Daniël Rijaard (born November 16, 1976) is a Dutch Antilles

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays for

SVV Scheveningen Scheveningse Voetbal Vereniging Scheveningen is an association football club from Scheveningen, a district of The Hague, Netherlands. The club was founded 1 July 1919. It is currently playing in the Tweede Divisie, the third tier of football in ...

and

Netherlands Antilles The Netherlands Antilles (, ; ), also known as the Dutch Antilles, was a constituent Caribbean country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands consisting of the islands of Saba (island), Saba, Sint Eustatius, and Sint Maarten in the Lesser Antilles, ...

. He is a defender who plays as a fullback on the right side of the pitch.

Club career

Rijaard's career began when he signed a professional contract with

Excelsior Rotterdam Excelsior Rotterdam, commonly known as Excelsior, is a Dutch professional football club based in Rotterdam. They play in the Eredivisie, the top tier of the Dutch football league system, following promotion from the Eerste Divisie in the 2024– ...

, making his first first-team appearance in 1995, at the age of 18. He was a regular in the team immediately and became one of Excelsior's key players in the following years. In total he played seven straight seasons at the

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

club before making a move towards

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; "Honour Division" or "Premier Division") is a professional association football league in the Netherlands and the highest level of the Dutch football league system. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start o ...

participants

ADO Den Haag Alles Door Oefening Den Haag (), commonly known by the abbreviated name ADO Den Haag (), is a Dutch association football club from the city of The Hague. They play in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of Dutch football, following relegation ...

. Again he was a regular member in the first team right from the start and played nearly all matches in the competition. In his third season at ADO Den Haag he found himself on the bench more often and at the end of 2005 he went back to Excelsior on loan. With this team he won the championship in the

Eerste Divisie The Eerste Divisie (; ) is the second-highest tier of football in the Netherlands. It is linked with the top-level Eredivisie via promotion/relegation systems. It is also known as the Keuken Kampioen Divisie due to sponsorship reasons, while ...

, which secured the team a place in the Eredivisie for 2006-07. After the season, he returned to ADO where he was no longer secure to be lined-up in the first team. When ADO promoted to the

in the 2007-08 season, Rijaard did not receive a new contract. Therefore, he left ADO and became an amateur footballer at Scheveningen.

International career

Rijaard made his debut for the

in a March 2004 World Cup qualifying match against

Antigua and Barbuda Antigua and Barbuda is a Sovereign state, sovereign archipelagic country composed of Antigua, Barbuda, and List of islands of Antigua and Barbuda, numerous other small islands. Antigua and Barbuda has a total area of 440 km2 (170 sq mi), ...

References

adodenhaag.nlclubachterdeduinen.nlvi.nl
1976 births Living people Dutch Antillean men's footballers Netherlands Antilles men's international footballers Men's association football defenders ADO Den Haag players Excelsior Rotterdam players Footballers from Rotterdam SVV Scheveningen players {{NetherlandsAntilles-footy-bio-stub