Fernando Ricksen

Rangers

Ricksen, formerly of Fortuna Sittard, joined Rangers in 2000 from Dutch team AZ Alkmaar for a transfer fee of £3.75 million. Ricksen endured a difficult start to his Rangers career, culminating in him being substituted after a torrid 21 minutes in a 6–2 defeat to Celtic. On his second trip to Celtic Park six months later, he was sent off before half-time in another defeat. He had been dropped for the two intervening derbies. In November 2000 Ricksen became the first player in Scottish football to be banned retrospectively on television evidence. His Kung Fu-style kick on Darren Young had been missed by the referee but caught on camera, leading to a five-game ban. Ricksen subsequently used his personal website to suggest Young required "straightening out." 2003–04 proved to be a failed season for Rangers, with the departure of several players from the treble-winning season, including Barry Ferguson and Lorenzo Amoruso. Ricksen, however, proved to be an important member of the Rangers team which finished second, playing 42 games, despite several injuries and disciplinary problems throughout the season. In October 2003 Ricksen pushed then Rangers chairman John McClelland into a swimming pool before a match against Panathinaikos in Athens. The same week he was banned from the Netherlands national team for smashing a hotel door down after a night out. After the events Rangers banned Ricksen from talking to the media and manager McLeish said "We would rather have…

Ricksen earned the first of 12 caps for the Netherlands on 15 November 2000, playing two minutes as a substitute for Paul Bosvelt in a 3–2 friendly win over Spain at the Estadio Olimpico de la Cartuja in Seville. His final cap was on 30 April 2003, a 1–1 home draw with Portugal in another friendly. In June 2003, after a UEFA Euro 2004 qualifier away to Belarus, Ricksen got drunk and kicked down two hotel room doors. He was subsequently ostracised by manager Dick Advocaat and did not play for the Netherlands again.

On 25 December 2000, Ricksen was the subject of a report to the procurator fiscal after an incident when his car crashed into a lamppost in the early hours of the morning. Ricksen denied charges of drink-driving, careless driving, committing a breach of the peace by shouting and swearing, and conducting himself in a disorderly manner. At a trial in February 2003 Ricksen was found to have been twice over the limit and was convicted of drunk-driving, receiving a £500 fine and a 12-month driving ban. He was acquitted of the other charges. In October 2003, Ricksen was fined £7,000 after being convicted of a breach of the peace and assault in relation to a drunken late-night house party he held the previous November. Having initially denied the charges, in court Ricksen admitted conducting himself in a disorderly manner, causing a breach of the peace, repeatedly igniting fireworks, shouting and swearing and then threatening and assaulting a neighbour who had complained. During the 2004–05 football season, Ricksen abstained from alcohol. In July 2006 Ricksen checked himself into the Sporting Chance Clinic for residential treatment relating to alcohol abuse and anger management. For the previous six months he had been receiving out-patient treatment from the clinic. Ricksen's daughter Isabella was born in 2011. In 2014 Ricksen married Veronika, who is Russian. A documentary titled Fernando Ricksen: Hard Times was aired on Sky Sports 1 on 3 May 2015. Ricksen was Catholic but later…

Fortuna Sittard

Eerste Divisie: 1994–95 AZ

Eerste Divisie: 1997–98 Rangers

Scottish Premier League: 2002–03, 2004–05 Scottish Cup: 2001–02, 2002–03 Scottish League Cup: 2001–02, 2002–03, 2004–05 Zenit Saint Petersburg

Russian Premier League: 2007 Russian Super Cup: 2008 UEFA Cup: 2007–08 UEFA Super Cup: 2008 Individual

PFA Scotland Players' Player of the Year: 2004–05 Rangers F.C. Hall of Fame: inducted in 2014