Former professional tennis player Richel Hogenkamp becomes team manager at De Graafschap | Dutch football

In June of this year, Hogenkamp decided to stop playing top tennis for the time being due to a foot injury. The sport itself must now be put on the back burner, because the Achterhoekse will become team manager at the Superboeren from 1 October. Hogenkamp is still considering participating in the qualifying tournaments of Roland Garros and Wimbledon in 2023.

“We had a total of fifty applications after Marc Teloh announced his retirement in August,” says technical manager Peter Bijvelds of De Graafschap. “And I have a very good feeling with Richel. We have opted for quality. they know very well how to run things.”

Hogenkamp, ​​who was in 94th place in the world ranking in 2017, won 16 ITF tournaments in her career. The last time she won a tournament was in Johannesburg in 2021. In 2016 she caused a sensation by beating Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova with the Netherlands in the FED Cup. In 2017, she beat Jelena Janković, the former number 1 in the world rankings, in the first round in Paris at Roland Garros.

There are not many female team managers in men’s professional football. Kathleen Krüger has been team manager at the German top club Bayern Munich for ten years. In the Netherlands, only Mirjam Clifford is employed by Vitesse as a team coach as a woman.