Frank de Boer

Personal information
Full name	Franciscus de Boer
Date of birth	(1970-05-15) 15 May 1970 (age 42)
Place of birth	Hoorn, Netherlands
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)[1]
Playing position	Defender
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1988–1999	Ajax	328	(30)
1999–2003	Barcelona	144	(5)
2003	Galatasaray	15	(1)
2004	Glasgow Rangers	15	(2)
2004–2005	Al-Rayyan	16	(5)
2005–2006	Al-Shamal	1	(0)
	Total	519	(43)
National team‡
1988–2004	Netherlands	112	(13)
Teams managed
2008–2010	Ajax (youth)
2008–2010	Netherlands (assistant manager)
2010	Ajax (caretaker)
2011–	Ajax
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 6 May 2009. † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 10 December 2006

Franciscus "Frank" de Boer (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈfrɑn.sɪs.kʏs ˈfrɑŋk də ˈbur]) (born 15 May 1970 in Hoorn, Noord-Holland) is a Dutch former professional footballer, and the younger twin brother of Ronald de Boer. Since 6 December 2010 he is the Manager of AFC Ajax.

Club career[link]

De Boer began his career as a left back at Ajax before switching to centre back, a position he made his own for many years in the national team. He won both the UEFA Cup and Champions League while at Ajax. However, after signing a 6-year contract extension with Ajax for the 1998–99 season, he and his twin brother Ronald took successful legal action to have it voided. Ajax had agreed orally that if a lucrative offer for one brother came by, he would be released provided the other stayed. However Ajax apparently backed down on that agreement after floating the club on the stock market and pledging to shareholders that it would hold both of the de Boers and build around them a team to recapture the UEFA Champions League.^[2]

Both de Boers then joined FC Barcelona for 22 million pounds. However, they were unable to repeat his earlier triumphs and Frank suffered the ignominy of testing positive for the banned substance nandrolone. De Boer was suspended but he was reinstated after a successful appeal.^[3]

De Boer (right) with Lorenzo Ebecilio.

He briefly moved to Galatasaray in the summer of 2003 before joining Rangers in January 2004. He scored a header at 87th minutes against Aberdeen to save his team from losing in the away game. Later on, he scored his second but also his last goal in a 4:0 home win against Dundee United. He made a total of 17 appearances for Rangers, scoring two goals. He left Rangers in 2004 after Euro 2004 along with twin brother Ronald (his teammate at Ajax, Barcelona and Rangers) to play the rest of his football career in Qatar with Al-Rayyan.

De Boer announced his retirement from football in April 2006.

International career[link]

Having represented his national team 112 times,^[4] he was the most capped player in the history of the Netherlands national team, until Edwin van der Sar surpassed him. de Boer made his debut for the Netherlands in September 1990 against Italy.

De Boer also played for the Netherlands in the 1994 and 1998 World Cups, Euro 92, Euro 2000 and Euro 2004, but missed Euro 96 through injury. He is well-remembered for the arching 60-yard pass which allowed Dennis Bergkamp to score the last-minute goal that knocked out Argentina in the quarter-finals of the 1998 World Cup.^[5][6][7] During Euro 2000, hosted in his home country and Belgium, de Boer reached another semi-final with the Dutch team. de Boer missed an important penalty kick in the penalty shootout in the semi-finals, which led to defeat against Italy. He also missed a penalty during the match.^[8]

He ended his international career after an injury forced him to be replaced in a quarter-final game with Sweden at Euro 2004.^[9] The injury ruled him out from the semi-final match against Portugal, which the Netherlands lost 1–2.^[10][11]

Managing career[link]

De Boer with the Dutch national team following the 2010 World Cup.

Since 2007 de Boer has taken up a coaching role at his former club Ajax where he is in charge of the club's youth sector. During the 2010 World Cup, he was the assistant of the Netherlands national football team, with retired player Phillip Cocu.^[12]

On 6 December 2010, after the resignation of Martin Jol, de Boer was appointed caretaker manager of Ajax until the winter break. His first game in charge was a UEFA Champions League match against AC Milan at the San Siro, a game they won 2-0 through goals from Demy de Zeeuw and Toby Alderweireld.^[13]

He then went on to help Ajax become champions of the Eredivisie for the 2010/2011 season in a 3-1 home victory over FC Twente, the champions of the previous year, on the final matchday. Making the first year of his professional coaching career a golden one. "I couldn't have wished for a more beautiful birthday present," said Frank de Boer, as the club's 30th championship was won on his 41st birthday.^[14] In one and a half year at the helm of Ajax, Frank de Boer already won 2 championships, his 7th in total, when including the 5 he already won as a player. ^[15] According to reports, De Boer was offered the chance to interview for the Liverpool FC job but turned it down to remain with Ajax. "I am honoured by the request [from Liverpool] but I have only just started with Ajax," he said.^[16]

Managerial statistics[link]

As of 26 March 2012.

