 Ricksen playing forZenit Saint Petersburg in 2007 | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Fernando Jacob Hubertina Henrika Ricksen[1] | ||
| Date of birth | (1976-07-27)27 July 1976 | ||
| Place of birth | Hoensbroek, Netherlands[1] | ||
| Date of death | 18 September 2019(2019-09-18) (aged 43) | ||
| Place of death | Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, Scotland | ||
| Height | 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in) | ||
| Position(s) | Central midfielder,right-back | ||
| Youth career | |||
| 1980–1986 | EHC | ||
| 1986–1988 | RKONS | ||
| 1988–1992 | Roda JC | ||
| 1992–1994 | Fortuna Sittard | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1994–1997 | Fortuna Sittard | 94 | (5) |
| 1997–2000 | AZ | 92 | (12) |
| 2000–2006 | Rangers | 182 | (13) |
| 2006 | →Zenit Saint Petersburg (loan) | 14 | (2) |
| 2007–2009 | Zenit Saint Petersburg | 22 | (0) |
| 2010–2013 | Fortuna Sittard | 48 | (1) |
| Total | 452 | (33) | |
| International career | |||
| 2000–2003 | Netherlands | 12 | (0) |
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Fernando Jacob Hubertina Henrika Ricksen (27 July 1976 – 18 September 2019) was a Dutch professionalfootballer who played as a right back and central midfielder. After winningEerste Divisie titles withFortuna Sittard andAZ, he joinedRangers for £3.75 million in 2000. In six years with the club fromGlasgow, he won twoScottish Premier League titles, twoScottish Cups and threeScottish League Cups. He left in 2006 forZenit Saint Petersburg, initially on loan, and won honours including theUEFA Cup andUEFA Super Cup in 2008. He was dismissed by Zenit in 2009, and spent the final years of his career back at Fortuna Sittard. Internationally, he earned 12caps for theNetherlands between 2000 and 2003.
Ricksen was elected to Rangers's Hall of Fame in 2014. He suffered frommotor neurone disease and died from the disease on 18 September 2019, aged 43.
Ricksen, formerly ofFortuna Sittard, joined Rangers in 2000 from Dutch teamAZ Alkmaar for a transfer fee of £3.75 million.[2]
Ricksen endured a difficult start to his Rangers career, culminating in him being substituted after a torrid 21 minutes in a 6–2 defeat toCeltic. On his second trip toCeltic Park six months later, he was sent off before half-time in another defeat. He had been dropped for the two intervening derbies.[2]
In November 2000 Ricksen became the first player in Scottish football to be banned retrospectively on television evidence.[3] HisKung Fu-style kick onDarren Young had been missed by the referee but caught on camera, leading to a five-game ban. Ricksen subsequently used his personal website to suggest Young required "straightening out."[4]
2003–04 proved to be a failed season for Rangers, with the departure of several players from the treble-winning season, includingBarry Ferguson andLorenzo Amoruso. Ricksen, however, proved to be an important member of the Rangers team which finished second, playing 42 games, despite several injuries and disciplinary problems throughout the season. In October 2003 Ricksen pushed then Rangers chairmanJohn McClelland into a swimming pool before a match againstPanathinaikos in Athens.[5] The same week he was banned from the Netherlands national team for smashing a hotel door down after a night out.[5] After the events Rangers banned Ricksen from talking to the media and manager McLeish said "We would rather have Fernando on the back pages and we have told him that."[5]
In March 2004 Ricksen was again banned by theSFA video review panel. He had elbowedDerek Riordan in aCIS Cup defeat toHibernian, resulting in a four-game ban and a £10,000 fine from his club.[6]
The highlight of Ricksen's career at Rangers came in the 2004–05 season seeing him jointly win the SPFA player of the year award after scoring nine goals from midfield in his 40 appearances for the club, helping Rangers to a league and league cup double.
