Michel Kuipers (born 26 June 1974 in Amsterdam, Netherlands) a professional footballer currently playing for Brighton & Hove Albion. He is a goalkeeper. Prior to football he was a Dutch marine.

He started his footballing career with Blauw-Wit Amsterdam, before moving to England in 1999 to join Bristol Rovers, where he spent sixteen months.

In June 2000 he joined Brighton on a free transfer, and quickly established himself as number one and became a firm fans favourite due to his quick reactions stops and outgoing style. Kuipers has suffered several career threatening injuries during his time at Withdean, being injured in a car crash in 2003,^[1] and a severe shoulder injury in 2005.^[2]

Michel has twice left the club on loan during his time at Brighton. He joined Hull on loan during the 2003–04 season (before his return to Albion and subsequent car crash) and joined Boston United on loan during the 2005–06 season, to regain match fitness after recovering from his shoulder injury. In 2008, he played a big part in Brighton's upset victory against Manchester City in the League Cup, saving Michael Ball's effort in the penalty shoot-out.^[3]

In the 2007/08 season he was ever present in the goal playing all 46 league matches. ^[4] This good form led to a new two year contract that expires in June 2010. If he stays to then he will have completed 10 years at the club. ^[5]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Michel Kuipers player profile at seagulls.co.uk
• Michel Kuipers player profile at hullcityafc.net
• Michel Kuipers career stats at Soccerbase
• BBC
• Soccerway profile

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