Frank van Hattum


Francesco van Hattum is a former New Zealand football player who was a goalkeeper during the country's first World Cup finals tournament in 1982. His international career started in 1980, and he played a total of 41 times for his country including unofficial matches.

Career

Van Hattum made his official All Whites debut in a 2–0 win over Fiji on 21 February 1980 and ended his international playing career with 28 A-international caps to his credit, his final cap an appearance in a 1–2 loss to Australia on 2 November 1986.
Controversially, van Hattum replaced Richard Wilson as goalkeeper for all three games at the finals tournament in Spain despite Wilson's having played in all fifteen of New Zealand's qualifying matches.
Van Hattum was rated 2nd behind Mark Bosnich of Australia in the Oceania Goalkeeper of the Century category in International Federation of Football History and Statistics' Century Elections.
Serving as a director on the New Zealand Football Board, van Hattum stood for re-election at the AGM for an expected board shake-up and was elected Chairman of the seven person board on 25 June 2008. He also serves on the FIFA Associations Committee. On 23 January 2014 Van Hattum announced his intention to step down as chairman at the February board meeting.

Family

The son of a goalkeeper coach, Frits van Hattum, Frank comes from a sporting family with two of his sisters, Marie-Jose Cooper and Grazia MacIntosh, have also represented New Zealand with the New Zealand women's national football team, the Football Ferns.
His youngest sister, Stella Pennell, represented New Zealand with the New Zealand Karate Federation – first as competitor, then as Women's coach.

Honours

Club

Manurewa