Ex-Suriname vice president scores first top-flight goal at 65 for his own club

Former Suriname vice president Ronnie Brunswijk scored his first top-flight goal at 65 on Saturday, after naming himself in the starting line-up for Inter Moengotapoe, the club he owns.

He converted a second-half penalty in a 5-0 win over bottom side Politie Voetbal Vrienden in the Suriname Major League.

Moengotapoe already led 4-0 when they won the spot-kick. Brunswijk demanded the ball, stroked it into the right corner and celebrated with arms raised. The opposing goalkeeper seemingly made a half-hearted attempt to save it.

Brunswijk is also a former rebel leader and held office as vice president from 2020 to 2025.

A Dutch court sentenced him in absentia in 1999 to eight years in prison for cocaine trafficking. He has never served the sentence because no extradition treaty exists between the Netherlands and Suriname.

He regularly picked himself while in government. In 2021, aged 60, he played in a CONCACAF League tie against Honduras’ CD Olimpia, which his side lost 6-0.

Video then appeared to show him handing out cash in the Olimpia dressing room. CONCACAF expelled both clubs and banned Brunswijk for three years.

The goal was his first since the league was founded in 2024 with FIFA’s backing, aimed at modernising the domestic game and raising professional standards.