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 ...

who played mainly as a

right back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

, currently the

assistant manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

AFC Ajax Amsterdamsche Football Club Ajax (), also known as AFC Ajax, Ajax Amsterdam, or simply Ajax, is a Dutch professional football club based in Amsterdam, that plays in the , the top tier in Dutch football. Historically, Ajax (named after the ...

. 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), by the ancient Gree ...

, 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 coast of northeastern 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 ...

, for which he played 249 official games in seven years, as well as spells at

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard language, Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the List of cities in Italy, second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 ...

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

and

PSV Eindhoven Philips Sport Vereniging (; en, Philips Sports Association ), abbreviated as PSV and internationally known as PSV Eindhoven (), is a Dutch sports club from Eindhoven, Netherlands. It is best known for its professional football department, wh ...

. Reiziger represented the

Dutch national team Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

for a full decade, competing at three

European Championships The European Championships is a multi-sport tournament which brings together the existing European Championships of some of the continent's leading sports every four years. The inaugural edition in 2018 was staged by the host cities of Berlin, ...

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 in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland, Netherlands with a population of 92.353 as of 2022. It is a suburban part of the Amsterdam metropolitan ar ...

, North Holland to

Suriname Suriname (; srn, Sranankondre or ), officially the Republic of Suriname ( nl, Republiek Suriname , srn, Ripolik fu Sranan), is a country on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north ...

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

FC Volendam Football Club Volendam () is a professional football club based in Volendam, Netherlands. They play in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football from the 2022–23 season following promotion. Nicknamed "de Palingboeren", the club was founded ...

and

FC Groningen Football Club Groningen () is a Dutch professional association football club based in Groningen, province of Groningen. Founded on 16 June 1971 as the successor of GVAV, the team compete in the Eredivisie, the highest tier of Dutch football. ...

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

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. 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 (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

. 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 tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and po ...

marred by injury, he departed for

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça (), is a professional Football team, football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish footb ...

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 football player and manager. At club level, he served as manager of Ajax, Barcelona, AZ Alkmaar, Bayern Munich and Manchester United, as well as having three spel ...

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

Catalans Catalans (Catalan, French and Occitan: ''catalans''; es, catalanes, Italian: ''catalani'', sc, cadelanos) are a Romance ethnic group native to Catalonia, who speak Catalan. The current official category of "Catalans" is that of the citiz ...

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

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men' ...

titles. In 2004, Reiziger moved to

on a Bosman transfer. He scored once in the league for ''Boro'', against

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa P ...

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 the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is ...

, and was also reunited with Ajax, ''Barça'' and national teammate

Patrick Kluivert Patrick Stephan Kluivert (; born 1 July 1976) is a Dutch former football player, coach and sporting director. He played as a striker, most notably for AFC Ajax, FC Barcelona and the Netherlands national team. He was part of Ajax's Golden Gene ...

, although the two rarely ever played).

International

Reiziger made his debut for the

on 12 October 1994, against

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. He played for his country at the

UEFA Euro 1996 The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament contested by European nations and organised by UEFA. It took place in ...

1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for th ...

Euro 2000 The 2000 UEFA European Football Championship, also known as Euro 2000, was the 11th UEFA European Championship, a football tournament held every four years and organised by UEFA, the sport's governing body in Europe. The finals tournament wa ...

and

Euro 2004 The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial association football, football competition contested by the List of men's national associatio ...

, 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 Sparta Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club based in Rotterdam. Established on 1 April 1888, Sparta Rotterdam is the oldest professional football team in the Netherlands. Sparta currently compete in the Eredivisie, the top fligh ...

at youth level and, subsequently and successively, acted as assistant to

Gert Kruys Gert Kruys (born 8 May 1961 in Utrecht) is a Dutch football manager and former player. He is currently the manager of IJsselmeervogels. Career Kruys played his entire career for FC Utrecht (1978–1988), except for one short spell at RKC Waal ...

and

Alex Pastoor Alexander Pastoor (; born 26 October 1966) is a Dutch football manager and former player, who is currently manager of Almere City. Playing career A former midfielder, Pastoor spent most of his career at FC Volendam, playing with the North-Holla ...

. On 20 June 2017, Reiziger returned to Ajax as manager of the reserves who competed in the

Eerste Divisie The Eerste Divisie (, en, First Division) is the second-highest tier of football in the Netherlands. It is linked with the top-level Eredivisie and with the third-level Tweede Divisie via promotion/relegation systems. It is also known as th ...

, replacing

Marcel Keizer Marcel Keizer (born 15 January 1969) is a Dutch football coach and former player who is the manager of Emirati club Al Jazira. His playing career as a midfielder began at Ajax and was mainly spent at Cambuur, and he had brief spells managing bo ...

. 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 An interim is a period of temporary pause or change in a sequence of events, or a temporary state, and is often applied to transitional political entities. Interim may also refer to: Temporary organizational arrangements (general concept) *Provis ...

for the first team during one match after the dismissal of Keizer, defeating

Willem II Willem II may refer to: People * William II, Prince of Orange (1626–1650), stadtholder of the United Provinces of the Netherlands * William II of the Netherlands (1792–1849), King of the Netherlands Other uses * Willem II (football club), a Du ...

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

Appearances and goals by national team and year International goals :''Scores and results list Reiziger's goal tally first.''

Honours

Player

Ajax *

: 1994–95, 1995–96 *

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

1992–93 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 ''Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since th ...

* Dutch Supercup:

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson Ma ...

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake strike ...

: 1994–95 *

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, cla ...

: 1991–92 *

UEFA Super Cup The UEFA Super Cup is an annual super cup 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 official name was original ...

* Intercontinental Cup:

Barcelona *

: 1997–98, 1998–99 *

Copa del Rey The Campeonato de España–Copa de Su Majestad el Rey, commonly known as Copa del Rey or simply La Copa and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–36) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–76), is an annual knockout footb ...

: 1997–98 *UEFA Super Cup:

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

PSV *Eredivisie: 2005–06, 2006–07

Manager

Jong Ajax *

: 2017–18

References

External links

Beijen profile
* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Reiziger, Michael 1973 births Living people Sportspeople from Amstelveen Dutch sportspeople of Surinamese descent Dutch footballers Footballers from North Holland Association football defenders Eredivisie players AFC Ajax players FC Volendam players FC Groningen players PSV Eindhoven players Serie A players A.C. Milan players La Liga players FC Barcelona players Premier League players Middlesbrough F.C. players UEFA Champions League winning players Netherlands international footballers UEFA Euro 1996 players 1998 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 2000 players UEFA Euro 2004 players Dutch expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Italy Expatriate footballers in Spain Expatriate 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 Association football coaches