Oscar Moens

Oscar Moens (born 1 April 1973 in 's-Gravenzande) is a former Dutch footballer who currently holds a commercial position at Sparta Rotterdam.

Early career

Moens began his professional football career at first division team SVV in the 1990/1991 season. The team merged with Dordrecht '90, forming SVV/Dordrecht'90 and for the 1992/1993 season he transferred to Excelsior Rotterdam. He then transferred to Go Ahead Eagles in the winter of 1995/1996 as this gave him the opportunity to play in the Eredivisie. At the end of this season he was bought by AZ Alkmaar for the sum of ƒ750.000,- (€340.000).

AZ Alkmaar

At AZ Alkmaar he played from 1996/1997 to 1999/2000 as a member of the starting line-up.

Chairman Dirk Scheringa was so contented with Moens' performance that AZ Alkmaar offered him a lucrative new contract, including a payment for his image rights, which was unprecedented for the Eredivisie at the time. He also earned his first National cap.

This contract did not pass the IRS scrutiny however, and a subsequent conflict between Moens and Scheringa resulted in Moens calling in sick at the end of the 1999/2000 season. As a result, he was suspended from the first team indefinitely.

In the 2000/2001 season he was loaned out to RBC Roosendaal. With this club he played 14 games and halfway through the 2000/2001 season, he was called back to AZ Alkmaar where he played till 2002/2003.

Later career

Italian Serie B club Genoa contracted Moens for the 2003/2004 season, although he never played a match for this club. Willem II saved him from falling into obscurity by signing him the following season.

In 2004/2005 Moens had a good first season, earning him a recall to the Netherlands national football team. In 2005/2006, however, he suffered an injury which only allowed him to play 11 games. In the summer of 2006 he moved to PSV Eindhoven, as second keeper behind Heurelho da Silva Gomes. He ended his career in 2007 but returned to the game in 2008 at Willem II.

United States

In December 2009 Moens was approached by Erik Tammer, with whom he played at Go Ahead Eagles in 1995–1996, who asked him to join the fledgling Dayton Dutch Lions team, which will debut in the USL Premier Development League in 2010. Moens agreed, and would play for Dayton from April to August 2010. December 2010 he went back to the Netherlands, where he joined Sparta Rotterdam. Although he extended his contract for a year in May 2011 he ended his career at the end of the 2010/11 season and picked up a commercial job at Sparta Rotterdam.

National team

Oscar Moens made two appearances for the Dutch national squad. On 13 October 1998 he played his first international match in a friendly with Ghana in the Gelredome in Arnhem, which ended in 0–0. His second appearance was on 10 November 2001 against Denmark where he played the entire match. The final score was 1–1, with Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink scoring for Holland.