Jan Heintze - Club Career

Club Career

Born in Tårnby, he started playing for his hometown club Tårnby Boldklub. He had a short spell in the youth team of Københavns boldklub (KB) alongside future national team player Michael Laudrup, but Heintze quickly moved on to play for the senior side of Kastrup Boldklub in January 1981, then in the top-flight Danish 1st Division. However, the team was relegated, and though he had offers from foreign clubs, the 17-years-old Heintze stayed at Kastrup, on orders of his mother.

He was bought by PSV in 1982 as a left winger, in which position he had been most successful in his first years at Kastrup Boldklub. Once at PSV, he was re-schooled as a defender, using his aggressiveness to charge up and down the sideline, and following a first season of few matches, he commanded the left back position in his second year, and made it his own. He won six Dutch Eredivisie league titles and a European Cup with the club, which at times counted three other Danes, Frank Arnesen, Søren Lerby and Ivan Nielsen, before the club hired coach Aad de Mos, who did not want him in the team. Heintze went to Germany to play for Bundesliga relegation battlers Bayer Uerdingen in 1994, and when the team was relegated in 1996, he went on to Bayer Leverkusen under coach Christoph Daum, with whom he finished in the Bundesliga top-three for three years in a row. Heintze returned to finish his career at PSV in 1999, with his old team mate Eric Gerets the head coach. Approaching 40, Heintze was looking to help the young Wilfred Bouma into the team as new left back, while using his experience to provide stability in the defense. He won another three Dutch championship titles before retiring in 2003.