The 18-year-old, who has impressed at the back for Wolves under-23s during the past 12 months, has agreed a new deal until June 2023, with an option for a further year, before heading back to his homeland for the rest of the campaign.
The Dutch centre-back has been at Molineux since January 2020 having joined from PSV Eindhoven and quickly moved from the under-18s into James Collins’ under-23s, where he was been a consistent performer during the 2020/21 season.
In his first full campaign at development level, Lonwijk appeared 14 times and scored his debut goal in Premier League 2 to secure a point away at Middlesbrough in March.
Lonwijk has also regularly trained with the Wolves first-team at Compton Park during the last year, impressing enough to take a spot among the substitutes bench in the Premier League on three occasions, but he will now be aiming to earn his first taste of senior football back home in the Netherlands with Fortuna.
Wolves’ strategic player marketing manager, Matt Jackson, said: “We expect this to be a progressive move for Nigel; going back to an environment he is comfortable with, but going back at a level which is an improvement of the under-23s here at Wolves and the level that he was originally playing in the Netherlands.
“He’s going to be part of a first-team group and the associated pressures which that brings, and it will be a brilliant challenge for him.
“He will see what it actually takes to win games, as results become paramount importance, he will learn the structure of a season, playing midweek games, and he will have to compete for his place every week, which is something young players need to learn.
“He’ll also see what it takes to play in different environments and stadiums, because there are some massive teams in the Eredivisie, so we believe it will be a superb environment for him to learn in.”
