Stefanus Johannes "Stijn" Schaars is a Dutch former professional footballer who played as a midfielder.
Club career
Vitesse
Born in Gendt, Gelderland, Schaars was first discovered by Dutch coach Theo Bos, who went on to manage Schaars' U13 Vitesse youth team. Following successful development in Vitesse's youth team, he was promoted to the main squad for the final few games of the 2002–03 Eredivisie. He made his debut for the club on 9 March 2003 in a 4–1 away defeat to FC Utrecht. The following season he became a regular in Vitesse's side at the age of 19. In his first full season he played 21 league games. In the 2004–05 Eredivisie, he helped his club reach a credible seventh place in the league contributing four goals in 21 appearances.
In the summer of 2005, he was signed by AZ Alkmaar. In his first full season at AZ, he suffered a serious hip injury at the beginning of the 2005–06 Eredivisie season which kept him out for several months. He returned in February 2006 against FC Utrecht in a 2–3 defeat. In the next season he missed most of it due to sustaining a number of serious injuries which also kept him out for the 2007–08 Eredivisie season. His return came in the 2008–09 Eredivisie season, where he played a pivotal role in midfield along with David Mendes da Silva, Demy de Zeeuw and Maarten Martens to claim AZ's second league title in their history. Following the capture of the league title, he helped AZ claim their very first Johan Cruijff Shield in the 2009 edition of the tournament where AZ defeated SC Heerenveen. In the 2009–10 season he was named team captain of the side in which he held that position until the end of 2010–11 Eredivisie where he left the club in the summer after six seasons to join Sporting Lisbon of Portugal. During his time with AZ Alkmaar, the Dutch media frequently compared him to English midfielder Steven Gerrard due to his strong presence in midfield, his vision and his technical ability.
On 13 July 2013, it was announced that Schaars returned to the Eredivisie by making a transfer to PSV. PSV paid €1.6 million for both Schaars and his teammate Santiago Arias.
SC Heerenveen
After his contract was not renewed at PSV, Schaars joined SC Heerenveen in July 2016.
International career
His debut for the national team came on 16 August 2006, as he started in a friendly versus Republic of Ireland which the Netherlands won 4–0. Earlier that year he was the captain of the Dutch side that won the UEFA U-21 Championship 2006. An ankle injury prevented Schaars from taking part in most of the 2006–07 season and he didn't play a single Eredivisie game during the following season. This effectively ruled out his chances of taking part in EURO 2008 with the Netherlands. Schaars was included in the preliminary squad for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. On 27 May 2010, Netherlands manager Bert van Marwijk announced that the player would be part of the final squad of 23 participating in the competition. Following frequent call ups to the Dutch side's qualification campaign to participate at UEFA Euro 2012, he was selected by manager by Van Marwijk to participate in the tournament finals. At Euro 2012, he did not participate in any of the group stage matches where his nation finished bottom of the group following three defeats to Denmark, Germany and Portugal.