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				G	W	L	D	Win %
Ajax		6 December 2010[13]	Present	&1000000000000007100000071	&1000000000000004600000046	&1000000000000001100000011	&1000000000000001400000014	&1000000000000006479000064.79

Honours[link]

Player[link]

Ajax

• Eredivisie: 5
  • 1989–90, 1993–94, 1994–95, 1995–96, 1997–98
• KNVB Cup: 2
  • 1992–93, 1997–98
• Johan Cruijff Shield: 3
  • 1993, 1994, 1995
• UEFA Champions League: 1
  • 1995
• UEFA Cup: 1
  • 1992
• UEFA Super Cup: 1
  • 1995
• Intercontinental Cup: 1
  • 1995

FC Barcelona

• La Liga: 1
  • 1998–99

Al Rayyan Sports Club

• Qatar Stars League 1st runner up : 1
  • 2004-05

Manager[link]

Ajax

• Eredivisie: 2
  • 2010–11, 2011–12

Career statistics[link]

^[17]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Frank de Boer

• Frank de Boer profile and stats at Wereld van Oranje (Dutch)
• Frank de Boer at National-Football-Teams.com

Netherlands squads v t e Netherlands squad – UEFA Euro 1992 semi-finalists 1 Van Breukelen 2 Van Aerle 3 Van Tiggelen 4 Koeman 5 Blind 6 Wouters 7 Bergkamp 8 Rijkaard 9 Van Basten 10 Gullit 11 Van 't Schip 12 Kieft 13 Menzo 14 Witschge 15 Winter 16 Bosz 17 De Boer 18 Jonk 19 Viscaal 20 Roy Coach: Michels v t e Netherlands squad – 1994 FIFA World Cup 1 De Goey 2 F. De Boer 3 Rijkaard 4 Koeman 5 Witschge 6 Wouters 7 Overmars 8 Jonk 9 R. De Boer 10 Bergkamp 11 Roy 12 Bosman 13 Van der Sar 14 Van Gobbel 15 Blind 16 Numan 17 Taument 18 Valckx 19 Van Vossen 20 Winter 21 De Wolf 22 Snelders Coach: Advocaat v t e Netherlands squad – 1998 FIFA World Cup Fourth Place 1 Van der Sar 2 Reiziger 3 Stam 4 F. De Boer (c) 5 Numan 6 Jonk 7 R. De Boer 8 Bergkamp 9 Kluivert 10 Seedorf 11 Cocu 12 Zenden 13 Ooijer 14 Overmars 15 Bogarde 16 Davids 17 Van Hooijdonk 18 De Goey 19 Van Bronckhorst 20 Winter 21 Hasselbaink 22 Hesp Coach: Hiddink v t e Netherlands squad – UEFA Euro 2000 semi-finalists 1 Van der Sar 2 Reiziger 3 Stam 4 F. de Boer 5 Zenden 6 Seedorf 7 Cocu 8 Davids 9 Kluivert 10 Bergkamp 11 Overmars 12 Van Bronckhorst 13 Konterman 14 Van Vossen 15 Bosvelt 16 R. de Boer 17 Van Hooijdonk 18 de Goey 19 Numan 20 Winter 21 Makaay 22 Westerveld Coach: Rijkaard v t e Netherlands squad – UEFA Euro 2004 semi-finalists 1 Van der Sar 2 Reiziger 3 Stam 4 Bouma 5 Van Bronckhorst 6 Cocu 7 Van der Meyde 8 Davids 9 Kluivert 10 Van Nistelrooy 11 Van der Vaart 12 Makaay 13 Westerveld 14 Sneijder 15 De Boer (c) 16 Overmars 17 Van Hooijdonk 18 Heitinga 19 Robben 20 Seedorf 21 Bosvelt 22 Zenden 23 Waterreus Coach: Advocaat