Waterford FC are excited to announce the signing of 6’7 Dutch striker Maarten Pouwels ahead of the 2025 League of Ireland season.
Pouwels pens a deal with the club to become the latest addition to Keith Long’s side this transfer window.
The attacker makes the move to the Emerald Isle after playing the majority of his career in his native Holland – with a one-year spell at Louisville City FC in the USL Championship (Second Tier of American football).
The 26-year-old is no stranger to finding the back of the net, becoming a regular goal scorer at all clubs he’s played it, with his presence in the box a dangerous utility to have for the Blues in 2025.
Pouwels began his career at Go Ahead Eagles in the Netherlands, where he scored on his professional debut in 2018 with his first-touch against FC Utrecht U21 in a 4-0 win.
Maarten played five seasons in the Netherlands for Go Ahead Eagles, SC Cambuur (Where he won the Dutch second division), and Almere City, before making the move across to the US in 2023 to line out for Louisville City where he made 16 appearances.
He returned back home in February of this year to join FC Emmen in the Eerste Divisie (Second division of Dutch football), where he helped his side finish 7th in their league campaign.
After departing FC Emmen after the completion of the 2023/24 season, Pouwels now makes the move to the RSC for 2025 to add to our attacking options alongside Padraig Amond & Matty Smith, who recently penned a deal with the club.
Maarten spoke to waterfordfc.ie today at the RSC, after becoming our newest signing, commenting:
“It feels good to be here. I’m glad to be now & see the club with my own eyes. I got shown around the SETU Arena earlier – it’s a great facility – and of course I saw the RSC which looks really nice, so I’m looking forward to it now.
When I found out Waterford were interested in me, I looked up online about the club & the league. It looks like a good, competitive competition to be involved in. I looked at this as the next step for myself, it wasn’t a hard decision to move here.
I’m a 6’7 striker, I can hold up the ball. I’m more technical than people think, so I like to have the ball at my feet and go at defenders too.
I’m excited to meet the lads. We have a break of course now until after Christmas, so I’m looking forward to coming back & meeting the players.”
Welcome to the Blues, Maarten!
