Hans van Breukelen - TheSportsDB.com

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Name
Hans van Breukelen

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Born
1956 (68 years old)

Birth Place

Utrecht, Netherlands

Position
Goalkeeper

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Height
188 cm

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Full Body Render

Sport

Soccer

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_Retired Soccer

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_No League Soccer

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Johannes Franciscus "Hans" van Breukelen (Dutch pronunciation: ; born 4 October 1956) is a Dutch former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He was the technical director of the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) from 2017 until 2018.

Van Breukelen grew up in De Bilt, where he played in the BVC youth academy. In 1976, he moved to FC Utrecht, where he played 142 matches. After two years with Nottingham Forest, Van Breukelen moved to PSV Eindhoven in 1984. With PSV, he won six league titles and three domestic cups. In 1988, Van Breukelen also won the European Cup as part of the Treble after saving Benfica's sixth penalty in the shoot-out. In the Netherlands, he was named Goalkeeper of the Year four times.

Van Breukelen played 73 caps for the Netherlands national team. At UEFA Euro 1988 with The Netherlands; Van Breukelen stopped a penalty in the final. He also appeared at the 1990 World Cup and UEFA Euro 1992. After his career, he became an entrepreneur in different non-football business ventures, although he served as director of football at FC Utrecht and was a member of the PSV board of directors from 2010 to 2016.

Hans van Breukelen is one of five European players to ever win a Treble with their club and a cup with their national team in the same year. The other four players are his teammates Berry van Aerle, Ronald Koeman, Gerald Vanenburg and Wim Kieft.

Van Breukelen, born in Utrecht, started playing club football at amateur team BVC from De Bilt in 1964. In 1974, he reached the BVC first team at age 17. A few months later, Van Breukelen was transferred to FC Utrecht. In his youth, he studied to become a teacher; even after he signed for FC Utrecht, he finished his study in pedagogy and taught at schools.

Van Breukelen made his international debut on 11 October 1980 against West Germany. He played in qualification matches for the 1982 World Cup, Euro 1984 and the 1986 World Cup, but the Dutch team failed to qualify for any of the tournaments. In the Euro 1988 qualifiers, Van Breukelen was struggling with his form and before the qualification match against Hungary in 1987, coach Rinus Michels dropped him in favour of Joop Hiele as goalkeeper. Van Breukelen returned as the first choice in the next match. During the qualification round, he conceded only one goal in his seven matches, contributing to the first Dutch major tournament since 1980. At Euro 1988, The Netherlands narrowly progressed through the group stage but managed to beat rivals West Germany in the semi-finals (2–1). According to Van Breukelen, beating the Germans "meant more to us than reaching the European Championship Final". The Netherlands were named European champions after winning the final against the Soviet Union (2–0). Van Breukelen caused a penalty in that match, but saved the subsequent attempt by Igor Belanov. Later, he was named best goalkeeper of the tournament.

Van Breukelen and the national team qualified for the 1990 World Cup, but were knocked out by West Germany in the second round. The Dutch team endured a disastrous tournament due to a lack of unity in the squad; Van Breukelen called the World Cup "the lowest point of his career". In the West Germany match, Rudi Völler collided with Van Breukelen, who confronted Völler vocally. A brawl ensued, resulting in Völler (and Frank Rijkaard) being sent off. Meanwhile, the England match in the group stage was Van Breukelen's 54th cap, which meant he had surpassed the Dutch record number of national team appearances for a goalkeeper, held by Gejus van der Meulen. After retiring with 73 caps, that record would stand until Edwin van der Sar played his 74th game in 2003. Van Breukelen's third and last major tournament was Euro 1992, where the Netherlands advanced to the semi-finals. The team faced Denmark; a match that was lost 5–4 on penalties after a 2–2 draw, with Van Breukelen failing to stop a penalty. It turned out to be his last international match.

After Van Breukelen retired, he committed himself to the business world. From 1994 until 1997, he was vice-president of retail company Breecom. Desiring a return to football, Van Breukelen increasingly hoped for an offer from a team. FC Twente approached him to become their general manager in 1996, but Van Breukelen refused. In 1997, he was appointed as director of football at FC Utrecht. He embarked on a concept called the ‘Challenger-plan’, which stated FC Utrecht's style of play and main targets. Even though he signed a new contract without end date in January 2000, he left later that year after he sensed a lack of confidence from the Utrecht board.

Van Breukelen returned to his role as an entrepreneur and in 2000, he founded his own company HvB Management, specialized in conducting lectures and trainings for businesses. Later, Van Breukelen also co-founded two other companies. In October 2001, Van Breukelen got his coaching diploma 'Trainer Coach I', which enabled him to become an assistant-manager at a professional club or a manager at an amateur club. Since 2005, he served as the director of Sports and Technology, a Dutch foundation working on innovation in the two areas. In July 2010, Van Breukelen joined the PSV Eindhoven board of directors. His appointment was endorsed by the 'Vereniging PSV' (association PSV), who have a partial say in the board membership. After his disappointment with PSV's football performances in 2013, Van Breukelen hoped to instigate a change of management direction and club culture. He contacted Guus Hiddink, several other former PSV players and sponsors to aid his cause.

In June 2016, van Breukelen was appointed technical director of the Dutch FA. He left this position in 2018.

He appeared in a 2023 episode of the television show The Masked Singer.