Richard Knopper

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Richard Knopper
Personal information
Full name	Richard Knopper
Date of birth	August 29, 1977
Place of birth	Rijswijk, Netherlands
Position	Midfielder
Club information
Current club	ADO Den Haag
Youth clubs
	Feyenoord Rotterdam and Ajax Amsterdam
Professional clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (goals)
1997 - 2002 2002/2003 2003 - 2006 2006-Present	AFC Ajax Aris F.C. Vitesse_Arnhem ADO Den Haag	77 (18) 32 (9) 47 (14) 3 (0)
National team**
	Netherlands
* Professional club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 28 September 2006. ** National team caps and goals correct as of 28 September 2006.

Richard Knopper (born August 29, 1977 in Rijswijk) is a Dutch footballer who currently plays for ADO Den Haag. Knopper began his footballing career with Feyenoord youth team, however, he signed his professional contract with arch-rivals Ajax, and made his Ajax debut in November of 1997, in the away match against Sparta Rotterdam. In 1999 he was voted by the Ajax supporters as most talented player, receiving the Marco van Basten Trophy. His best season at Ajax was unfortunately Ajax's poorest season of the recent years; 1999/2000. Knopper was one of the most valuable players that season, scoring fifteen goals as a midfielder. He was a regular under Jan Wouters, but when Co Adriaanse took over as head coach in 2000, Knopper was injured for almost the entire season, playing only eight matches that year. In his last year at Ajax, he won the Dutch League under Ronald Koeman, adding another thirteen matches to his total of 66 Ajax league matches. In 2002, Knopper joined Greek team Aris Saloniki on loan, and in the following year, loaned out to SC Heerenveen. Knopper finally left Ajax in 2004 to join Vitesse Arnhem where he could be guaranteed first team football. After some troubles with his new Vitesse-manager Aad de Mos in 2006, he was forced to leave Arnhem. De footbal club in his town of birth, ADO Den Haag, took de player on loan en contracted him till the summer of 2010.

[edit] References

• adodenhaag.nl
• clubachterdeduinen.nl

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

Persondata
NAME	Knopper, Richard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Professional football player
DATE OF BIRTH	August 29, 1977
PLACE OF BIRTH	Rijswijk
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH