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 Ooijer in 2009 | |||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | André Antonius Maria Ooijer[1] | ||||||||||||||||
| Date of birth | (1974-07-11)11 July 1974 (age 51) | ||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Amsterdam, Netherlands | ||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.84 m (6 ft 0 in) | ||||||||||||||||
| Position | Defender | ||||||||||||||||
| Team information | |||||||||||||||||
Current team | PSV (youth coach) | ||||||||||||||||
| Youth career | |||||||||||||||||
| 1979–1982 | SDW | ||||||||||||||||
| 1982–1986 | SDZ | ||||||||||||||||
| 1986–1994 | Ajax | ||||||||||||||||
| Senior career* | |||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) | ||||||||||||||
| 1994–1995 | →Volendam (loan) | 32 | (4) | ||||||||||||||
| 1995–1997 | Roda JC | 75 | (9) | ||||||||||||||
| 1997–2006 | PSV | 192 | (19) | ||||||||||||||
| 2006–2009 | Blackburn Rovers | 79 | (2) | ||||||||||||||
| 2009–2010 | PSV | 25 | (0) | ||||||||||||||
| 2010–2012 | Ajax | 22 | (3) | ||||||||||||||
| Total | 425 | (37) | |||||||||||||||
| International career | |||||||||||||||||
| 1999–2010[2] | Netherlands | 55 | (3) | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
| |||||||||||||||||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||||||||||||||||
André Antonius Maria Ooijer (born 11 July 1974) is a Dutch former professionalfootballer who played as adefender forPSV,Blackburn Rovers, andAjax.
Ooijer's international career lasted over a decade with theNetherlands and earned 57caps. He was selected forUEFA Euro 2008 and threeFIFA World Cups, helping the Dutch reach thefinal of the2010 edition.
He retired in 2012.
Born inAmsterdam, Ooijer joined his first amateur football team when he was five years old. Later, when he was 12 years old, he played for other amateur clubs SDW and SDZ.[citation needed] He went through the youth system ofAjax Amsterdam, where he would play until the age of 20.[3]
Sensing that he had little future in a club with so much competition for a first-team place, he went on loan toVolendam for the 1994–95 season, before signing forRoda JC in the beginning of the 1995–96 season. Throughout his career at that point, he mostly played atright-back, although he could also operate atcentre-back as well asdefensive midfield. After two successful seasons with Roda JC, Ooijer joinedPSV in the middle of the1997–98 season.[citation needed]
Ooijer won theEredivisie title with PSV five times and theKNVB Cup once. He was also a regular participant in theUEFA Champions League with the club.[citation needed]
On 15 July 2005, Ooijer appeared to have ended his eight-year association with PSV after he signed forGenoa, who were keen to defend theirSerie A top-flight status after securing promotion in the 2004–05 season, for a fee of €1.5 million. However, following theItalian Football Federation (FIGC)'s investigation into a match-fixing allegation leveled against Genoa, and the FIGC's subsequent guilty verdict which meant that Genoa were relegated toSerie C1 as punishment; Ooijer's proposed transfer was cancelled and he returned to PSV.[citation needed][4]
On 23 August 2006, EnglishPremier League clubBlackburn Rovers signed Ooijer from PSV for a fee reputed to be in the region of £2 million.[5] The defender signed an initial two-year contract, which included an option for a further one-year extension.[6]
On 4 October 2006, Ooijer claimed that his move away from PSV was caused by the club having reneged on their proposed three-year extension for him and that if the club has not done so, he would have continued to play in theEredivisie.[7]
Ooijer's debut for Blackburn was againstChelsea on 27 August 2006 atEwood Park. The player gave away a penalty after foulingJohn Terry and the subsequent spot-kick was scored byFrank Lampard. Ooijer was partially to blame for a second goal when he was outpaced byDidier Drogba in the match, which finished 2–0 to Chelsea. After this troubled start, which was soon followed by an own-goal in a game againstManchester City, he slowly adapted to Premier League football to become a mainstay in the Blackburn defence.[citation needed]
On 20 January 2007, in only his 20th league appearance for the club, Ooijer suffered a brokenfibula and torn ankle ligaments after an unfortunate fall involvingBernardo Corradi during Blackburn's victory over Manchester City at theCity of Manchester Stadium. The injury kept him out of the game for the remainder of his debut season in the Premier League.[8]
