Andre Onana, the Ajax Amsterdam’s Cameroonian goalkeeper has won the Tonny van Leeuwen Award, which rewards the best goalkeeper in the Dutch Premier League.
Andre Onana
Andre Onana, the young Ajax Amsterdam player received the Tonny van Leeuwen Trophy, which rewards the best goalkeeper of the Dutch Premier League Championship. The progeny of Van Der Sar, former star goalkeeper of the Netherlands national team and Manchester United, now managing director of Ajax, is the first foreign player and the second player of the Amsterdam club (after Heinz Stuy in 1973) to win this award.
Note that Teunis Pieter (Tonny) van Leeuwen was a Dutch international. He was a successful goalkeeper at Sparta and GVAV , and played for the Dutch national. Considered a great talent, his career came to an abrupt end when he died in 1971. It is therefore to salute his memory that the prize was created in his name. And the first to win it was Piet Schrijvers of FC Twente, in 1972. While the last foreign winner before Andre Onana, was Hans van Breukelen of PSV in 1987. It was therefore necessary to wait thirty years, before seeing what prize out of the drawer will be awarded to the young Indomitable Lion. He is also in the running for the next edition of the 2017 IFFHS Awards.
The only Cameroonian to ever ranked in the category of the best goaltenders in Europe, he is competing for the title with Manuel Neuer (Bayern / Germany), Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus / Italy), Thibaut Courtois (Chelsea / Belgium), Keylor Navas ( Real Madrid / Costa Rica), David de Gea (Manchester United / Spain) and Ederson (Manchester City / Brazil). The awards are organized by FIFA’s International Federation for Football History and Statistics ( IFFHS ), which provides updated statistics on football players and teams around the world. The results will be known on November 15, 2017.
