Kees van Wonderen

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Kees van Wonderen
van Wonderen as manager of Heerenveen in 2023
Personal information
Full name Cornelis Hendricus van Wonderen
Date of birth (1969-01-04) 4 January 1969 (age 55)
Place of birth Bergen, Netherlands
Height 1.87 m (6 ft 2 in)
Position(s) Centre back
Team information
Current team
Heerenveen (head coach)
Youth career
Bennekom
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1991–1994 NEC 99 (26)
1994–1996 NAC 56 (6)
1996–2004 Feyenoord 203 (5)
Total 358 (37)
International career
1998–1999 Netherlands 5 (0)
Managerial career
2006–2008 Bennekom (assistant)
2010–2012 Twente (assistant)
2011–2013 Netherlands U16 & U18 (assistant)
2013–2015 Twente (assistant)
2015–2018 Netherlands U17
2015–2018 Netherlands U18
2018–2019 Netherlands (assistant)
2020–2022 Go Ahead Eagles
2022– Heerenveen
Medal record
Representing  Netherlands
UEFA European Under-17 Championship
Winner England 2018 U-17 Team
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Cornelis "Kees" Hendricus van Wonderen (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈkeːs fɑɱ ˈʋɔndərə(n)]; born 4 January 1969) is a Dutch professional football manager and former player, who is the current head coach of Eredivisie club Heerenveen. During his playing career, he was mostly utilised as a centre back.[1]

Playing career[edit]

Club[edit]

Van Wonderen was born in Bergen, North Holland, and played professional football for NEC, NAC Breda and Feyenoord.

While at Feyenoord, Van Wonderen won the Eredivisie in 1999 and the 2001–02 UEFA Cup, as the club beat Borussia Dortmund 3–2 in the final at De Kuip.

International[edit]

He also won five caps for the Netherlands national team.

Coaching career[edit]

van Wonderen with the Netherlands U-18 in March 2017
van Wonderen with the Netherlands U-18 in March 2017

After his career as a professional footballer, he started as a scout at Feyenoord but left the position again after a few months. He then became assistant coach to Camiel Jager at his youth club VV Bennekom in December 2006.

In the summer of 2008 he accepted an offer from Twente to join the technical staff there under manager Steve McClaren.[2] After two years, McClaren left Twente in the summer 2010 and following that, van Wonderen indicated that he wanted to take a step back to spend more time with his family. However, he signed a new deal with Twente in August 2010 as an assistant manager.[3]

In October 2011, he was also added to the backroom staff of Netherlands U-16 and U-18 national teams as an assistant manager beside his job at Twente.[4] Meanwhile, Van Wonderen and FC Twente decided to separate on 6 July 2012.[5] However, by the request of his former Twente-colleague Alfred Schreuder who had been appointed head coach of Twente, van Wonderen returned to the club as an assistant manager at the end of February 2013.[6]

In the summer 2015, van Wonderen left Twente and was appointed manager of Netherlands U-17 and U-18 national teams.[7] At the start of the 2017/18 season, Van Wonderen was added to the technical staff of VVV-Venlo as an intern.[8]

In March 2018, he was appointed assistant manager to Ronald Koeman for Netherlands A-team. He left this position in December 2019.[9]

On 29 February 2020, Go Ahead Eagles confirmed that van Wonderen would become the club's new head coach for the upcoming season.[10]

Honours[edit]

Feyenoord

References[edit]

External links[edit]