Fernando Ricksen

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Fernando Ricksen
Personal information
Date of birth July 20, 1976
Place of birth Heerlen, Netherlands
Height 1.75 m
Position Defender, Right Midfielder
Club information
Current club FC Zenit Saint Petersburg
Professional clubs*
Years Club Apps (goals)
1993-1998
1998-2001
2000-2006
2006
2006-		 Fortuna Sittard
AZ Alkmaar
Rangers
→ FC Zenit Saint Petersburg (loan)
FC Zenit Saint Petersburg		 94 (5)
92 (12)
253 (20)

14 (2)

* Professional club appearances and goals
counted for the domestic league only and
correct as of November 28, 2006.
** National team caps and goals correct
as of November 28, 2006.

Fernando Ricksen (born July 20, 1976) is a Dutch defender/Midfielder who currently plays for Zenit St Petersburg. He plays on the right side of midfield or as a central holding player. He has won 8 caps for The Netherlands.

Ricksen formerly of Fortuna Sittard joined Rangers in 2000 from Dutch team AZ Alkmaar for a transfer fee of £3.6m.

Contents

[edit] Rangers F.C.

Ricksen endured a difficult start to his Rangers career, culminating in him being substituted in the first half of a 6-2 defeat by Celtic. There was also concern from many supporters with regard to Ricksen's somewhat fiery temperament and rumours about excessive alcohol consumption.

Ricksen, who has twice been punished by video evidence due to incidents on the pitch missed by match officials, has also found himself in trouble with the law. In November 2002, he was fined £7000 after attacking a neighbour who had complained about him letting off fireworks in the early hours of the morning.

Just a month later, Ricksen was given another fine and was also banned from driving for a year after he drove his car into a lamppost on Christmas Day. He was later found to be twice over the limit.

Ricksen's behaviour also resulted in a sudden end to his International career after he allegedly kicked a hotel door while with the Dutch national team in Belarus.

The departure of Dick Advocaat during season 2001-02, however, appeared to give Ricksen a new lease of life as he helped the club to League Cup and Scottish Cup triumphs, under the management of Alex McLeish.

Ricksen was also a key player in Rangers' 2002-03 treble success, playing 46 games and scoring 3 goals, most notably a double in a 4-0 win against Hearts at Tynecastle. However Ricksen hit the headlines again after he allegedly shouted taunts through the letterbox of Celtic midfielder Alan Thompson after Rangers won the SPL title, although Ricksen has always denied this.

2003-04 proved to be a difficult season for Rangers, with the departure of several successes from the treble winning season most notably Barry Ferguson and Lorenzo Amoruso. Ricksen, however, proved to be an important member of the Rangers team, playing 42 games, despite several injury problems throughout the season.

Ricksen was an ever-present during season 2004-05 playing 51 games and scoring 9 goals as Rangers won both the League Cup and the SPL after a dramatic last day of the season. Ricksen was also given the captaincy for a large part of the season following the injury to goalkeeper Stefan Klos. Ricksen was later voted both Rangers Player of the Year and joint Scottish PFA Players' Player of the Year in a season which saw him thrive as one of the clubs key players.

In 2005-06, however, Ricksen failed to sustain the standard set the previous season as Rangers finished third in the SPL and without a trophy. Despite this domestic failure, Rangers did reach the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League however there was personal disappointment for Ricksen as he was left-out for the games against Villarreal with youngster Alan Hutton preferred.

It remained unclear whether Ricksen would be seen as a key member of the Rangers team under new manager Paul Le Guen for the 2006-07 season. An incident involving a stewardess on Rangers' outbound flight to their pre-season camp in South Africa, led to Ricksen being sent home by Le Guen who later described his behaviour as "inappropriate and unacceptable for the way in which I have asked my players to conduct themselves." [1]

Upon his return to the UK, Ricksen checked into the London based Sporting Chance Clinic founded by former England and Arsenal defender Tony Adams, in an attempt to alleviate or indeed eliminate his temperament problems.

[edit] Move to Russia

Ricksen moved on loan to Zenit St Petersburg on a season long loan on August 9, 2006, where the manager is the well known Dutchman (who managed Fernando at Rangers) Dick Advocaat. Two weeks later he returned to Ibrox in a friendly between Rangers and Zenit. Ricksen received some booing after tackling the young Scottish star Burke.[2]

On November 28, 2006, Zenit St Petersburg announced that they bought out Ricksen's transfer from Rangers.

[edit] Clubs

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Preceded by
Chris Sutton		 Scottish PFA Players' Player of the Year
2005		 Succeeded by
Shaun Maloney


FC Zenit Saint Petersburg - Current Squad

1 Čontofalský | 2 Radimov | 3 Škrtel | 4 Križanac | 6 Spivak | 7 Trifonov | 8 Mareš | 9 Šírl | 10 Arshavin | 11 Kerzhakov | 13 Hyun | 14 Hagen | 15 Kim | 16 Malafeev | 17 Lee | 22 Anyukov | 25 Ricksen | 27 Denisov | 61 Tekke | 78 Panov | 87 Maksimov | 88 Horshkov | Manager: Advocaat
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