On 16 August 2008, on the opening day of the2008–09 Premier League season, Ooijer scored his first goal for the club in the 94th minute of a 3–2 win overEverton.[9] He scored his second goal for the club on 4 April 2009, notching the winning goal in a 2–1 home game againstTottenham Hotspur F.C., a result which was critical to Rovers' survival in the Premier League.[10]
The club exercised their right to extend the original two-year contract for a further 12 months for the2008–09 season.[citation needed]
On 25 March 2009, Ooijer confirmed to PSV TV that he would be returning to PSV in May 2009, when his contract with Blackburn expired.[11]
On 21 May 2009, Ooijer agreed a one-year deal to return to PSV, bringing his stay at Ewood Park to an end. At the end of the season, his contract ended and Ooijer again left PSV.[12]
On 9 August 2010, Ooijer signed a one-year deal with Ajax, joining on a free transfer. He made his debut in a 3–0 win against Roda JC on 21 August. On 30 October, Ooijer scored his first goal for Ajax againstHeracles Almelo. On 15 April 2011, he signed a one-year contract extension with the club.[13]
Ooijer announced on 13 March 2012 that he would retire from football at the end of the2011–12 season. On 6 May 2012, he played his final professional match and scored a goal for Ajax in a 3–1 win againstVitesse.[citation needed]
Ooijer was selected as part of theNetherlands national team for the1998 FIFA World Cup in France by managerGuus Hiddink as cover forMichael Reiziger.
Frank Rijkaard, who replacedHiddink as the head coach of the Dutch team in 1999, took notice of Ooijer's progress at club level. During a tour of Brazil that same year, Rijkaard handed him his first appearance as a substitute for Reiziger, who was injured during the game, in a match againstBrazil on 5 June 1999. The match ended in a 2–2 draw and Ooijer made a confident start to the national team. Despite his convincing performances, he was not included in the final squad for theUEFA Euro 2000 tournament on home soil after being dropped at the last minute.[citation needed]
After being overlooked several times for an international team spot byLouis van Gaal who took over from Rijkaard in 2001, he was able to feature forDick Advocaat in 2003 with a solid performance in the qualification matches, including a goal againstScotland in the qualification second-leg playoff forUEFA Euro 2004 at theAmsterdam Arena.[14]
Such was his luck, however, not to be able to feature in a major tournament up to then as he was also dropped by Advocaat in the final squad which travelled to Portugal for theEuro 2004 finals in favour of Reiziger andJohnny Heitinga, who played in the same position. Ooijer was however on the stand-by list for the tournament.[15]
Ooijer was finally able to make a start in a major tournament when he was chosen as part ofMarco van Basten's2006 World Cup squad. He played in all four matches for his country, lasting the full 90 minutes in each game.[citation needed]
Ooijer was called up to the Netherlands'sEuro 2008 squad in Austria and Switzerland, where he played the first two games before being rested for the last group game as the Netherlands had already qualified. He then played in the quarter-final game againstRussia which Russia won 3–1, ending the Netherlands' campaign.[16]
Ooijer was included in the preliminary squad for the2010 World Cup in South Africa.[17] On 27 May, Netherlands managerBert van Marwijk announced that the player would be part of the final squad of 23 participating in the competition.[18]
On 2 July, Ooijer was called into the starting XI for the Netherlands' 2–1 win over Brazil just 20 minutes before kick-off to replace the injuredJoris Mathijsen.[19][20]
He did not play in thefinal of the 2010 World Cup in which they lost 1-0 against Spain.
Ooijer began working as the coach of the under-19 squad and an assistant coach to the first team for PSV at the start of the2014–15 season.[21]
Ooijer is married to Joyce van de Kerkhof, the daughter of former Dutch football playerWilly van de Kerkhof. He has two daughters with Joyce, Demi and Danique.[22] He also has two sons from a previous relationship, Denzell and Cerezo.[citation needed]
| Goal | Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 19 November 2003 | Amsterdam Arena,Amsterdam, Netherlands |  Scotland | 2–0 | 6–0 | UEFA Euro 2004 qualifying |
| 2. | 3 September 2004 | Stadion Galgenwaard,Utrecht, Netherlands |  Liechtenstein | 2–0 | 3–0 | Friendly |
| 3. | 10 June 2009 | De Kuip,Rotterdam, Netherlands |  Norway | 1–0 | 2–0 | 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification |
Volendam
Roda JC
PSV
Ajax
Netherlands
