 Geels in 1974 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Geertruida Maria Geels | |||||||||||||||||||
| Date of birth | (1948-07-28)28 July 1948 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Haarlem, Netherlands | |||||||||||||||||||
| Date of death | 18 November 2023(2023-11-18) (aged 75) | |||||||||||||||||||
| Place of death | Haarlem, Netherlands | |||||||||||||||||||
| Position | Striker | |||||||||||||||||||
| Youth career | ||||||||||||||||||||
| RKVV DSS | ||||||||||||||||||||
| RKSV Onze Gezellen | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Senior career* | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) | |||||||||||||||||
| 1965–1966 | Telstar | 8 | (5) | |||||||||||||||||
| 1966–1970 | Feijenoord | 89 | (46) | |||||||||||||||||
| 1970–1972 | Go Ahead Eagles | 62 | (35) | |||||||||||||||||
| 1972–1974 | Club Brugge | 53 | (28) | |||||||||||||||||
| 1974–1978 | Ajax | 132 | (123) | |||||||||||||||||
| 1978–1979 | Anderlecht | 28 | (25) | |||||||||||||||||
| 1979–1981 | Sparta | 48 | (35) | |||||||||||||||||
| 1981–1982 | PSV | 32 | (15) | |||||||||||||||||
| 1982–1984 | NAC | 35 | (12) | |||||||||||||||||
| Total | 487 | (324) | ||||||||||||||||||
| International career | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 1974–1981 | Netherlands | 20 | (11) | |||||||||||||||||
Medal record
| ||||||||||||||||||||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | ||||||||||||||||||||
Geertruida Maria "Ruud"Geels (Dutch pronunciation:[ɣeːrˈtrœydaːmaːˈrijaːrytˈxeːls]; 28 July 1948 – 18 November 2023) was a Dutch professionalfootballer who played as astriker.[1] He obtained 20caps for theNetherlands national team, scoring eleven goals.[2] A prolific striker known for his heading skills, Geels is the only player to win theEredivisie topscoring title five times[3] (followed byMarco van Basten with four titles), and isthe second most scoring player in the Dutch top football division, behindWilly van der Kuijlen.[1][4] He is also known for being the first of only two footballers (the second beingRonald Koeman) to play for thebig three in Dutch football -Ajax,PSV andFeyenoord.[1]
Geels was born inHaarlem. Before joiningTelstar, he played for amateur football clubs DSS and Onze Gezellen. After eight games for Telstar, Geels was sold to Feyenoord. Geels scored 46 goals in 89 league games for Feyenoord, but also faced competition for the striker position with SwedeOve Kindvall. He won the Eredivisie and the KNVB Cup in 1968-69, and the European Cup in 1969-70, although he was not part of the squad for the final against Celtic.
In 1970, Geels left Feyenoord for Go Ahead Eagles, where he played for two seasons, scoring 35 goals. In the summer of 1972, Geels left his native Netherlands for Belgium to play forClub Brugge, scoring 28 goals for the Bruges club. He returned to the Netherlands after the1974 World Cup to play forAjax. In the Amsterdam club, Geels scored 123 goals in 131 league matches, and was the Eredivisie's top scorer for four consecutive seasons, winning the 1976–77 season in his third consecutive season as top scorer of the league. He was also top scorer in the1975–76 UEFA Cup with 10 goals.[1]
Geels returned to Belgium in 1978 to play forAnderlecht, where he won the1978 UEFA Super Cup against Liverpool. He returned to the Netherlands in 1979 to play for Sparta Rotterdam, scoring 35 goals in two seasons, while also becoming for the fifth time the best Eredivisie top scorer in 1980-81.
He then signed forPSV Eindhoven in 1981, making him the first player to play for the Big Three in the Netherlands. He scored 15 goals in 25 league games in his first season, but only played four games in his second season with the Eindhoven club, never scoring any goals. Geels was then sold to NAC Breda in 1982, netting six goals in 22 league games, but after NAC's relegation, he never played again for the club, and his contract was terminated in 1984.
Geels played for theNetherlands 20 times and scored 11 goals. He was called to represent his country in the1974 World Cup, but did not play a single match. Geels later described the World Cup as one of the worst weeks of his life due to daily harassment fromWim Suurbier andRuud Krol, with whom he would play with at Ajax after the World Cup.[5] He helped the Netherlands win a third place at theUEFA Euro 1976 by scoring two goals againstYugoslavia in the play-off for the third place.
A fast, agile striker, Geels was one of the most prolific goalscorers in Europe in the 70's. He was renowned for his heading skills and aerial abilities. In an interview with Voetbal International, Geels explained that he practiced his heading skills at Telstar by using an old English head gallow, noting that "You always have to be a beat ahead of your opponent". In a NRC article about Geels, Jaap Bloembergen wrote that no one jumped higher and headed a ball harder than Geels.[6]
Geels was the father of Luciène Geels,[7] who played for the Dutch women's softball team for many years and participated in the 1996 Summer Olympics.
