Ton Thie (28 October 1944 – 25 February 2021) was a Dutch 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

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

for GC & FC Olympia,

Excelsior Excelsior may refer to: Arts and entertainment Literature and poetry * "Excelsior" (Longfellow), an 1841 poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow * "Excelsior", an 1877 picture book in verse by Bret Harte, published as an advertisement for the Sa ...

Hermes DVS Hermes DVS is a Dutch omnisport club based in Schiedam. The club has association football, football, cricket, Squash (sport), squash and rugby union, rugby departments. History The club was founded on 8 April 1884. It was a runner-up in the 1951 ...

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 ...

, and the

San Francisco Golden Gate Gales The San Francisco Golden Gate Gales were an American soccer team that played in the United Soccer Association (USA). The team was based in San Francisco, California and played their home games at the Candlestick Park. The team folded when the ...

Club career

Thie started at his hometown club GC & FC Olympia and was discovered by

coach Bob Janse. He played for

in the professional

Tweede Divisie Tweede Divisie (; ) is the highest amateur (and historically the lowest professional) football league in the Netherlands. It was established in 1956, together with the Eredivisie and the Eerste Divisie. Between 1956 and 1960 and between 1962 and 19 ...

from 1962 until 1964. Tall and agile, he was signed by

. He made 380 appearances for ADO Den Haag and won 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 ...

twice. His final game for them came in December 1976 against

AZ'67 Alkmaar Zaanstreek (), better known internationally as AZ Alkmaar, or simply and most commonly as AZ () in the Netherlands, is a Dutch professional football club from Alkmaar and the Zaan district. The club plays in the Eredivisie, the highest ...

. He was voted Den Haag's best goalkeeper of all time at the club's 100 year anniversary.

International career

Thie was also selected on one occasion to the Dutch national squad, but did not make an appearance.

Personal life

In 1996 he retired to The Gambia following a holiday. He died on 25 February 2021, aged 76.''De Volkskrant'', 9 March 2021

References

1944 births 2021 deaths Footballers from Gouda, South Holland Men's association football goalkeepers Dutch men's footballers Excelsior Rotterdam players Hermes DVS players ADO Den Haag players San Francisco Golden Gate Gales players Tweede Divisie players Eredivisie players United Soccer Association players Dutch expatriate men's footballers Dutch expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States 20th-century Dutch sportsmen {{Netherlands-footy-goalkeeper-stub