Jan van Halst

Club career

Born in Utrecht, Van Halst began his football career in the youth ranks of VV Jonathan in Zeist, a suburb to the East of Utrecht, from where he drew the attention of FC Utrecht. He joined their youth academy, and eventually made his professional debut for his hometown club during the 1988–89 Eredivisie season, making a total of nine league appearances for the club before departing for FC Wageningen by the end of the season. The following season saw Van Halst playing for FC Wageningen. Competing in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of professional football in the Netherlands, he made a total of 30 league appearances, while scoring twice to help his side to a tenth-place finish in the league table. His performances earned him a transfer to FC Twente before the start of the next season. Joining FC Twente in 1990, Van Halst would become a regular for the Tukkers over the course of the next nine years, making a total of 223 league appearances, while scoring 19 goals.

Van Halst joined Ajax ahead of the 1999–2000 season. He made 21 league appearances without scoring in his first season. The following season Van Halst was regarded as excessive to squad requirements. He was then subsequently loaned out to Fortuna Sittard for the 2000–01 season where he made 21 league appearances while scoring once. In 2001–02 Van Halst was given a second chance at Ajax. Although he was unable to secure a starting position with the first team, he made 13 appearances without scoring all the while helping Ajax to win the league title and the national cup competition. He remained with Ajax for the start of the following season, but was transferred to SBV Vitesse after making two further appearances for Ajax. He then announced his retirement as a professional footballer after making 13 appearances for the team from Arnhem.

During his playing career Van Halst was commonly known as a very physical player.

International career

Van Halst made one appearance for the Netherlands national U-21 team when he played the full 90 minutes against Iceland in what ended in a 1–1 draw on 13 September 1988.

Post-playing career

On 1 February 2006, Van Halst and Peter Spit were appointed the new directors of operations at FC Twente under chairman Joop Munsterman, following the resignation of director Plageman. At this point Van Halst was already active in Sports broadcasting and analytics, and was commonly seen on television programs such as RTL Voetbal, VI/VI Oranje, Eredivisie Live and NOS Studio Voetbal. He was also an active columnist for De Weekkrant. In one article he wrote for Weekblad de Toren that he considered himself a communist.

On 17 June 2010 Van Halst was appointed as the new general manager of FC Twente, taking over several tasks from his predecessor Munsterman. In August 2011 Van Halst announced his departure from the club, stating that he would be replaced by December, opting to pursue a career outside of football. Three days out of the week he was active as a director at VerzuimReductie, spending two days out of the week at the International marketing agency SportFive. After a year Van Halst assumed the role as financial director for FC Utrecht in February 2012. After his former employer VerzuimRecuctie had gotten in trouble following a broadcast of Zembla in March 2012, Van Halst denied any further collaborative efforts and left the company.

Club

Ajax