and
Twente, 1982 Snelders was born in
Westervoort,
Gelderland. He started his career with
Twente, but is mostly remembered in Scotland, especially for his spell at
Aberdeen following his move for £300,000 in summer 1988. A successful replacement for
Jim Leighton, he had a very good first season at
Pittodrie, winning the
Scottish PFA Players' Player of the Year in 1989. He saved Anton Rogan's penalty in Aberdeen's penalty shootout win over
Celtic in the
1990 Scottish Cup Final. After fracturing a cheekbone in a collision with
Ally McCoist of
Rangers in 1991, editions and in the
1993 Scottish Cup Final, and was the regular goalkeeper as the
Dons finished runners-up to Rangers in five of his seven full league campaigns. The other unsuccessful year (
1994–95) concluded with a play-off to prevent the club being relegated for the first time in their history, which was averted. He made 290 appearances for the club in all competitions. Having fallen behind Watt in the Aberdeen order, Snelders moved on to
rivals Rangers for £300,000 in early 1996. As a confirmed backup player, initially to
Andy Goram followed by
Lionel Charbonnier then
Stefan Klos, he made just 18 appearances for the
Glasgow club (two in the
UEFA Champions League against Dutch side
Ajax) before he was released in 1999. He didn't make any appearances for Rangers after December 1997. He played two seasons at
MVV before he retired from playing and became a goalkeeping coach in his native
Netherlands with Twente. ==International career==