Richard Sneekes

Infobox Football biography
playername = Richard Sneekes
fullname = Richard Sneekes
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1968|10|30
cityofbirth = flagicon|Netherlands Amsterdam
countryofbirth = Netherlands
height = height|ft=5|in=11
position = Midfielder
currentclub = Hinckley United
clubnumber =
youthyears = 1980–1984
youthclubs = Ajax Amsterdam
years = 1984–1989
1989–1990
1990–1994
1994–1996
1996–2001
2001
2001–2002
2002–2003
2007
clubs = Ajax Amsterdam
Volendam
Fortuna Sittard
Bolton Wanderers
West Bromwich Albion
Stockport County
Hull City
Herfolge BK
Hinckley United
caps(goals) = 00300(0)
03100(7)
1260(20)
0710(11)
2510(34)
01000(0)
02500(0)
00?00(?)
00300(0)
nationalyears = 1982–1984
1988–1989
nationalteam = Netherlands Schoolboys
Netherlands U21
nationalcaps(goals) = 022 0(0)
002 0(0)
pcupdate =
ntupdate =

Richard Sneekes (born 30 October, 1968 in Amsterdam) is a Dutch former footballer, who played as a midfielder.

Playing career

Ajax Amsterdam and Fortuna Sittard

Sneekes started as a Youth player at Ajax Amsterdam, and made 22 appearances for Netherlands National Schoolboys. He made his debut for Ajax at the age of 16, and broke through into the Netherlands U21 team, but never quite fulfilled his potential for the club and was transferred out at the age of 21.

After a short spell at Volendam Sneekes signed for Fortuna Sittard and spent four years at the club before moving to England.

Bolton Wanderers

Sneekes first came to prominence in England when he signed for Bolton Wanderers in August 1994 for £200,000. He was part of their team that won promotion to the Premier League that season, but was a casualty the following season when Bolton struggled in the Premier League and was transferred shortly before the end of the season.

West Bromwich Albion

Alan Buckley signed the Dutchman for West Bromwich Albion in March 1996 for £400,000. Despite Buckley claiming it would be a while before he made any difference, Sneekes almost immediately became a cult hero at The Hawthorns. Quite literally an overnight sensation, and many of the Baggies crowd took to wearing long blond wigs as gestures of worship - even the club shop was selling them. Sneekes finished his first season with ten goals from thirteen games, arguably for some Albion fans saving them from relegation. Sneekes spent seven seasons at West Brom before finally being transferred at the start of the 2001–02 season. After Sneekes retirement of 2007, he went on to captain West Bromwich Albion in the Midlands 'Masters' and has done so ever since, scoring in the 2008 tournament.

tockport, Hull and Herfolge

He moved to Stockport County on a free transfer in September 2001 [cite news
date=2001-09-04
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/s/stockport/1525266.stm
title=Stockport snap up Sneekes
publisher=BBC Sport
accessdate=2007-04-26] , but stayed just two months [cite news
date=2001-11-21
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/s/stockport/1669114.stm
title=Sneekes in County exit
publisher=BBC Sport
accessdate=2007-04-26] before a move to Hull City. That move also didn't work out and he left the latter club in May 2002. [cite news
date=2002-05-22
url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/h/hull_city/2002126.stm
title=Sneekes leaves Hull
publisher=BBC Sport
accessdate=2007-04-26] . A further year was spent with Danish club Herfolge BK, before retiring from the professional game at the age of 34.

Hinckley United

Sneekes was convinced to come out of retirement following a chance meeting with Hinckley United manager Dean Thomas, at the Hong Kong Sixes tournament in July 2007. Sneekes initially trained with the Conference North club, but then decided to sign for them. However his debut was put on hold as his International Clearance was sought after last playing in Denmark. [cite news
date=2007-09-18
url=http://www.hen-news.co.uk/heartlandnews-archive/displayarticle.asp?id=137168
title=Red tape stops Sneekes
publisher=Heartland Evening News
accessdate=2007-09-29] He eventually made his debut in Hinckley's 4-2 FA Cup win over Grantham Town in September 2007. However, a disastrous start for Hinckley United in the league meant that Sneekes was released, after playing only three games for the club, in October 2007. [cite news
title= Thomas continues with his hitlist
url=http://www.hinckleyunitedfc.co.uk/news/news06.html
publisher=Hinckley United Independent
date=2007-10-19
accessdate=2007-10-28] Sneekes immediately went back into retirement, saying "The fact that I was not really enjoying it meant that it became too much of a chore to do it". [Citation
last=Sneekes
first =Richard
title =Richard Sneekes' column
journal =Albion (West Bromwich Albion Matchday Magazine)
publisher = CRE8, for West Bromwich Albion
volume =vol. 99
issue =iss. 9
pages =pp70–71
date =2007-10-27]

In October 2007 Sneekes' daughter Melissa won Miss Netherlands, thus qualifying for Miss World 2007. [cite news
title=Melissa Sneekes nieuwe Miss Nederland
url=http://www.telegraaf.nl/binnenland/article72501011.ece?cid=rss
publisher=De Telegraaf
date=2007-10-07
accessdate=2007-10-28
language=Dutch]

References

External links

*soccerbase|id=7456|name=Richard Sneekes