Wout Weghorst

Wout Weghorst is a Dutch professional football player who was born on 7 August 1992 in Borne, Netherlands.

Weghorst is a striker and mostly plays in the position of centre-forward. He currently plays for the Bundesliga club VFL Wolfsburg. He has played for the Dutch Eredivisie league club Alkmaar Zaanstreek, popularly known as AZ. He has also played for Netherlands national team.

Background

Weghorst started his football career by joining youth ranks and academy of local club RKSV NEO. After some experience at the club, he moved to DETO Twenterand, which competes in local Eerste Klasse league. With his new club, he learnt as well as played some competitive football. Later, he signed a deal with Eredivisie team Willem II. After serving youth ranks of three clubs, he got the experience and his game had thrived but still, he did not get promoted to the senior team, therefore he moved to Eerste Divisie club FC Emmen.

Debut

After joining FC Emmen, Weghorst made his senior team debut on 10 August 2012 in a 1-1 draw against Dordrecht. He was up to the mark in his very first game which earned him a place in the squad for upcoming matches. His first goal came a month later, against Veendam. With the help of his goal, Emmen defeated the latter by 2-1.

On 14 October 2014, he made his international debut for the U-21 team of Netherlands and scored a goal in his very first game. Later he was also included in the main squad of the country's senior team to play a friendly against England, eventually making his senior team debut on 23 March 2018 at Amsterdam Arena. The match was won by England by 1-0.

Rise to glory

After scoring his first goal, Weghorst did not turn back and kept enhancing his performance as well as goal tally. In his debut 2012-13 season, he scored 8 goals playing 28 matches. In 2013-14 season, he came out being even more splendid on the field increasing his goal tally to 21 playing overall 65 fixtures for Emmen.

In July 2014, Weghorst announced his transfer to Eredivisie league club Heracles Almelo and continued his amazing form coming on the field as a regular starter for his new club. However, his club had to face an early disqualification from the Eredivisie. In the second season, Weghorst roared back helping his team to claim a place in the play-offs. Although they didn't win the title, they qualified for the Europa League qualifying round for the very first time. Before moving to his current club AZ, he played 73 games for Heracles Almelo netting the ball 24 times.

In July 2016, Weghorst signed a 4 year contract with AZ Alkmaar. His debut for the club came on 28 July in a 3rd round 1st leg match of Europa League Qualifiers against PAS Giannina. On 7 August, he scored his first goal in a 2-2 draw against Heerenveen and later finished the Eredivisie season with 13 goals.

On 24 November 2016, Weghorst scored his first goal in Europa League which also proved to be the decisive as AZ beat Dundalk by 1-0.

Captaincy

Weghorst was given the captaincy of AZ for the first time on 19 September 2017 in a match of TOTO KNVB beker against MVV Maastricht. In the match, he was involved in all three goals his team scored, netting the ball 2 times and providing 1 assist. At the end, they also won the match by 3-2. Weghorst captained the club in 5 games of the tournament scoring 9 goals.

Afterwards, he also captained AZ regularly in the 2017-18 season of Eredivisie league.

Records

Overall, he has played 226 games in various leagues including Europa League and has 86 goals and 21 assists to his name. Most of his goals has come in Eredivisie, 45 goals in 119 games whereas 6 goals came in 8 Europa League games.

With his current club AZ, he has got 39 goals and 11 assists in the 80 matches he played till date.