Darren Maatsen (born 30 January 1991) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a winger for AFC.

Career
Maatsen started playing football in his youth career at VV HVO, FC Dordrecht and Excelsior Maassluis.

SBV Excelsior 
Maatsen joined Excelsior in 2011, starting his professional football career. Maatsen made his début, in the opening game of the season, when he came on as a substitute in the 72nd minute in a 2–0 loss against Feyenoord. In numbers of games, he mostly came on the bench as a substitute. In a match against Twente, on 2 October 2011, Maatsen came on as a substitute in the 82nd minute and with eight minutes remaining until full-time, he scored twice to make a comeback in a 2–2 draw. Later in the 2011–12 season, Maatsen scored three more goals against Ajax, NAC Breda and VVV-Venlo, to add a tally to his Excelsior career, but the club was relegated to Eerste Divisie, having finished eighteenth place with nineteenth points. Despite the relegation, his performance attracted interests from Polish side Lech Poznań.

In the 2012–13 season, Maatsen started to play on the right-wing mostly, though sometimes on the left, or even as a striker, making twenty-eight appearances in all competitions.

Ross County
Maatsen signed for Scottish Premiership club Ross County on 21 June 2013.

After just three minutes of the opening match of the season, away to Celtic, he scored with a powerful shot from the edge of the penalty area that went in off the crossbar with goalkeeper Fraser Forster well beaten; Ross County lost 2–1. It was awarded "goal of the week" by The Terrace Scottish Football Podcast. However, Mattsen's first team opportunities was soon limited and made only made ten appearances after suffering an ankle injury that kept him out for the most of the season.

The 2014–15 season saw Maatsen's playing time continued to be reduced, even though he scored two goals this season against Dundee and Dundee United. By the time he made seven appearances and scored two times. He was released by Ross County on 2 February 2015.

After Ross County

Maatsen signed with Dutch Eerste Divisie side FC Den Bosch on the same day. Six days later, on 9 February 2015, he made his Den Bosch debut, coming on as a substitute for Jort van der Sande in the 83rd minute, in a 2–0 win over Emmen. Maatsen scored four days later after his debut, in a 5–1 win over Helmond Sport. In the last game of the season, he scored in a 3–3 draw against Almere City. Maatsen made sixteen appearances and scoring twice in his half season at Den Bosch.

On 20 July 2017, Maatsen signed a contract with the recently promoted club of Apollon Smyrni. At his interview after his transfer, he stated that he considered the transfer a big step in his career.

On 23 August 2021, he joined Quick Boys.

Personal
His brother is professional footballer Dalian Maatsen. Maatsen is of Surinamese descent.

References

External links
 

1991 births
Sportspeople from Vlaardingen
Living people
Dutch men's footballers
Dutch sportspeople of Surinamese descent
Men's association football wingers
Excelsior Rotterdam players
FC Den Bosch players
Ross County F.C. players
Ayia Napa FC players
Excelsior Maassluis players
Go Ahead Eagles players
Apollon Smyrnis F.C. players
RKC Waalwijk players
Stabæk Fotball players
NAC Breda players
Quick Boys players
Amsterdamsche FC players
Eredivisie players
Eerste Divisie players
Scottish Professional Football League players
Cypriot First Division players
Super League Greece players
Eliteserien players
Tweede Divisie players
Dutch expatriate men's footballers
Expatriate men's footballers in Scotland
Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Scotland
Expatriate men's footballers in Cyprus
Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus
Expatriate men's footballers in Greece
Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Greece
Expatriate men's footballers in Norway
Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Norway
Footballers from South Holland