It remained unclear whether Ricksen would be seen as a key member of the Rangers team under new managerPaul Le Guen for the2006–07 season. An alcohol-fueled incident involving a passenger on Rangers' outbound flight to their pre-season camp in South Africa, led to Ricksen being sent home by Le Guen, who later described his behaviour as "inappropriate and unacceptable for the way in which I have asked my players to conduct themselves."[7]
On 30 March 2014, Ricksen was inducted into the Rangers Hall of Fame along withLee McCulloch andNacho Novo.[8]
Ricksen moved on loan toZenit Saint Petersburg on a season long loan on 9 August 2006, the Russian club's manager beingDick Advocaat, who signed Ricksen for Rangers. Two weeks later he returned to Ibrox in a friendly between Rangers and Zenit and was booed after injuringChris Burke with what was described as a reckless tackle.[9][10] Weeks later, Ricksen engaged in an on-field fist-fight with Zenit captainVladislav Radimov.[11]On 28 November 2006, Zenit Saint Petersburg announced that they bought out Ricksen's transfer from Rangers. Despite this, Ricksen again fought with Radimov during a match in January 2007.[11] Ricksen was an unused substitute in the2008 UEFA Cup Final, in which Zenit triumphed over Rangers. In January 2009, after two and a half years in Russia, Ricksen was demoted to Zenit's reserve side, having previously refused to leave the club. On 28 August 2009, FC Zenit terminated his contract because of Ricksen's constant disciplinary misbehaviours.[12]
After being without a club for more than a year, on 2 December 2010 Ricksen agreed to rejoin his childhood team Fortuna Sittard, involved in their battle to escape relegation from theEerste Divisie, signing a contract till the end of the season.[13]
Ricksen earned the first of 12 caps for the Netherlands on 15 November 2000, playing two minutes as a substitute forPaul Bosvelt in a 3–2 friendly win overSpain at theEstadio Olimpico de la Cartuja inSeville. His final cap was on 30 April 2003, a 1–1 home draw withPortugal in another friendly.[14]
In June 2003, after aUEFA Euro 2004 qualifier away toBelarus, Ricksen got drunk and kicked down two hotel room doors. He was subsequently ostracised by managerDick Advocaat and did not play for the Netherlands again.[15][16][17]
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On 25 December 2000, Ricksen was the subject of a report to theprocurator fiscal after an incident when his car crashed into a lamppost in the early hours of the morning.[18] Ricksen denied charges ofdrink-driving, careless driving, committing a breach of the peace by shouting and swearing, and conducting himself in a disorderly manner.[19] At a trial in February 2003 Ricksen was found to have been twice over the limit and was convicted of drunk-driving, receiving a £500 fine and a 12-month driving ban.[19] He was acquitted of the other charges.[19]
In October 2003, Ricksen was fined £7,000 after being convicted of a breach of the peace and assault in relation to a drunken late-night house party he held the previous November.[20] Having initially denied the charges, in court Ricksen admitted conducting himself in a disorderly manner, causing a breach of the peace, repeatedly igniting fireworks, shouting and swearing and then threatening and assaulting a neighbour who had complained.[11][21] During the 2004–05 football season, Ricksen abstained from alcohol.[22] In July 2006 Ricksen checked himself into theSporting Chance Clinic for residential treatment relating to alcohol abuse and anger management.[23] For the previous six months he had been receiving out-patient treatment from the clinic.[24]
Ricksen's daughter Isabella was born in 2011. In 2014 Ricksen married Veronika, who is Russian.[25] A documentary titledFernando Ricksen: Hard Times[26] was aired onSky Sports 1 on 3 May 2015. Ricksen wasCatholic but later revealed his wish to convert toOrthodoxy.[27]
Ricksen wrote an autobiography,Fighting Spirit, which was published in 2014.[17]
On 30 October 2013, Ricksen revealed that he was terminally ill and had been diagnosed withamyotrophic lateral sclerosis (motor neurone disease).[28] He set up a charity that raised over £1 million for research into the condition.[29]
Ricksen died on 18 September 2019 in St Andrew's Hospice inAirdrie, North Lanarkshire, Scotland, aged 43.[30][31][32] His funeral was held atWellington Church in Glasgow on 25 September, attended by dignitaries of Celtic and Rangers, after which he was cremated at Linn crematorium, in a private ceremony.[29]
Fortuna Sittard
AZ
Rangers
Zenit Saint Petersburg
Individual
Several eyebrows must have been raised in Hoensbroek, the quiet town in the Dutch province of Limburg where I was born on 27 July 1976, with the name of Fernando Jacob Hubertina Henrika Ricksen
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
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