Edwin van der Sar

Ajax

Born in Voorhout, Van der Sar began his career at his hometown club, Foreholte, and then Noordwijk. At a relatively late age, he was brought to the attention of Louis van Gaal, and subsequently signed for Ajax. Even though he joined late he went into the reserve team and bided his time before getting his first-team call-up by Louis van Gaal. He enjoyed a long and successful stint in their senior side, winning the 1991–92 UEFA Cup (albeit only as the reserve, making no appearances in the run) and the 1994–95 UEFA Champions League (by now the starting goalkeeper), as well as the 1995 Best European Goalkeeper award, besides domestic honours. He was in goal for Ajax in the 1996 UEFA Champions League Final, but had to make do with a runner-up medal as they lost the penalty shoot-out against Juventus. He made a total of 226 appearances for Ajax, and scored a penalty for Ajax to complete an 8–1 victory over De Graafschap in the 1997–98 season. In his first full season as Ajax No. 1 he won the Dutch Football Goalkeeper of the Year, he would then go on to retain the award for the next three consecutive years.

Juventus

In 1999, Van der Sar's stature as one of Europe's top goalkeepers drew attention from Manchester United, who sought a replacement for Peter Schmeichel; however, Van der Sar moved to Italian club Juventus for a fee believed to be in the region of £5 million. He made his debut for The Old Lady in the 1–1 draw with Reggina at the Stadio delle Alpi.…

Van der Sar was included in the Netherlands' 1994 World Cup squad but did not play. He had to wait until 7 June 1995 for his international debut, against Belarus. He was in goal for three successive eliminations from major competitions by penalties: Euro 1996, the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000.

1998 World Cup

Van der Sar backstopped the Netherlands to the semi-finals of the 1998 FIFA World Cup, where they were eliminated by Brazil 4–2 on penalties after a 1–1 draw. In the third-place playoff, Netherlands lost to upstart Croatia 2–1. In the quarter-finals against Argentina, Van der Sar confronted Ariel Ortega after Ortega received a yellow card for a dive in the penalty area; the Argentine was then sent off for headbutting Van der Sar. Shortly after Ortega's red card, Dennis Bergkamp scored the winning goal in Netherlands' 2–1 victory.

Euro 2000

Van der Sar started the Netherlands' first two group games at UEFA Euro 2000, but suffered an injury in the closing stages of their 3–0 win over Denmark and was replaced by Sander Westerveld for the final group match against France. Van der Sar returned for the quarter-finals, but was again replaced by Westerveld after 65 minutes, by which point the Netherlands had a 4–0 lead. Van der Sar kept another clean sheet in the semi-final against Italy, resulting in a goalless draw after Frank de Boer and Patrick Kluivert both failed to score from the penalty spot in regulation time. The match went to a penalty shoot-out,…

Regarded as one of the greatest and most complete keepers in football history, Van der Sar was a large, athletic, yet slender goalkeeper, who excelled at coming off his line to handle crosses due to his height and physique; in addition to his reflexes, positional sense, and shot-stopping abilities, he was also known for his calm composure, longevity, and his ability to organise his defence. Furthermore, he was also effective at stopping penalties. Van der Sar was known in particular for his skill with the ball at his feet, as well as his accurate distribution with either foot, which gave him the ability to launch counter-attacks from his area with long balls, or build attacking plays by playing the ball out from the back on the ground. Due to his ability in possession of the ball, and to rush off his line, he also functioned as a "sweeper-keeper" on occasion throughout his career, in particular during his time with Ajax.

On 3 August 2011, a testimonial was played at the Amsterdam Arena in honour of Van der Sar. The match featured the goalkeeper's "dream team", consisting of Wayne Rooney, John Heitinga, Louis Saha, Rio Ferdinand, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Nemanja Vidić, André Ooijer, Dirk Kuyt, Gary Neville, Michael Carrick, Edgar Davids, Giovanni van Bronckhorst, Boudewijn Zenden, and Dennis Bergkamp, with Alex Ferguson as manager. They faced the current Ajax first team, led by Frank de Boer. Prior to this match two shorter matches took place. One featured the Ajax and Manchester United youth teams, and another one featured Ajax's 1995 squad against the Netherlands national team of 1998. The Ajax squad featured among others Finidi George, Nwankwo Kanu, Frank de Boer, Winston Bogarde, Nordin Wooter, Ronald de Boer, Danny Blind, Patrick Kluivert, Marc Overmars and Frank Rijkaard, and was managed by Louis van Gaal. The Netherlands squad featured among others Wim Jonk, Dennis Bergkamp, Roy Makaay, Ruud Hesp, Aron Winter, Richard Witschge and Pierre van Hooijdonk, and was managed by Guus Hiddink. The viewership numbers in the Netherlands alone peaked at 2 million and it had a 26% total market share. The income generated by the match was to be donated to two charities (Make a Wish Foundation and Laureus); it generated so much money, however, that Van der Sar announced afterwards he would be starting his own charitable foundation to help spend the money. During the event, it was announced that Van…