Henk Fraser

Henk Fraser

Fraser in 2018 as manager of Vitesse
Personal information
Full name	Hendrikus Fraser
Date of birth	(1966-07-07) 7 July 1966 (age 58)
Place of birth	Paramaribo, Suriname
Height	1.81 m (5 ft 11 in)
Position(s)	Centre back
Team information
Current team	RKC Waalwijk (head coach)
Youth career
	RFC Rotterdam
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1984–1986	Sparta Rotterdam	12	(0)
1986–1988	Utrecht	58	(12)
1988–1990	Roda JC	58	(6)
1990–1999	Feyenoord	138	(15)
Total		266	(33)
International career
1989–1992	Netherlands	6	(1)
Managerial career
1999–2007	Feyenoord (youth)
2007–2009	ADO Den Haag (assistant)
2009–2011	PSV Eindhoven (youth)
2011–2014	ADO Den Haag (assistant)
2012–2014	Netherlands U21 (assistant)
2014–2016	ADO Den Haag
2016–2018	Vitesse
2018–2022	Sparta Rotterdam
2021–2022	Netherlands (assistant)
2022	Utrecht
2023–	RKC Waalwijk
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Hendrikus "Henk" Fraser (born 7 July 1966)^[1] is a Dutch football coach and former player. He is the manager of football club RKC Waalwijk.

He played as a defender for various Dutch teams. Born in Suriname, he earned seven caps for the Netherlands national team in which he scored one goal. He was a member of the Dutch team at the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy under coach Leo Beenhakker. He made his debut for the Netherlands on 6 September 1989, in a friendly against Denmark (2–2).

Fraser played for Sparta Rotterdam (1984–86), Utrecht (1986–88), Roda JC (1988–90), and Feyenoord (1990–99), with whom he won the Dutch title twice (in 1993 and 1999). After his professional career ended, he became a youth coach at Feyenoord.

Being assistant of Maurice Steijn for two years, Fraser became first the caretaking manager of ADO Den Haag after Steijn had been sacked. However, a month later he signed deal with the club to be the permanent manager until the summer of 2016.

Vitesse announced on 13 June 2016 that Fraser would replace Peter Bosz at the start of the 2016–17 season. In his first full season, won the club first major trophy in its 125-year existence. Fraser defeating AZ by a score of 2–0 in the final of the KNVB Cup, with two goals from Ricky van Wolfswinkel.^[2] On 5 August 2017 Vitesse were beaten 1–1 (4–2 on penalties) at De Kuip, Rotterdam in the Johan Cruyff Shield final by Feyenoord.

On 18 December 2017, Fraser announced he would not be extending his ending contract at the end of the season, leaving the club.^[3] On 12 March 2018, it was announced that russian coach Leonid Slutsky would replace Henk Fraser as the new manager of Vitesse for the start of the 2018-19 season. On 23 March 2018, Fraser was presented as the new head coach for Sparta Rotterdam for the following season.^[4] Following a significant dip in form, Fraser was relieved of his duties in April 2018, two months prior to the conclusion of his contract at Vitesse.^[5]

In December 2017, the board of Sparta Rotterdam announced that they had recruited Dick Advocaat to succeed the dismissed Alex Pastoor. The former national team coach of Netherlands signed for six months and was instructed to keep Sparta in the Eredivisie. In the meantime, club management were looking for a head coach for the new season. On 23 March 2018, Fraser signed a two-year contract with Sparta, beginning on 1 July.^[6] Despite Advocaat's presence, Sparta were relegated to the second-tier Eerste Divisie after a 3–1 defeat against Emmen. In his first season as head coach, Fraser won promotion to the Eredivisie through the play-offs. In the following season, Sparta finished eleventh in the COVID-19 abandoned Eredivisie season. In the 2020–21 season, Sparta finished in eighth place in the Eredivisie under the leadership of Fraser, thereby qualifying for the European football play-offs.^[7] However, Sparta was defeated by Feyenoord in the first play-off round.^[8] On 24 April 2022, Fraser resigned after Sparta told him about their intention to fire assistant manager Aleksandar Ranković.^[9] At the time of his resignation Sparta was in the 18th place of the Eredivisie with 4 matches remaining.

In April 2022, Utrecht announced that Fraser would become the club's new coach for the new season, signing a contract for three seasons.^[10] On 14 December 2022, after a training accident with Amin Younes,^[11] he left the club.^[12]

As of match played 3 November 2024

Managerial record by team and tenure

Team	Nat	From	To	Record								Ref
				G	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Win %
ADO Den Haag		5 February 2014	13 June 2016	82	25	30	27	117	120	−3	030.49	[13]
Vitesse		13 June 2016	11 April 2018	78	33	19	26	124	96	+28	042.31	[14]
Sparta Rotterdam		1 July 2018	24 April 2022	139	51	37	51	205	198	+7	036.69	[15]
Utrecht		1 July 2022	14 December 2022	15	8	3	4	26	21	+5	053.33
RKC Waalwijk		1 July 2023	Present	47	9	9	29	53	88	−35	019.15
Total				361	126	98	137	525	523	+2	034.90	–

Feyenoord

• Eredivisie: 1992–93, 1998–99
• KNVB Cup: 1990–91, 1991–92, 1993–94, 1994–95
• Dutch Supercup: 1991

Vitesse

• KNVB Cup: 2016–17
• Johan Cruyff Shield runner-up: 2017

• CV Henk Fraser