Martinus Johannes Maria "Tiny" Ruys (8 May 1957 – 11 January 2025) was a Dutch

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player and coach.

Playing career

Ruijs joined

Fortuna Sittard Fortuna Sittard (; ) is a professional football club from the municipality of Sittard-Geleen, Netherlands. The club currently plays its football in the 12,500 capacity Fortuna Sittard Stadion and features in the Eredivisie. The club was establi ...

from

NEC is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered at the NEC Supertower in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It provides IT and network solutions, including cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), Inte ...

and played 231 games for the club, clinching promotion to the

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 ...

with them in 1981. He played in 13 Eredivisie matches for NEC and 65 for Fortuna.

Managerial career

Ruys was in charge of the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

in 2001, and has also managed Dutch club teams

and

MVV MVV may refer to: Groups, organizations, companies *Malaysia Vision Valley (MVV), an economic corridor, see Malaysian National Projects * (MVV GmbH; ), German city works of Mannheim * Militaire Voetbal Vereniging (M. V. V.), a military soccer team ...

. He left MVV after he was threatened by his own supporters and then managed SV Meerssen and EVV whom he left early due to health issues.

Death

Ruys died on 11 January 2025, at the age of 67.

References

External links

Tiny Ruys
at NEC Archive 1957 births 2025 deaths People from Cuijk Dutch men's footballers Men's association football wingers Eredivisie players Eerste Divisie players NEC Nijmegen players Fortuna Sittard players Dutch football managers United Arab Emirates national football team managers Al Ain FC managers Fortuna Sittard managers MVV Maastricht managers SV Meerssen managers Dutch expatriate football managers Dutch expatriate sportspeople in the United Arab Emirates Expatriate football managers in the United Arab Emirates {{Netherlands-footy-midfielder-stub