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Pieter Collen

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Pieter Collen
Personal information
Date of birth (1980-06-20) 20 June 1980 (age 44)
Place of birth Ghent, Belgium
Height 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)[1]
Position(s) Centre back
Youth career
Gent
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1997–1999 Gent 35 (2)
1999–2000 Vitesse Arnhem 0 (0)
2000–2001 N.E.C. 42 (2)
2001–2007 Feyenoord 14 (2)
2003–2005NAC Breda (loan) 52 (0)
2008 Sint-Truidense 16 (0)
2009 Cambuur 6 (0)
2009–2010 Beveren 16 (0)
2010 Brisbane Roar 5 (0)
Total 186 (6)
International career
2006 Belgium 2 (0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Pieter Collen (born 20 June 1980) is a Belgian former professional footballer who played as a centre-back. He made two appearances for the Belgium national team.

Club career

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Collen started his professional career in his hometown with Gent. He defended the white and blue colours for two seasons before moving to the Netherlands. He ended up with Vitesse but never broke through and he left for rivals NEC the same year. In Nijmegen he forced himself into the starting eleven and made a huge impact in his second season with NEC. Feyenoord was interested in his abilities and signed for the club in Rotterdam.

Once he arrived in Rotterdam Collen started on the bench. Due to good play in training, he forced himself into the squad and played many good matches in the Dutch top flight as well as in the UEFA Champions League. However, a string of injuries and a long period of rehabilitation caused him to be sidelined until the end of the 2002 season. He was part of the Feyenoord squad that won the 2001–02 UEFA Cup, as an unused substitute in the final.[2] When he was declared suitable to play again he was loaned out to NAC Breda but suffered another a season-long injury and returned to Feyenoord.

The turning point came halfway through the 2003–04 season when he was loaned out to NAC Breda again, where he played 51 matches in one-and-a-half seasons. Feyenoord recalled him but, with Erwin Koeman as coach, he hardly played, partly due to injuries. When February arrived he started to play regularly again and was man of the match on several occasions. In the 2007–08 season he fell out of first-team contention and only appeared for the Feyenoord reserves. In the January transfer window, he returned to his homeland, signing with Sint-Truiden until 2010. However, his contract was annulled at the end of the next season.

To maintain his physical fitness he trained with NEC in the first half of the 2008–09 season. In the second half, he provided his services to amateur outfit SC Cambuur. After failing to earn a longer contract with the club he continued his career in the Exqi League.

On 11 January 2010, he signed for Brisbane Roar in the Australian A-League for the remainder of the season,[3] replacing former captain Craig Moore. It was announced on 6 May that he had not been offered a new contract for the next season despite earlier indications that he would be retained by the club.

References

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  1. ^ "Pieter Collen". worldfootball.net. Retrieved 6 February 2019.
  2. ^ "UEFA Cup results and team details". Telegraph. 8 May 2002. Retrieved 8 May 2019.
  3. ^ Jones, Quinn (11 January 2010). "Collen signs for Brisbane". Brisbane Roar FC. Archived from the original on 6 March 2011.
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