Career
A journeyman striker, van Ankeren has played professionally in his native Holland as well as in Italy, France and Norway. He was, however, most successful during his spells with different clubs in Belgium. In summer 2007, van Ankeren started his career as coach with amateur side Unicum.
Van Ankeren was named caretaker manager of Almere City after the club disposed of Dick de Boer in September 2012.