Mark de Vries

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Mark de Vries (born August 24, 1975 in Paramaribo, Suriname) is a Dutch professional footballer currently on loan to ADO Den Haag from English club Leicester City.

Mark was born in Surinam, but when he was six months old his mother took him to live in Den Helder in the Netherlands. The towering striker played youth football for WGW Den Helder and then progressed to the senior game with Hollandia of Hoorn. In 1994, Mark was recruited by FC Volendam where he gained four seasons experience at the top level in the Dutch Eredivisie.

Mark spent season 1998-99 in the French Second Division with Chamois Niortais and then the Dutch First Division club Dordrecht '90 acquired his services in 1999. In his second season with the club, Mark really started to hit the goal trail. He scored 11 times in 2000-2001 and 16 times the following season. His services were now in demand and Hearts manager Craig Levein was successful in securing his transfer to the Scottish club in July 2002. Mark played a massive part in helping Hearts reach the League Cup semi-final in February 2003 and also to secure 3rd place in the Premier League and UEFA Cup football in successive seasons. He scored 29 goals in 72 league matches for the Edinburgh club.

Mark de Vries joined Leicester City in January 2005 - joining Craig Levein at his new club, and becoming his first signing, alongside fellow former Hearts player Alan Maybury. Upon signing for City, Mark said,

"I had worked with Craig Levein at Hearts for two-and-a-half-years and he had always been good to me. I wanted the chance to work with him again. "Of course it was a big decision to leave Hearts because I really enjoyed my time there. But in the end it had to be Leicester. "I suppose you could say that I am an English style centre forward. I was certainly suited to the way the game was played in Scotland and I hope that continues down here. "When I went to Hearts I got the right feelings when I was looking around the place. I had those same feelings when I looked around the Walkers Stadium so hopefully my intuition will prove right again. The stadium is unbelievable."

The striker made his debut for the Foxes in their 2-2 FA Cup third round draw with Blackpool at the Walkers Stadium on January 8, 2005. Mark made 20 appearances for the Foxes that season, scoring his first goal for the club in the 3-1 defeat of Millwall, a goal which was to prove his only one of the season. He was employed as a lone striker in the FA Cup fifth round clash against Charlton Athletic, and was instrumental in City's progress to the quarter finals.

In the first half of the 2005-06 season, he scored 9 goals, including the winning goal against Premiership Tottenham in the FA Cup. After playing 35 matches for the struggling Leicester in the season up to the end of January, de Vries left the club on a loan deal to SC Heerenveen, following the dismissal of Levein, who was replaced by Rob Kelly. De Vries rejected a permanent move to Heerenveen in the summer, instead joining Den Haag on loan for the 2006-07 season.[1]

ADO Den Haag - Current Squad
1 Postma | 2 Vreven | 3 Martha | 4 Saavedra | 5 Loumpoutis | 6 Bodde | 7 Delorge | 8 Tininho | 9 Mols | 10 Hakansson | 11 Kolk | 12 Bunjevcevic | 14 Elia | 15 Kum | 16 Verhoek | 17 Knopper | 18 Wagenaar | 19 De Vries | 20 Bosschaart | 21 Rijaard | 22 Roiha | 23 Bakkati | 24 Zwinkels | 25 Riedewald | 26 Schwiebbe | 27 Ranković | 28 El Moussaoui