Mark van Bommel

Van Bommel started his amateur career at local club RKVV Maasbracht before earning a professional contract with Fortuna Sittard in 1992. His colleagues at Fortuna who would later join PSV alongside him were Wilfred Bouma and Kevin Hofland.

PSV

Van Bommel was signed by PSV in 1999 where he formed a midfield partnership with Swiss international Johann Vogel. Van Bommel won four Eredivisie titles and two Johan Cruyff Shields with the club. He was also named Dutch Footballer of the Year in 2001 and 2005. In his final season with PSV, having assisted the team to the Dutch league title and a Champions League semi-final place, Van Bommel was expected to join his father-in-law Bert van Marwijk who at the time managed the Bundesliga side Borussia Dortmund, but Van Bommel opted to stay at PSV until the end of the 2004–05 season. After the club's UEFA Champions League semi-final loss to Milan and with the Eredivisie title in PSV's hands at the end of April, he confirmed he would join Barcelona in May 2005 after the club won its own domestic league.

Barcelona

Seeking to strengthen his already title-winning squad, Frank Rijkaard signed Van Bommel on a free transfer for Barcelona. Van Bommel spent the summer prior to his move to Spain learning the Spanish language in a convent in Eindhoven. Similar to his role at PSV where he was largely used as a holding midfielder, utilising his ball-winning skills to complement the more skillful players already at the club. As per…

Van Bommel's debut for the Netherlands was a 4–0 on 7 October 2000 against Cyprus. However, he did not make an appearance in a major tournament until 2006, with the Netherlands failing to qualify for the 2002 FIFA World Cup and injury preventing him from playing during UEFA Euro 2004 in Portugal.

National team manager Marco van Basten was dissatisfied with Van Bommel's defensive performance in the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification match against Romania and he was subsequently not selected for the rest of the qualification series. With many Dutch football observers believing Van Bommel's international career to be over, he was selected back into the Dutch side for the 2006 FIFA World Cup. At the 2006 World Cup, Van Bommel played in three of the games for his country (all except the match against Argentina, where both teams had already sealed their passage to the knockout stage of the tournament). He was substituted twice in these three matches. His position in the team was as right-half. His duties were mainly to play the anchor role in the Dutch three-man midfield in their usual 4–3–3 formation.

A notoriously hard-tackling competitor, he was the first of many players booked in the second-round defeat against Portugal, dubbed "The Battle of Nuremberg" by the press. After the World Cup, Van Bommel was not called up for the Euro 2008 qualifiers against Luxembourg and Belarus. In September 2006, after his move to Bayern Munich, he was added to Van Basten's squad to face…

Early years

Van Bommel started his coaching career as an assistant manager in January 2014, joining the Netherlands U17 national team under Maarten Stekelenburg. On 1 September 2015, he joined his father-in-law Bert van Marwijk at the Saudi Arabia national team, serving as assistant there for two years. On 25 April 2017, he was appointed head coach of the PSV youth (U19) team. On 23 March 2018, he reunited with van Marwijk at the Australia national team, assisting him at the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

PSV Eindhoven

On 22 June 2018, Eredivisie champions PSV Eindhoven announced Van Bommel as manager on a three-year deal. He replaced Phillip Cocu, who had left for Fenerbahçe. He made his senior managerial debut in the 2018 Johan Cruyff Shield against Feyenoord on 4 August, losing on penalties after a goalless draw. A week later in his first Eredivisie game, PSV won 4–0 at home to Utrecht. After 14 consecutive victories at the start of the season, his side lost 2–1 at Feyenoord. On 16 December 2019, Van Bommel was sacked by PSV with the team in fourth, following a loss to Feyenoord.

VfL Wolfsburg

On 2 June 2021, VfL Wolfsburg unveiled Van Bommel as the club's new head coach, replacing the departing Oliver Glasner on a two-year contract. On his debut in the DFB-Pokal first round on 8 August, he used six substitutes instead of the permitted five in a 3–1 extra-time win over SC Preußen Münster, resulting in disqualification. Six days later, he won 1–0 at home…

Van Bommel is married to Andra, daughter of Bert van Marwijk, with whom he has three children: Thomas, Ruben and Renée. In October 2022, as manager of Royal Antwerp, Van Bommel was threatened in his car by a man armed with a gun. The attacker was demanding a professional contract. He was sentenced to five years in prison.