Henk van der Bijl

Henk van der Bijl, registered as J.H. van der Bijl, was born in Rotterdam on 24 March 1925. In 1937, aged twelve, he joined Feijenoord, as the club was then spelled, together with his older brother Jan van der Bijl (1922 to 2010). As a new youth member he witnessed the official opening of the club's new stadium, De Kuip, in March 1937.

The Second World War put football on hold. During the German occupation he was sent to Poland under the Arbeitseinsatz, the forced labour scheme, where he continued to play football and, according to fr12.nl, tried his hand as a striker. In April 1946 the KNVB's post-war purification committee issued the two brothers with a reprimand because they had played football while in Poland.

On his return to Rotterdam he hoped to play up front, but the club saw him as a goalkeeper. He made his first team debut on 22 September 1946, in a side with experienced players such as Bas Paauwe, Arie de Vroet and Jan Linssen, and he also played some matches alongside his brother Jan. He soon displaced Jen Vlietstra as first choice.

Van der Bijl's style was fearless and spectacular. He would snatch the ball from the feet of onrushing forwards and dive full length for shots, and supporters sang "Er is maar ene tijger", there is only one tiger. His approach brought him injuries including a double leg fracture and a shoulder that dislocated again and again, and at times the club had no fit reserve and had to put outfield players in goal. In the summer of 1951 he was a guest player for BVV of 's-Hertogenbosch on a trip to England for the Festival of Britain.

He played 210 official matches for Feyenoord, 198 of them in the league, including two in the first Eredivisie season, 1956/57. In January 1957 he decided to leave, and he joined Fortuna Vlaardingen, then a professional club, where he played six matches in the Eerste Divisie in 1957/58 before retiring in 1958. Feyenoord replaced him by signing Eddy Pieters Graafland from Ajax.

Alongside his football career Van der Bijl ran a menswear shop on the Kruiskade in Rotterdam. He later owned the cafe Penny Pean on the Meent in the city centre.

He followed Feyenoord closely for the rest of his life. In December 2023, at the age of 98, he fulfilled a long held wish to visit De Kuip once more, watching Feyenoord beat FC Utrecht 2-1 in the KNVB Cup. He turned 100 on 24 March 2025, when the club marked the occasion as the oldest Feyenoord player ever.

Henk van der Bijl died in the night of 10 to 11 October 2026, aged 101. Feyenoord announced his death on 11 October, saying the club was deeply saddened, and opened an online book of condolence. The place and cause of death were not made public.

His death was reported by NOS, Rijnmond, the AD and RTL Nieuws. The supporters' site fr12.nl noted that with his death there was no longer any living former Feyenoord player born in the 1920s.

The Feyenoord supporters' site fr12.nl described Van der Bijl as by far the club's best goalkeeper of the years after the Second World War and perhaps the most stylish Feyenoord goalkeeper ever. He was the oldest Feyenoord player in the club's history. Photographs of his trademark dives from the late 1940s and early 1950s, taken by the Anefo press agency, are preserved in the Dutch National Archives.