Geels died in 18 November 2023, at the age of 75, having suffered fromAlzheimer's disease for a long time.[8][4]
| Club | Season | League | Cup | Europe | Other | Total | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Division | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | ||
| Telstar | 1965–66 | Eredivisie | 8 | 5 | 1 | 1 | — | — | 9 | 6 | ||
| Feijenoord | 1966–67 | Eredivisie | 25 | 8 | — | — | 25 | 8 | ||||
| 1967–68 | Eredivisie | 32 | 20 | — | — | 32 | 20 | |||||
| 1968–69 | Eredivisie | 20 | 10 | 3 | 3 | 1[a] | 0 | — | 24 | 13 | ||
| 1969–70 | Eredivisie | 12 | 8 | 4[b] | 6 | — | 16 | 14 | ||||
| Total | 89 | 46 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 6 | — | 97 | 55 | |||
| Go Ahead Eagles | 1970–71 | Eredivisie | 34 | 17 | 1 | 2 | — | — | 35 | 19 | ||
| 1971–72 | Eredivisie | 28 | 18 | 1 | 1 | — | — | 29 | 19 | |||
| Total | 62 | 35 | — | — | 62 | 35 | ||||||
| Club Brugge | 1972–73 | Belgian First Division | 23 | 10 | 4[c] | 2 | — | 27 | 12 | |||
| 1973–74 | Belgian First Division | 30 | 18 | 4[b] | 0 | — | 34 | 18 | ||||
| Total | 53 | 28 | 8 | 2 | — | 61 | 30 | |||||
| Ajax | 1974–75 | Eredivisie | 32 | 30 | 2 | 3 | 5[c] | 1 | — | 39 | 34 | |
| 1975–76 | Eredivisie | 33 | 29 | 3 | 3 | 6[c] | 11 | — | 42 | 43 | ||
| 1976–77 | Eredivisie | 34 | 34 | 1 | 0 | 2[c] | 0 | — | 37 | 34 | ||
| 1977–78 | Eredivisie | 32 | 30 | 6 | 6 | 6[b] | 3 | — | 45 | 39 | ||
| Total | 131 | 123 | 12 | 12 | 19 | 15 | — | 163 | 147 | |||
| Anderlecht | 1978–79 | Belgian First Division | 28 | 25 | 2[d] | 0 | 2[e] | 0 | 32 | 25 | ||
| Sparta Rotterdam | 1979–80 | Eredivisie | 18 | 13 | — | — | 18 | 13 | ||||
| 1980–81 | Eredivisie | 30 | 22 | — | — | 30 | 22 | |||||
| Total | 48 | 35 | — | — | 48 | 35 | ||||||
| PSV | 1981–82 | Eredivisie | 28 | 15 | 1 | 1 | 4[c] | 3 | — | 33 | 19 | |
| 1982–83 | Eredivisie | 4 | 0 | 0[c] | 0 | — | 4 | 0 | ||||
| Total | 32 | 15 | 4 | 3 | — | 36 | 18 | |||||
| NAC | 1982–83 | Eredivisie | 22 | 6 | — | — | 22 | 6 | ||||
| Career total | 473 | 318 | 19 | 20 | 38 | 26 | 2 | 0 | 532 | 364 | ||
| National team | Year | Apps | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|
| Netherlands | 1974 | 5 | 1 |
| 1975 | 3 | 1 | |
| 1976 | 4 | 3 | |
| 1977 | 3 | 2 | |
| 1978 | 2 | 3 | |
| 1979 | 1 | 0 | |
| 1980 | 0 | 0 | |
| 1981 | 2 | 1 | |
| Total | 20 | 11 | |
| No. | Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 9 October 1974 | Rotterdam, Netherlands |  Switzerland | 1–0 | 1–0 | Friendly |
| 2 | 15 October 1975 | Amsterdam, Netherlands |  Poland | 2–0 | 3–0 | UEFA Euro 1976 qualification |
| 3 | 19 June 1976 | Zagreb, Yugoslavia |  Yugoslavia | 1–0 | 3–2 | UEFA Euro 1976 |
| 4 | 3–2 | |||||
| 5 | 8 September 1976 | Reykjavik, Iceland |  Iceland | 1–0 | 1–0 | 1978 FIFA World Cup qualification |
| 6 | 31 August 1977 | Nijmegen, Netherlands | Iceland | 2–0 | 4–1 | 1978 FIFA World Cup qualification |
| 7 | 4–1 | |||||
| 8 | 11 October 1978 | Bern, Switzerland | Switzerland | 3–1 | 3–1 | UEFA Euro 1980 qualifying |
| 9 | 15 November 1978 | Rotterdam, Netherlands |  East Germany | 2–0 | 3–0 | UEFA Euro 1980 qualifying |
| 10 | 3–0 | |||||
| 11 | 14 October 1981 | Rotterdam, Netherlands |  Belgium | 3–0 | 3–0 | 1982 FIFA World Cup qualification |
Feyenoord[12]
Club Brugge[13]
Ajax[14]
Anderlecht[15]
Netherlands
Individual
Netherlands squads | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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