Ronald de Boer

Ronaldus "Ronald" de Boer (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈroːnɑld də ˈbuːr];^[1] born 15 May 1970) is a retired Dutch football midfielder who played for the Dutch national team as well as a host of professional clubs in Europe. He is the older twin brother of Frank de Boer.

He had the vast majority of his career success with Ajax. He currently works as Ajax A1 assistant manager.

Playing career

Club

De Boer's first youth club was De Zouaven in Lutjebroek where he played before being selected for the Ajax youth programme in 1983. On the professional club level, De Boer played for Ajax (1988–91 and 1993–99), Twente (1991–93), FC Barcelona (1999–2000), Rangers (2000–04), Al-Rayyan (2004–05) and Al-Shamal (2005–08). In both Qatari clubs, he was reunited again with his brother Frank, his teammate at Ajax, Barcelona and Rangers.

In his first spell at Ajax from 1988 to 1991, he won the Eredivisie title in 1989–90 under manager, Leo Beenhakker. After two seasons at FC Twente from 1991 to 1993, he returned to Ajax under manager Louis van Gaal, and had his most successful spell as a player, winning three consecutive Eredivisie titles in 1993–94, 1994–95, and 1995–96. He also won the 1995 UEFA Champions League, the 1995 Intercontinental Cup, and the 1995 UEFA Super Cup. He was also a runner-up of the 1996 UEFA Champions League, where Ajax lost on penalties to Juventus. When Louis van Gaal left Ajax for FC Barcelona in July 1997, Morten Olsen became the new Ajax manager, and De Boer won a fifth Eredivisie title in 1997–98 and also won the 1997–98 KNVB Cup.

There was then controversy soon after De Boer and his twin brother, Frank, signed a six-year contract extension with Ajax at the start 1998–99 season, when Ronald and Frank took successful legal action to have the contract voided. Ajax had agreed verbally that if a lucrative offer for one brother came by, he would be released provided the other stayed. However, Ajax apparently backed down on that agreement after floating the club on the stock market and pledging to shareholders that it would hold both of the De Boers and build around them a team to recapture the UEFA Champions League.^[2]

The fallout over the contract situation led to an increasing conflict between the de Boer twins and the Ajax hierarchy, with match results for Ajax suffering and manager Morten Olsen soon getting sacked. In January 1999, Frank and Ronald signed for FC Barcelona for £22million, joining their former Ajax manager Louis van Gaal at the Camp Nou.^[3]

While De Boer was impressive at Ajax during the 1990s and for the Netherlands up to and including the 1998 FIFA World Cup, his high-profile transfer to Barcelona in January 1999 marked what would be an unlikely bad patch for a prolific goal-scoring midfielder, as he managed to feature in only 33 La Liga games for the club and scored just one goal in La Liga. In the 2000–01 season, he opted to join the Dutch legion at Rangers under the manager Dick Advocaat. Among the Dutch internationals who at that time played for Rangers were Bert Konterman, Arthur Numan, Fernando Ricksen and Giovanni van Bronckhorst. He spent four seasons with the club before joining Al-Rayyan after the 2003–04 season.

De Boer recovered from surgery on a neck injury and decided not to play in Al-Shamal's last two games of the 2006–07 season. On 19 March 2008, De Boer canceled his contract with Qatar outfit Al-Shamal and retired.

International

Ronald de Boer in Netherlands colours

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 Cups, where he played in six matches and scored two goals. He missed a penalty in the penalty shootout against Brazil in the 1998 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 his early Ajax years, De Boer played either centre forward or attacking midfielder. In later years he shifted to right midfield.

De Boer was never officially captain of the Dutch national team or Ajax, but he has worn the captain's armband on several occasions for both club teams and the national team when the first-choice captain was not playing. In most teams, this was his brother Frank, with whom he has played side by side for most of his career.

Managing career

De Boer is currently Ajax A1 assistant manager.

Career statistics

Club

^[4]

International

^[5]

Honours

Club

Ajax

• Eredivisie (5): 1989–90, 1993–94, 1994–95, 1995–96, 1997–98
• KNVB Cup (1): 1997–98
• Johan Cruijff Shield (3): 1993, 1994, 1995
• UEFA Champions League (1): 1994–95
• UEFA Super Cup (1): 1995
• Intercontinental Cup (1): 1995

Barcelona

• La Liga (1): 1998–99

Rangers

• Scottish Premier League (1): 2002–03
• Scottish Cup (2): 2001–02, 2002–03
• Scottish League Cup (2): 2001–02, 2002–03

AL Rayyan

• Emir of Qatar Cup (1): 2005

Individual

• Dutch Footballer of the Year (2): 1994, 1996
• Ballon d'Or: 1996 (28th),^[6] 1998 (21st)^[7]

Media

De Boer featured in EA Sports' FIFA video game series; he was on the cover for the International edition of FIFA 96, alongside Jason McAteer.^[8]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ronald de Boer.

• Ronald de Boer profile and stats at Wereld van Oranje (Dutch)
• Ronald de Boer at National-Football-Teams.com

Netherlands squads
Netherlands squad – 1994 FIFA World Cup 1 De Goey 2 F. de Boer 3 Rijkaard 4 Koeman (c) 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 Netherlands squad – UEFA Euro 1996 1 Van der Sar 2 Reiziger 3 Blind (c) 4 Seedorf 5 Stam 6 De Boer 7 Taument 8 Davids 9 Kluivert 10 Bergkamp 11 Hoekstra 12 Winter 13 Numan 14 Witschge 15 Bogarde 16 De Goey 17 Cruyff 18 De Kock 19 Mulder 20 Cocu 21 Hesp 22 Veldman Coach: Hiddink Netherlands squad – 1998 FIFA World Cup Fourth Place 1 Van der Sar 2 Reiziger 3 Stam 4 F. de Boer (c) 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 Netherlands squad – UEFA Euro 2000 semi-finalists 1 Van der Sar 2 Reiziger 3 Stam 4 F. de Boer (c) 5 Zenden 6 Seedorf 7 Cocu 8 Davids 9 Kluivert 10 Bergkamp 11 Overmars 12 Van Bronckhorst 13 Konterman 14 Van Vossen 15 Bosvelt 16 R. de Boer 17 Van Hooijdonk 18 De Goey 19 Numan 20 Winter 21 Makaay 22 Westerveld Coach: Rijkaard