René van der Gijp (born 4 April 1961) is a Dutch former professional footballer who played as a right winger for Sparta Rotterdam, Lokeren, PSV, Neuchâtel Xamax, Aarau and Heerenveen, as well as for the Netherlands national team.

The son of former footballer Wim and nephew of Cor, van der Gijp was born in Dordrecht and began his senior career with Sparta Rotterdam in 1978.

Born in Dordrecht, van der Gijp started playing football at local side DFC.

He managed to score twice in four UEFA Cup matches.After two and a half seasons, van der Gijp returned to the Netherlands in November 1984 to play for PSV.

At the Eindhoven-based club, van der Gijp experienced the most successful years of his career, in which he became Dutch champions twice and scored more than forty goals.

On 1 July 1987, van der Gijp left PSV, where he had played together with Ernie Brandts, Hallvar Thoresen, Glenn Hysén, Kenneth Brylle, Ruud Gullit, Frank Arnesen, Gerald Vanenburg and Ronald Koeman.

Club management had assumed that van der Gijp was a striker with strong heading abilities, while he had in reality never played that position.

He made his international debut on 22 September 1982, in a UEFA Euro 1984 qualifying match at home against Republic of Ireland (2–1).

Van der Gijp thus became the second Oranje international in history whose father also played in the Dutch national team.

In September 2011, Van der Gijp temporarily withdrew from VI after suffering from occupational burnout and panic attacks.

In early January 2012, Van der Gijp had recovered sufficiently from his psychological distress and he returned to the table at VI.

In addition to the football talk show, he is regularly seen on television as an analyst at RTL 7 and Veronica TV.

[4] At the table, Van der Gijp, Derksen and Genee have frequently discussed current affairs in and outside football, describing themselves as "making fun of everyone with a good portion of 'football humor', satire and pub talk.

In response to the statements of van der Gijp and Boskamp, the program devoted attention to gay acceptance on the football field.

The screening elicited many negative reactions, including from social organisations, political parties and well-known Dutch people.

[7] Despite the negative reactions, van der Gijp also received a lot of support from loyal VI viewers.

In total, more than 350,000 copies were sold, which meant that it ended in first place in "De Bestseller 60" list for seven weeks and was the fourth best-selling Dutch book of that year.

[9] In the book, the ex-wife describes her turbulent marriage to van der Gijp in which she claims to have been mentally and physically abused.