Piet Fransen

Piet Fransen (5 July 1936 – 2 August 2015) was a Dutch footballer who played as a midfielder.

Piet Fransen

Fransen in 1965
Personal information
Date of birth	(1936-07-05)5 July 1936
Place of birth	Groningen, Netherlands
Date of death	2 August 2015(2015-08-02) (aged 79)
Place of death	Groningen, Netherlands
Position(s)	Midfielder
Youth career
	Velocitas 1897
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1952–1957	Velocitas 1897
1957–1965	GVAV	190	(41)
1965–1966	Feyenoord	40	(6)
1967–1970	GVAV	101	(12)
1971–1973	FC Groningen	65	(5)
Total		331	(59)
International career
1964–1966	Netherlands	6	(1)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Club career

Nicknamed Mr. FC Groningen, Fransen played the majority of his career for FC Groningen and its predecessor GVAV. He totalled 484 official matches for the club, scoring 82 goals.^[1] He started his career at Velocitas and was part of their first professional Tweede Divisie squad, when the third professional football league was introduced in the Netherlands in 1956.^[2]

He also had a spell at Feyenoord.

International career

He made his debut for the Netherlands in an October 1964 FIFA World Cup qualification match against Albania and has earned a total of 6 caps, scoring 1 goal.^[3] He represented his country in 3 FIFA World Cup qualification matches.^[4]

His final international was a March 1966 friendly match against West Germany.

International goals

Scores and results list the Netherlands' goal tally first.

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	26 January 1965	Bloomfield Stadium, Tel Aviv, Israel	Israel	1–0	1–0	Friendly match

^[5]

Death and legacy

He died on 2 August 2015 in Groningen.^[6] A minute of silence was held ahead of the Johan Cruijff Shield match between Groningen and PSV Eindhoven later that day.^[1]

In 2007 a street in Groningen at the former Oosterpark Stadion terrain was named after Fransen.^[7] In 2011, the east stand of the Euroborg stadium was named Piet Fransen Stand.^[8]