Theo Snelders

Theo Snelders

Personal information
Full name	Theodorus Antonius Gerardus Snelders
Date of birth	(1970-02-07) 7 February 1970
Place of birth	Westervoort, Netherlands
Height	1.93 m (6 ft 4 in)
Position(s)	Goalkeeper
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1987–1993	Ajax	126	(37)
1993–1996	Milan	62	(19)
1996–1997	Barcelona	37	(11)
1997–2007	Ajax	492	(201)
Total		717	(268)
International career
1990–2004	Netherlands	71	(20)
1990	Scottish League XI	1	(0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Theodorus Antonius Gerardus "Theo" Snelders (born 7 December 1963 in Westervoort, Gelderland) is a Dutch former footballer who played as a goalkeeper.

Career

Snelders started his career with FC Twente but is mostly remembered in Scotland especially for Aberdeen. He had a very good first season at Pittodrie, winning the Scottish PFA Players' Player of the Year in 1989. He saved Anton Rogan's penalty in Aberdeen's penalty shootout win over Celtic in the 1990 Scottish Cup Final.

He was a successful replacement for Jim Leighton but moved on to rivals Rangers in 1996. He made just 20 appearances for the club before he was released in 1999. He played two seasons at MVV before he retired from playing and is a goalkeeping coach in his native Netherlands with FC Twente.

International career

Theo was a part of many Dutch squads but made his only International appearance on 22/03/89 against the USSR. He kept a clean sheet and the Dutch won 2-0 with goals from a Marco van Basten diving header, and Ronald Koeman penalty.

Theo's touch onto the post and then turned behind for a corner from an overly powerful headed pass back from the Dutch defense, resulted in a Holland clean sheet.

External links

• Theo Snelders at Soccerbase
• Theo Snelders at Wereld van Oranje (archived) (in Dutch)
• Season by season appearances