Ruud Geels

Geels was born in Haarlem. Before joining Telstar, he played for amateur football clubs DSS and Onze Gezellen. After eight games for Telstar, Geels was sold to Feyenoord. Geels scored 46 goals in 89 league games for Feyenoord, but also faced competition for the striker position with Swede Ove Kindvall. He won the Eredivisie and the KNVB Cup in 1968-69, and the European Cup in 1969-70, although he was not part of the squad for the final against Celtic.

In 1970, Geels left Feyenoord for Go Ahead Eagles, where he played for two seasons, scoring 35 goals. In the summer of 1972, Geels left his native Netherlands for Belgium to play for Club Brugge, scoring 28 goals for the Bruges club. He returned to the Netherlands after the 1974 World Cup to play for Ajax. In the Amsterdam club, Geels scored 123 goals in 131 league matches, and was the Eredivisie's top scorer for four consecutive seasons, winning the 1976-77 season in his third consecutive season as top scorer of the league. He was also top scorer in the 1975-76 UEFA Cup with 10 goals.

Geels returned to Belgium in 1978 to play for Anderlecht, where he won the 1978 UEFA Super Cup against Liverpool. He returned to the Netherlands in 1979 to play for Sparta Rotterdam, scoring 35 goals in two seasons, while also becoming for the fifth time the best Eredivisie top scorer in 1980-81.

He then signed for PSV Eindhoven in 1981, making him the first player to play for the Big Three in the Netherlands. He scored 15 goals in 25 league games in his first season, but only played four games in his second season with the Eindhoven club, never scoring any goals. Geels was then sold to NAC Breda in 1982, netting six goals in 22 league games, but after NAC's relegation, he never played again for the club, and his contract was terminated in 1984.

Geels played for the Netherlands 20 times and scored 11 goals. He was called to represent his country in the 1974 World Cup, but did not play a single match. Geels later described the World Cup as one of the worst weeks of his life due to daily harassment from Wim Suurbier and Ruud Krol, with whom he would play at Ajax after the World Cup. He helped the Netherlands win a third place at the UEFA Euro 1976 by scoring two goals against Yugoslavia in the play-off for the third place.

A fast, agile striker, Geels was one of the most prolific goalscorers in Europe in the 70's. He was renowned for his heading skills and aerial abilities. In an interview with Voetbal International, Geels explained that he practiced his heading skills at Telstar by using an old English head gallow, noting that "You always have to be a beat ahead of your opponent". In a NRC article about Geels, Jaap Bloembergen wrote that no one jumped higher and headed a ball harder than Geels.

Geels was the father of Luciène Geels, who played for the Dutch women's softball team for many years and participated in the 1996 Summer Olympics.

Geels died on 18 November 2023, at the age of 75, having suffered from Alzheimer's disease for a long time.

Club

International

Scores and results list the Netherlands' goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Geels goal.

Feyenoord

• Eredivisie: 1968-69
• KNVB Cup: 1968-69
• European Cup: 1969-70

Club Brugge

• Belgian First Division: 1972-73

Ajax

• Eredivisie: 1976-77

Anderlecht

• UEFA Super Cup: 1978
• Belgian Sports Merit Award: 1978

Netherlands

• FIFA World Cup runner-up: 1974
• UEFA European Championship third place: 1976

Individual

• Eredivisie Top Scorer: 1974-75, 1975-76, 1976-77, 1977-78, 1980-81
• UEFA Cup Top Scorer: 1975-76
• World XI: 1976