Abe Lenstra

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Abe Lenstra

Lenstra in 1951
Personal information
Full name	Abe Minderts Lenstra
Date of birth	(1920-11-27)27 November 1920
Place of birth	Heerenveen, Netherlands
Date of death	2 September 1985(1985-09-02) (aged 64)
Place of death	Heerenveen, Netherlands
Position(s)	Striker
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1936–1955	Heerenveen	395	(471)
1955–1960	SC Enschede	107	(65)
1960–1963	Enschedese Boys	88	(40)
Total		590	(576[1])
International career
1940–1959	Netherlands	47	(33)
Managerial career
1946–1947	Heerenveen (player-coach)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Abe Minderts Lenstra (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈaːbə ˈmɪndərts ˈlɛnstraː]; 27 November 1920 – 2 September 1985) was a Dutch footballer and national football icon in the 1950s who played as a forward. He is regarded as one of the greatest players ever to hail from the Netherlands. He was also a Frisian legend, most notably with the club where he made his name as a football player, Heerenveen.^[2]

Lenstra played for a host of clubs such as SC Enschede, Enschedese Boys, PH: DOS '19, WSV, DOS Kampen and vv LTC. However, it was with VV Heerenveen (the previous name of current day sc Heerenveen) where he first was selected for the Dutch national team. When in 1954 professional football was introduced in the Netherlands the already 34-year-old Abe Lenstra moved from VV Heerenveen to the bigger SC Enschede. It was in Enschede where he missed his best chance of ever winning the Dutch title: in 1958 SC Enschede lost the first and last Eredivisie final ever after 180 minutes from DOS Utrecht. In 1960, he made the move to the rivals Enschedese Boys, where he ended his professional career in 1963.

With the national team, for which he played a total of 47 caps scoring 33 goals,^[3] he struck a partnership with other internationals such as Faas Wilkes and Kees Rijvers. He was known to stand by his principles and objected to play for the national squad if he was not selected for the position he favoured.

It was Lenstra who put the name of sc Heerenveen on the footballing map, where the club was also fondly referred to as 'Abeveen'. In 1977, long after he retired from football, he was diagnosed with having a brain haemorrhage and spent the remainder of his life using a wheelchair. He died in 1985, just a few days before the first ever international match in the stadium that a year later would bear his name.

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

List of international goals scored by Abe Lenstra

No.	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition	Ref.
1	31 March 1940	De Kuip, Rotterdam, Netherlands	Luxembourg	1–0	4–5	Friendly	[7]
2	21 September 1947	Olympic Stadium, Amsterdam, Netherlands	Switzerland	1–0	6–2	Friendly	[8]
3	14 March 1948	Bosuilstadion, Antwerp, Belgium	Belgium	1–0	1–1	Friendly	[9]
4	18 April 1948	De Kuip, Rotterdam, Netherlands	Belgium	2–2	2–2	Friendly	[10]
5	13 March 1949	Olympic Stadium, Amsterdam, Netherlands	Belgium	—	3–3	Friendly	[11]
6	12 June 1949	Københavns Idrætspark, Copenhagen, Denmark	Denmark	1–0	2–1	Friendly	[12]
7	11 June 1950	Helsinki Olympic Stadium, Helsinki, Finland	Finland	1–3	1–4	Friendly	[13]
8	15 April 1951	Olympic Stadium, Amsterdam, Netherlands	Belgium	4–3	5–4	Friendly	[14]
9				5–3
10	6 June 1951	De Kuip, Rotterdam, Netherlands	Norway	2–2	2–3	Friendly	[15]
11	27 October 1951	De Kuip, Rotterdam, Netherlands	Finland	1–0	4–4	Friendly	[16]
12	25 November 1951	De Kuip, Rotterdam, Netherlands	Belgium	1–2	6–7	Friendly	[17]
13				3–3
14				4–4
15	21 September 1952	Københavns Idrætspark, Copenhagen, Denmark	Denmark	2–0	2–3	Friendly	[18]
16	19 October 1952	Bosuilstadion, Antwerp, Belgium	Belgium	—	1–2	Friendly	[19]
17	7 March 1953	De Kuip, Rotterdam, Netherlands	Denmark	1–2	1–2	Friendly	[20]
18	22 March 1953	Olympic Stadium, Amsterdam, Netherlands	Switzerland	1–1	1–2	Friendly	[21]
19	13 March 1955	Olympic Stadium, Amsterdam, Netherlands	Denmark	1–1	1–1	Friendly	[22]
20	14 March 1956	Rheinstadion, Düsseldorf, Germany	West Germany	1–0	2–1	Friendly	[23]
21				2–0
22	6 June 1956	Olympic Stadium, Amsterdam, Netherlands	Saar	2–0	3–2	Friendly	[24]
23	15 September 1956	Stade Olympique de la Pontaise, Lausanne, Switzerland	Switzerland	1–0	3–2	Friendly	[25]
24	11 September 1957	De Kuip, Rotterdam, Netherlands	Luxembourg	1–1	5–2	1958 FIFA World Cup qualification	[26]
25				3–1
26	25 September 1957	Olympic Stadium, Amsterdam, Netherlands	Austria	1–1	1–1	1958 FIFA World Cup qualification	[27]
27	13 April 1958	Bosuilstadion, Antwerp, Belgium	Belgium	1–0	7–2	Friendly	[28]
28				4–0
29	23 April 1948	De Kuip, Rotterdam, Netherlands	Netherlands Antilles	4–0	8–1	Friendly	[29]
30				8–0
31	15 October 1958	De Kuip, Rotterdam, Netherlands	Denmark	4–0	5–1	Friendly	[30]
32				5–1
33	19 April 1959	Olympic Stadium, Amsterdam, Netherlands	Belgium	1–2	2–2	Friendly	[31]

Today, his name has been closely associated with sc Heerenveen and its stadium: The Abe Lenstra Stadion has been named in his honour as a lasting memorial.

Heerenveen

• Northern First Division: 1941–42, 1942–43, 1943–44, 1945–46, 1946–47, 1947–48, 1948–49, 1949–50, 1950–51
• Netherlands Football League Championship Runner-up: 1946–47, 1947–48

SC Enschede

• Eredivisie Runner-up: 1957–58

Individual

• Netherlands national team all-time top scorer: 1958–1959^[32]
• Dutch Sportsman of the Year: 1951, 1952
• Netherlands Football League Championship top scorer: 1946–47, 1947–48

• Abe Lenstra at sc Heerenveen official website (in Dutch)

• List of men's footballers with 500 or more goals

Yme Kuiper, 'Abe Lenstra (1920–1985). Van Us Abe tot nationaal idool,' in: Fryslân, Nieuwsblad voor geschiedenis en cultuur, jg. 6 (2000), nr. 2, pp. 50–53. Online site