Ronald de Boer

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ronald de Boer (born May 15, 1970 in Hoorn, Netherlands) is a former Dutch football midfielder who has played for the Dutch national team as well as a host of professional clubs in Europe. He is the twin brother of Frank de Boer.

De Boer regularly played as attacking right midfielder, although he could also operate in centre attacking midfield role and right forward position.

At amateur level, he featured for De Zouaven (1986-87) and Lutjebroek (1987-88) whereas on professional club level, Ronald played for AFC Ajax (1988-91 and 1992-98), FC Twente (1991-93), FC Barcelona (1998-2000), Rangers FC (2000-04), Al-Rayyan (2004-05), Al-Shamal (2005-08). In both Qatari clubs he was reunited again with his brother Frank, his teammate at Ajax, Barcelona, and Rangers.

De Boer won the Champions League with Ajax in 1994-95 season. While impressing at Ajax during the early 1990s towards the 1998 FIFA World Cup, his high-profile transfer to FC Barcelona marked what would be an unlikely bad patch for a prolific goal-scoring midfielder as he managed to feature in only 33 games for the club and only scored one goal overall. In the 2000-01 season, he opted to join the Dutch legion at Rangers under the manager Dick Advocaat. Among the Dutch internationals who then played for Rangers when he joined were Arthur Numan, Bert Konterman, Fernando Ricksen, and Giovanni van Bronckhorst and he spent four successful seasons with the club before deciding to join Al-Rayyan after the 2003-04 season.

[edit] International career

De Boer won 67 caps and scored 13 goals for the Dutch national team. He played for the Netherlands in the 1994 and the 1998 World Cup, where he played in six matches and scored two goals, although he did miss a penalty in the penalty shootout against Brazil in the semi-finals. De Boer also played in Euro 96, and Euro 2000.

In the Dutch national team de Boer was used in various positions including right-half, centre forward, and attacking midfielder. In the early Ajax years, de Boer played either centre forward or attacking midfielder. In the latter years he shifted to right centre midfield.

De Boer was never officially captain of the Dutch national team nor Ajax. But he has been seen wearing the captains' armband on several occasions for both club and country when the first-choice captains were not playing. In most of the teams, it is his brother Frank with whom he had played side by side during the better part of their respective careers.

[edit] Retirement

On March 19, 2008 de Boer canceled his contract with Qatar outfit Al-Shamal in order to hang up his boots.

The 37-year-old recovered from surgery on a neck injury and decided not to play in Al-Shamal's last two games of the 2007-08 season.

[edit] External links

• Ronald de Boer Official Website at Icons.com
• Ronald de Boer profile and stats at Wereld van Oranje (Dutch)

v • d • e Netherlands squad - 1994 FIFA World Cup 1 de Goey • 2 F. de Boer • 3 Rijkaard • 4 Koeman • 5 Witschge • 6 Wouters • 7 Overmars • 8 Jonk • 9 R. de Boer • 10 Bergkamp • 11 Roy • 12 Bosman • 13 van der Sar • 14 van Gobbel • 15 Blind • 16 Numan • 17 Taument • 18 Valckx • 19 van Vossen • 20 Winter • 21 de Wolf • 22 Snelders • Coach: Advocaat

v • d • e Netherlands squad - 1998 FIFA World Cup Fourth Place 1 van der Sar • 2 Reiziger • 3 Stam • 4 F. de Boer • 5 Numan • 6 Jonk • 7 R. de Boer • 8 Bergkamp • 9 Kluivert • 10 Seedorf • 11 Cocu • 12 Zenden • 13 Ooijer • 14 Overmars • 15 Bogarde • 16 Davids • 17 van Hooijdonk • 18 de Goey • 19 van Bronckhorst • 20 Winter • 21 Hasselbaink • 22 Hesp • Coach: Hiddink

Awards
Preceded by Jari Litmanen	Dutch Footballer of the Year 1994	Succeeded by Luc Nilis
Preceded by Luc Nilis	Dutch Footballer of the Year 1996	Succeeded by Jaap Stam