Dick Nanninga

Nanninga 1975

Dirk " Dick" Jacobus Willem Nanninga ( born January 17, 1949 in Groningen ) is a former National Football Player of the Netherlands. He had in the final of the 1978 World Cup, when he scored the goal for the ultimately unsuccessful Dutch national football team his best-known appearance.

The player Roda JC and MVV Maastricht played a total of 15 times for the Dutch team, scoring six goals.

Nanninga began his career at amateur club Oosterparkers, he had his first professional engagement at GVAV, the later FC Groningen. After a brief stopover at BV Veendam he went to Roda JC Kerkrade, where he spent the next eight years until 1982. After a spell in Hong Kong at Seiko Hong Kong he returned already for the season 1982/1983 to the Netherlands, to the great Roda JC- rival, the MVV Maastricht. There he played until the End of career in 1986.

The aerially strong Nanninga had his debut in the national team in a friendly against Tunisia in preparation for the 1978 World Cup in which he scored two goals. In the World Cup itself, he sat down in a spectacular manner. In the match against the West German team, he was still sent off for insulting referee of the place. In the final against the hosts Argentina, he was like 82 minutes of the 1-0 by Mario Kempes. Nanninga, who came into the game for Johnny Rep in the 59th minute only, so forced the Argentine into overtime. At Euro 1980 he was again in the squad of Oranje Oranje; However, this was eliminated in the very first round, Nanninga could not excel in size.

In July 2012, Nanninga underwent surgery at Genk in which his left leg was amputated.