Members News: Ex Sky Blues Dutch Defender Hits 54 Today. ‘Happy Birthday’, Arjan!!

Arjan De Zeeuw in the Sky Blue

At the back end of 2021 we welcomed CCFC’s veteran Dutch defender Adrian Johannes ‘Arjan’ De Zeeuw to become our latest Association recruit. Now we both have another reason to celebrate as our member (born in Castricum, Holland on 16th April 1970) enjoys his 54th birthday! Congrats, Arjan!

Arjan was signed by the Sky Blues in 2007 but was never really able to show his true ability in his one season at Coventry which was sadly hampered by injuries. He was a model professional for all his teams. Sadly the Sky Blues only saw him at the end of his professional career!

Arjan began his career in the Netherlands with Vitesse ’22 in the Dutch amateur leagues whilst studying for a degree in medical science.  Turning professional at the relatively late age of 22 he signed for Sportclub Telstar in  In 1995, he was reported to have considered quitting football after he felt the Eerste Divisie club had priced him out of a move to competitors Utrecht but eventually persevered with the Ijmuiden based club.

Arjan De Zeeuw in Sky Blue action

However, later in 1995, after more than a century of games with the Dutch club, Arjan moved to the UK to join Barnsley who paid £250k for him. In December 1995, he scored his first English goal for the Tykes in December 1995 a 2–2 draw with Ipswich Town and became a key player for the Yorkshire team as they won promotion to the Premier League at the end of the 1996–97 season but went straight back down with the team at the end of the following season. However, he saw out the rest of his contract (i.e. 1998-99) for the Tykes then managed by former Sky Blue (and now fellow Association member) John Hendrie.

At that point John moved to Wigan Athletic having scored seven goals in his 164 games for the Tykes over four seasons. With Wigan he again became a dependable team member and was their ‘Player of the Year‘ in both 2001 and 2002. On expiry of his contract and after 144 games (and six goals) in his three seasons in the Second Division he moved on a free transfer to then First Division Portsmouth helping them take the championship in 2002-03. After that he had two Premier League seasons with Pompey and again won a ‘Player of the Year’ accolade and captained them in 2004-05. After three seasons, 118 games and five goals for the south coast club Arjan moved back to Wigan Athletic for a second stint in the Premier League which did not prove so successful and after another 57 games, in June 2007 Arjan joined the Sky Blues for his UK swansong season.

Arjan celebrates with Michael Mifsud

Arjan signed a one-year contract with City but things did not start auspiciously as he was kept from his debut following a freak pre-season training accident. He finally made his debut in 3-0 home defeat for the Sky Blues against Bristol City on 15 September 2007 and injury and form restricted him to just nineteen first team appearances (all but two in the Championship) and no CCFC goals credited to the central defender. Sky Blues ‘gaffer’ Chris Coleman subsequently determined Arjan was surplus to requirements (along with seven other first teamers) and in 2009 Arjan returned home.

Dutch Detective De Zeeuw

Though Arjan signed for Dutch club ADO’20 in 2009 the 39 year old chose to hang up his boots later the same year and was reported to have begun a new career in the police service using his medical postgrad training. Apparently Arjan’s specialism, working as an investigative detective in Alkmaar, is forensics. For an in depth article and interview with Arjan in 2019 click here. In what he had described as what was meant to be a short sporting interruption to his academic career Arjan eventually scored eighteen goals in over 500 games in thirteen years of football!

All at CCFPA hope you have a very ‘Happy Birthday’ today Arjan!

We would love to see you back over in the UK as our guest for a Sky Blues’ game and/or Association event whenever suitable conditions prevail!