level of the Belgian football league system. Contested by 16 clubs from the 2023 ...

side

Club Brugge (), known simply as Club Brugge (in English also: ''Club Bruges''), is a Belgian professional football club based in Bruges, Belgium. It was founded in 1891 and its home ground is the Jan Breydel Stadium, which has a capacity of 29,042. They pl ...

, signing a 3.5-year contract with the Belgian club. He made his league debut on 16 January 2015 in a 1–1 draw against

KV Mechelen Yellow Red Koninklijke Voetbalclub Mechelen (), often called KV Mechelen (, KVM) or simply by their former French name Malinois /ˌmalɪˈnwɑː/, is a Belgian professional association football, football club based in Mechelen in the Antwerp (pr ...

. On 3 February 2015, Denswil played his first

Bruges derby The Bruges derby (, ) is a local football rivalry between two Belgian Pro League clubs Club Brugge and Cercle Brugge, who share the Jan Breydel Stadium in Bruges, Belgium. The derby was first contested during the 1899–1900 season however the ...

against crosstown rivals

Cercle Brugge Cercle Brugge Koninklijke Sportvereniging () is a Belgian professional football club based in Bruges. They compete in the Belgian Pro League, the top flight of Belgian football. Their matricule number is 12. The club plays home games at the 29 ...

, playing the full 90-minutes in the 5–1 win at home.

Bologna

On 6 July 2019, Denswill signed for Italian club

Bologna Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...

on a three-year contract with the option of a further year.

Loan return to Club Brugge

On 7 January 2021, Denswil returned to

on loan for the remainder 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 ...

Trabzonspor

On 21 August 2021, Denswil was loaned to

Trabzonspor Trabzonspor Kulübü is a Turkish professional sports club located in the city of Trabzon, located in Black Sea region, northeastern Turkey. Established in 1967 through the merger of several local clubs, Trabzonspor is one of the most prominent A ...

for the duration of the

2021–22 Süper Lig The 2021–22 Süper Lig, officially called the Spor Toto Süper Lig Ahmet Çalık season, was the 64th season of the Süper Lig, the highest tier football league of Turkey. Trabzonspor clinched their 7th league title, and first since 1983-84 se ...

season. On 16 June 2022, Denswil announced a signing of a three-year contract with Trabzonspor.

International career

Denswil was born in the Netherlands to Surinamese parents. He has represented the Netherlands, his country of birth on various youth levels, making his debut for the Netherlands U-15 team in a friendly match against Slovakia on 27 November 2007. That season, Denswil went on to appear in three more friendly fixtures for the U-15 team, once against Belgium and twice against Switzerland. On 10 February 2009, he made his debut for the Netherlands U-16 team in a friendly match against

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

, which ended in a 3–1 victory for the Dutch. He made his second appearance two days later in another friendly fixture against Ukraine in a 2–0 victory. Denswil made his debut for the U-17 team in a friendly match against

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

on 22 September 2009. He made a total of six appearances in

2010 UEFA European Under-17 Championship The 2010 UEFA European Under-17 Championship was the ninth edition of UEFA's European Under-17 Football Championship, held in Liechtenstein from 18 to 30 May 2010. The hosts decided not to field a team, fearing it would not be competitive enough ...

campaign and also competed in the

La Manga Cup La Manga Cup is a winter football tournament played in La Manga Club, La Manga del Mar Menor (Murcia, Spain). Usual participants are clubs from countries with a summer football season: Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Russia, Ukraine Ukr ...

Murcia Murcia ( , , ) is a city in south-eastern Spain, the Capital (political), capital and most populous city of the autonomous community of the Region of Murcia, and the Ranked lists of Spanish municipalities#By population, seventh largest city i ...

