Michael John Reiziger (; born 3 May 1973) is a Dutch former professional

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 played mainly as a right back. Reiziger currently manages the Netherlands U21 team. After making a name for himself at

Ajax Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * Ajax (play), ''Ajax'' (play), by the an ...

, with whom he won one Champions League, he went on to represent four teams in as many countries, notably

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, for which he played 249 official games in seven years, as well as spells at A.C. Milan,

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ), colloquially known as Boro, is a port town in the Borough of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. Lying to the south of the River Tees, Middlesbrough forms part of the Teesside Built up area, built-up area and the Tees Va ...

and

PSV Eindhoven Philips Sport Vereniging (; ), abbreviated as PSV and internationally known as PSV Eindhoven (), is a Dutch sports club from Eindhoven, Netherlands. It is best known for its professional association football, football department, which has pla ...

. Reiziger represented the Netherlands national team for a full decade, competing at three European Championships and the 1998 World Cup and finishing fourth in the latter tournament.

Playing career

Club

Born in

Amstelveen Amstelveen () is a List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland, Netherlands, with a population of 95,996 as of 202 ...

North Holland North Holland (, ) is a Provinces of the Netherlands, province of the Netherlands in the northwestern part of the country. It is located on the North Sea, north of South Holland and Utrecht (province), Utrecht, and west of Friesland and Flevola ...

Suriname Suriname, officially the Republic of Suriname, is a country in northern South America, also considered as part of the Caribbean and the West Indies. It is a developing country with a Human Development Index, high level of human development; i ...

se parents, Reiziger started his career with hometown club

, making his first-team debut at the age of 17 then serving two consecutive loan spells, with

Volendam Volendam () is a tourist town in the Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of Edam-Volendam, Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland, Netherlands, known for its streets, old fishing boats and the traditional clothing wor ...

and

Groningen Groningen ( , ; ; or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen (province), Groningen province in the Netherlands. Dubbed the "capital of the north", Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of ...

; with the latter, in the 1993–94 season, he scored a career-best six goals while operating also as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

. Upon his return to Ajax, Reiziger established himself as a renowned defensive element, helping the side to, among other conquests, the 1994–95 edition of the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

. In 1996, he signed for A.C. Milan, but after a

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

marred by injury, he departed for

where he spent the following seven years, arriving at the same time as compatriot and former Ajax boss

Louis van Gaal Aloysius Paulus Maria "Louis" van Gaal (; born 8 August 1951) is a Dutch former association football, football player and former manager who currently serves as an advisor for AFC Ajax, Ajax. At club level, he served as manager of AFC Ajax, Aj ...

; though not an undisputed starter, he nonetheless featured heavily for the

Catalans Catalans ( Catalan, French and Occitan: ''catalans''; ; ; or ) are a Romance ethnic group native to Catalonia, who speak Catalan. The current official category of "Catalans" is that of the citizens of Catalonia, a nationality and autono ...

, making more than 200 overall appearances and helping to back-to-back

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

titles. In 2004, Reiziger moved to

on a Bosman transfer. He scored once in the league for Boro, against Aston Villa in December 2004. After another campaign plagued by physical problems, he left and returned to the Netherlands to see out his career at

(in his second year he won the

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 ...

, and was also reunited with Ajax, Barça and national teammate Patrick Kluivert, although the two rarely ever played).

International

Reiziger made his debut for the Netherlands national team on 12 October 1994, against

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. He played for his country at the UEFA Euro 1996,

1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 1 ...

, Euro 2000 and Euro 2004, retiring from international play after the latter. Shortly after signing for PSV, Reiziger said he would consider playing for the Netherlands again if the opportunity arose, but he was never recalled again, totalling 72 appearances in ten years.

Coaching career

After retiring, Reiziger settled in

. He later went on to coach Sparta Rotterdam at youth level and, subsequently and successively, acted as assistant to Gert Kruys and Alex Pastoor. On 20 June 2017, Reiziger returned to Ajax as manager of the reserves who competed 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 ...

, replacing

Marcel Keizer Marcel Keizer (born 15 January 1969), a Dutch football coach and former player, was most recently the manager of Saudi Pro League side Al Shabab. His playing career as a midfielder began at Ajax and was mainly spent at Cambuur, and he had b ...

. In his first season in charge he led the squad to the league title, but they were ineligible for promotion. He also acted as interim for the first team during one match after the dismissal of Keizer, defeating Willem II 3–1 at home. After Reiziger's contract expired, he was replaced by Mitchell van der Gaag at the helm of Ajax B. He was then offered a position as assistant coach of the first team, which he accepted.

Personal life

Reiziger's son, Gabriël (born 2005), also came through the Ajax youth system.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Score and result list the Netherlands' goal tally first, score column indicates score after Reiziger's goal.''

Honours

Player

Ajax *

: 1994–95, 1995–96 *

KNVB Cup The KNVB Beker (; ), branded as the TOTO KNVB Beker for sponsorship reasons, is a competition in the Netherlands organised by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) since 1898. It was based on the format of the English FA Cup. Outside the N ...

: 1992–93 * Dutch Supercup:

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

: 1994–95 *

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

: 1991–92 *

UEFA Super Cup The UEFA Super Cup is an annual super cup Association football, football match organised by UEFA and contested by the winners of the two main European club competitions: the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. The competition's offic ...

* Intercontinental Cup:

Barcelona *

: 1997–98, 1998–99 *

Copa del Rey The , commonly known as , or (in English) the Spanish Cup or King's Cup, and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–1936) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–1976), is an annual knockout football competition in Spanis ...

: 1997–98 *UEFA Super Cup:

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

PSV *Eredivisie: 2005–06, 2006–07

Manager

Jong Ajax *

: 2017–18

References

External links

Beijen profile
* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Reiziger, Michael 1973 births Living people Footballers from Amstelveen Dutch sportspeople of Surinamese descent Dutch men's footballers Men's association football defenders Eredivisie players AFC Ajax players FC Volendam players FC Groningen players PSV Eindhoven players Serie A players AC Milan players La Liga players FC Barcelona players Premier League players Middlesbrough F.C. players UEFA Champions League–winning players Netherlands men's international footballers UEFA Euro 1996 players 1998 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 2000 players UEFA Euro 2004 players Dutch expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in England Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Italy Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Spain Dutch expatriate sportspeople in England Dutch football managers Eredivisie managers Jong Ajax managers AFC Ajax managers AFC Ajax non-playing staff Dutch football coaches 20th-century Dutch sportsmen