In 1988, Van Breukelen also won the European Cup as part of the Treble after saving Benfica's sixth penalty in the shoot-out.

Hans van Breukelen is one of five European players to ever win a Treble with their club and a cup with their national team in the same year.

The other four players are his teammates Berry van Aerle, Ronald Koeman, Gerald Vanenburg and Wim Kieft.

Van Breukelen, born in Utrecht, started playing club football at amateur team BVC from De Bilt in 1964.

[5][6] Van Breukelen started out in the FC Utrecht reserve team, but soon became the club's third goalkeeper behind Blagoje Istatov and Jan Stroomberg.

[4] On 20 March 1977, Van Breukelen made his official debut after being chosen to replace Istanov in the match against Sparta, which Utrecht lost 3–0 away from home.

[7] In 1982, FC Utrecht was facing bankruptcy and were willing to sell Van Breukelen in order to raise funds.

[1] After Peter Shilton had left Nottingham Forest, coach Brian Clough went on to pick Van Breukelen as his new goalkeeper.

After his recovery, Van Breukelen returned in the Nottingham Forest starting line-up and the team went on to qualify for the UEFA Cup.

[7][19] Ajax offered him the second goalkeeper role, but Van Breukelen refused to play for them, and chose to retire.

In the Euro 1988 qualifiers, Van Breukelen was struggling with his form and before the qualification match against Hungary in 1987, coach Rinus Michels dropped him in favour of Joop Hiele as goalkeeper.

[23] At Euro 1988, The Netherlands narrowly progressed through the group stage but managed to beat rivals West Germany in the semi-finals (2–1).

[26] Van Breukelen and the national team qualified for the 1990 World Cup, but were knocked out by West Germany in the second round.

[23] The Dutch team endured a disastrous tournament due to a lack of unity in the squad; Van Breukelen called the World Cup "the lowest point of his career".

After retiring with 73 caps, that record would stand until Edwin van der Sar played his 74th game in 2003.

He embarked on a concept called the ‘Challenger-plan’, which stated FC Utrecht's style of play and main targets.

[4] Even though he signed a new contract without end date in January 2000, he left later that year after he sensed a lack of confidence from the Utrecht board.

[28][30][31] Van Breukelen returned to his role as an entrepreneur and in 2000, he founded his own company HvB Management, specialized in conducting lectures and trainings for businesses.

[35] After his disappointment with PSV's football performances in 2013, Van Breukelen hoped to instigate a change of management direction and club culture.