, Spain. On 17 November 2010, he made his debut for the under-18 team against Romania, in a match that ended in a 3–0 away win for the Netherlands. On 9 February 2011, he debuted for the U-19 team in a friendly match against

. He also played in the

2011 UEFA European Under-19 Championship The 2011 UEFA European Under-19 Championship was the tenth edition of UEFA's UEFA European Under-19 Championship, European Under-19 Championship since it was renamed from the original under-18 event, in 2001. The tournament took place in Romania fr ...

qualification matches against

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

and the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

, making a total of six appearances while also appearing in four friendly matches for the under-19 team that season. Denswil switched sporting nationalities to play for the Suriname national team in May 2023.

Personal life

Kickboxing

Outside of football, Denswil has actively pursued his passion for

kickboxing Kickboxing ( ) is a full-contact hybrid Martial arts, martial art and Boxing (disambiguation), boxing type based on punch (combat), punching and kicking. Kickboxing originated in the 1950s to 1970s. The fight takes place in a boxing ring, norma ...

. The intensity of his practice has slowed down immensely in order to avoid unnecessary injuries as he progressed through the youth ranks of Ajax. However Denswil still practices on a regular basis in order to sharpen his condition and footwork. His shared passion of both football and martial arts were revealed in a

Voetbal International ''Voetbal International'' (VI) is a Dutch football magazine. It is the oldest Dutch football magazine that is still running. History and profile ''Voetbal International'' was established in 1965. VI was one of the founding members of ESM. It l ...

report where the magazine took a closer look at Denswil.

Instagram incident

On 15 July 2013, a naked photograph of Denswil with a girl appeared on the website

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

. The photo had been taken by the girl who, after having slept with Denswil, uploaded the picture to the site with the tagline "''Lekker ploppen met Stefano Denswil''". Although the photograph was removed from the site the same day, the picture appeared on several websites shortly thereafter, eventually making headlines in the Netherlands. Ajax manager

was not amused by the incident but acknowledged that there was little Denswil could have done to prevent it from happening, and asked that he stay focused on his career and not let the incident be a distraction.

Career statistics

Honours

Ajax *

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 ...

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, 2013–14 *

Johan Cruijff Shield The Johan Cruyff Shield (, ) is a football trophy in the Netherlands named after Dutch footballer Johan Cruyff, also often referred to as the Dutch Super Cup. The winner is decided in one match only, played by the winner of the national football ...

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

Club Brugge *

: 2015–16, 2017–18,

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

Belgian Cup The Belgian Cup (; ; ) is the main knockout football competition in Belgium, run by the Royal Belgian FA. The competition started in 1908 with provincial selections as the "Belgian Provinces Cup". Starting from 1912 only actual clubs were allowed ...

: 2014–15 *

Belgian Super Cup The Belgian Super Cup ( ; ; ), ''Pro League Supercup'', is a Belgian club competition played as a single match between the Belgian Pro League champions (also received the Super Cup host) and the Belgian Cup winners. If both teams are the same, ...

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

Trabzonspor *

Süper Lig The Süper Lig (, ''Super League''), also known as Trendyol Süper Lig for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Turkey and the highest level of the Turkish football league system. In the 2023–2024 season, twen ...

: 2021–22 *

Turkish Super Cup The Turkish Super Cup, known as Turkcell Super Cup () for sponsorship reasons, is a super cup tournament in Turkish football. Founded in 1966 as a two-team competition, the current version has been contested since 2025 by four teams: the winners ...

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

References

External links

Voetbal International profile

Netherlands stats
at OnsOranje
Netherlands U21 stats
at OnsOranje {{DEFAULTSORT:Denswil, Stefano 1993 births Living people Footballers from Zaanstad Surinamese men's footballers 21st-century Surinamese sportsmen Suriname men's international footballers Dutch men's footballers Netherlands men's under-21 international footballers Netherlands men's youth international footballers Dutch sportspeople of Surinamese descent Men's association football defenders Jong Ajax players AFC Ajax players Club Brugge KV players Bologna FC 1909 players Trabzonspor footballers Eredivisie players Eerste Divisie players Belgian Pro League players Serie A players Süper Lig players Surinamese expatriate men's footballers Dutch expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey Surinamese expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Italy Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Turkey 21st-century Dutch sportsmen