Jerry Haatrecht

Who was Jerry Haatrecht?

Jerry Haatrecht was a Dutch-Suriname footballer. During his career he served Cambuur Leeuwarden as well as a bunch of amateur clubs including VV Neerlandia '31. He died at the age of 28, when on June 7, 1989 he was killed in the Surinam Airways Flight PY764 air crash in Paramaribo. He was the brother of fellow professional footballer Winnie Haatrecht.

Both Jerry and Winnie Haatrecht were known as talented youth players and were always playing at the Balboa Square in Amsterdam with their buddies Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard. All four they joined the youth squads of AFC Ajax and became part of a high quality group of players, where also players like Wim Kieft, Marco van Basten, Gerald Vanenburg, Sonny Silooy and John Bosman were their team mates.

Jerry and Winnie were not able to get a professional contract at Ajax and both left the club for a club in other regions of the Netherlands. Winnie signed for Willem II Tilburg, while Jerry moved to Cambuur Leeuwarden. Jerry was not successful in professional football, and decided to move to the amateur divisions and served several teams before joining VV Neerlandia '31. Before the start of the 1989-90 season he switched to yet another amateur team, when he signed a new contract for FC Sloterplas.