Mark de Vries

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Mark De Vries
Personal information
Full name Mark De Vries
Date of birth August 24, 1975 (1975-08-24) (age 32)
Place of birth    Paramaribo, Suriname
Height 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)
Playing position Striker
Club information
Current club Dundee United
Number 22
Senior clubs1
Years Club App (Gls)*
1994–1998
1998–1999
2000–2002
2002–2005
2005–2008
2006
2006–2007
2007
2007–2008
2008–		 FC Volendam
Chamois Niortais
Dordrecht '90
Hearts
Leicester City
→ Heerenveen (loan)
→ ADO Den Haag (loan)
→ Leeds United (loan)
→ Leeds United (loan)
Dundee United		 28 0(1)
11 0(2)
72 (27)
72 (29)
51 0(8)
07 0(3)
27 0(2)
04 0(1)
02 0(0)
13 0(2)   

1 Senior club appearances and goals
counted for the domestic league only and
correct as of 11:28, 12 May 2008 (UTC).
* Appearances (Goals)

Mark De Vries (born August 24, 1975 in Paramaribo, Suriname) is a Dutch footballer who plays as a striker for Dundee United in the Scottish Premier League.

Contents

[edit] Career

De Vries was born in Suriname, 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 local side WGW Den Helder and then progressed to the senior game with Hollandia of Hoorn. In 1994, De Vries was recruited by FC Volendam where he gained four seasons experience at the top level in the Dutch Eredivisie.

De Vries 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, De Vries scored 11 times and netted 16 times the following season.

[edit] Hearts

His services were now in demand and Hearts manager Craig Levein was successful in securing his transfer to the Scottish club in July 2002. De Vries 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. He is well remembered by Hearts fans for scoring 4 goals on his first start against fierce city rivals Hibernian in a 5-1 victory in August 2002.

On November 6, 2003, de Vries scored the winning goal which gave Hearts a shock victory over Bordeaux, producing one of the club's best ever away results in European competition.[1]

Hearts rejected an offer from QPR for de Vries on 21 December 2004, while Sheffield United and Plymouth Argyle all expressed an interest to sign the striker after his fine performances in the UEFA Cup.[2]

[edit] Leicester City

De Vries joined Leicester City on January 6, 2005 - joining Craig Levein at his new club, and becoming his first signing, alongside fellow former Hearts player Alan Maybury.[3] Upon signing for City, de Vries 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. De Vries made 20 appearances for the Foxes that season, scoring his first goal for the club in a 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 on 19 February 2005, and was instrumental in City's progress to the quarter finals as they won 2-1.

In the first half of the 2005-06 season, he scored 9 goals, including the winning goal against Tottenham Hotspur in the FA Cup.[4] In a Carling Cup match against Blackpool on 20 September 2005, de Vries was made captain as he scored two goals for Leicester.[5]

After playing 35 matches for struggling Leicester in the season up to the end of January, de Vries left the club on a loan deal to Dutch club 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 fellow Eredivisie side ADO Den Haag on loan for the 2006-07 season.[6] He only scored two goals in 27 appearances as the Dutch team were relegated to the Eerste Divisie.

On June 7, 2007, de Vries was placed on the transfer list alongside Rab Douglas.[7] Despite this, he still featured as a first team player for Leicester in the 2008 season, scoring his last goal for the club in a 4-1 win over Watford on August 25.[8] On September 18, de Vries made his last assist for the club in Stephen Clemence's winning goal against Nottingham Forest in the Carling Cup.[9]

On 1 October 2007, De Vries joined Leeds United on loan for an initial one month period, where he provided cover for Jermaine Beckford and Tresor Kandol.[10] He made his debut against Oldham Athletic on 2 October 2007,[11] scoring his first goal for the club against Yeovil on 6 October 2007.[12] On 25 October, Leeds terminated de Vries' loan contract after he suffered a broken toe. He made a total of four appearances for the club, scoring one goal.[13] However, on November 12, 2007 he rejoined Leeds on until January 15.[14] His time at Leicester finally came to an end when he was released by mutual consent on January 25, 2008.[15]

[edit] Dundee United

De Vries joined Dundee United on the same day he was released from Leicester City, for the third time linking up with Craig Levein who had signed him while at Leicester just under three years ago and Hearts before that.[16] De Vries scored his first goal for United in the League Cup final defeat against Rangers and netted his first league goal six days later in the win against Motherwell.

[edit] Honours

Dundee United

[edit] References

  1. ^ Hearts surprise Bordeaux, BBC Sport 2003-11-06. Retrieved on 2007-09-03.
  2. ^ Blades join pursuit of De Vries, BBC Sport 2004-12-21. Retrieved on 2007-09-02.
  3. ^ Leicester swoop for Hearts pair, BBC Sport 2005-01-06. Retrieved on 2007-09-03
  4. ^ Leicester 3-2 Tottenham BBC Sport 2006-01-08. Retrieved on 2007-07-27
  5. ^ Leicester 2-1 Blackpool, BBC Sport 2005-09-20. Retrieved on 2007-09-04.
  6. ^ De Vries joins Dutch club on loan, BBC Sport 2006-08-18.
  7. ^ Duo Listed, 2007-06-07.
  8. ^ Leicester 4-1 Watford BBC Sport 2007-08-25. Retrieved on 2007-08-26.
  9. ^ Nottingham Forest 2-3 Leicester City, Sky Sports 2007-09-18. Retrieved on 2007-09-19.
  10. ^ De Vries on the move, 2007-10-01.
  11. ^ Oldham 0-1 Leeds, BBC Sport 2007-10-02. Retrieved on 2007-10-03.
  12. ^ Leeds 1-0 Yeovil, BBC Sport 2007-10-06. Retrieved on 2007-10-07.
  13. ^ Injury halts De Vries loan spell, BBC Sport 2007-10-25. Retrieved on 2007-10-25.
  14. ^ Big Man returns, Leeds United
  15. ^ "de Vries Moves On", Leicester City F.C., 2008-01-25. Retrieved on 2008-01-25. 
  16. ^ "Levein is re-united with de Vries", BBC Sport, 2008-01-25. 

[edit] External links


v • d • e
Dundee United F.C. – current squad

1 Załuska • 2 Dillon • 4 Wilkie • 5 Dods • 7 Kerr • 8 Grainger • 9 Daly • 10 Hunt • 12 D. Robertson • 15 Conway • 16 Gomis • 17 Cameron • 18 Kenneth • 20 Buaben • 22 De Vries • 23 Swanson • 24 Kovačevič • 26 Goodwillie • 27 Watson • 28 Andreoni • 29 McCord • 30 Russell • 32 Milligan • 50 Smith • – S. Robertson • Manager: Levein
Persondata
NAME de Vries, Mark
ALTERNATIVE NAMES de Vries, Mark
SHORT DESCRIPTION Professional footballer
DATE OF BIRTH 1975-08-24
PLACE OF BIRTH Paramaribo, Suriname
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH