Frank Rijkaard

Ajax

Rijkaard was born in Amsterdam. His father Herman (1935–2010) was a Surinamese footballer who arrived in the Netherlands along with the father of Ruud Gullit and his mother Neel is Dutch; the two boys grew up playing football together in the city. Rijkaard was just 17 when Ajax coach Leo Beenhakker gave him his senior squad debut on 23 August 1980. He made an immediate impact, scoring the third goal in a 4–2 away victory over Go Ahead Eagles, the first league match in the 1980–81 season. He would play another 23 games for Ajax in his first season, netting four goals. In 1981–82, he won his first league championship with Ajax and went on to successfully defend the title the following season. Rijkaard stayed at Ajax for seven-and-a-half seasons. During this period, he won the Dutch league championship three times (1981–82, 1982–83, 1984–85) and the Dutch Cup three times (1982–83, 1985–86, 1986–87). In the 1986–87 season, he won the Cup Winners' Cup with Ajax over Lokomotiv Leipzig, winning 1–0.

Sporting and Zaragoza

In September 1987, what would have been Rijkaard's third season (1987–88) under Dutchman Johan Cruyff as head coach, Rijkaard stormed off the training field and vowed never to play under him again. He was subsequently signed by Sporting CP, but he signed too late to be eligible to play in any competition. He was immediately loaned out to Real Zaragoza, but upon completing his first season at Zaragoza was signed by AC Milan.

AC Milan…

In 1981, Rijkaard debuted for the Netherlands national football team during a friendly match against Switzerland. He was part of the Dutch side that won UEFA Euro 1988 with a 2–0 victory in the final against the Soviet Union, playing at centre-back alongside Ronald Koeman. At UEFA Euro 1992, Rijkaard set up Dennis Bergkamp's only goal of the match in the Netherlands' opening victory against Scotland, and scored the opening goal in a 3–1 victory over Germany in their final first round match, which allowed them to top their group. At the semi-final stage against eventual champions Denmark, after setting up Bergkamp's opening goal, Rijkaard scored a late equalizer for the Netherlands in a 2–2 draw, but the Dutch went out on penalties, despite Rijkaard successfully netting his spot-kick. In the quarter-finals of the 1994 FIFA World Cup, he made his final appearance for the Netherlands in the 3–2 defeat against eventual winners Brazil.

Spitting incident

Rijkaard was the cause of an incident with Rudi Völler when West Germany played the Netherlands in the second round of the 1990 FIFA World Cup. Rijkaard was booked for a tackle on Völler and, as Rijkaard took up position for the free kick, he spat in Völler's hair. Völler complained to the referee and was booked as well. From the resulting free kick, Völler then handled the ball and then went to the ground (according to his own account) to avoid a collision with Dutch keeper Hans van Breukelen, while others, notably…

Regarded as one of the greatest players ever in his position, Rijkaard was a quick, strong, complete and tenacious defensive midfielder, who was praised by pundits throughout his career for his physical and athletic attributes, his work rate, positioning, his acute tactical intelligence and decision-making, as well as his outstanding consistency and ability to read the game. Due to his aggression and versatility, he was also capable of playing as a central or box-to-box midfielder, and even in a defensive role, usually in the centre. Although Rijkaard was known as a strong tackler, he was surprisingly elegant for a player of his size, and also possessed good technique, passing ability, link-up play, and vision, which made him adept at starting attacking plays as a deep-lying playmaker once he won back possession. He was also capable of playing in more advanced roles as an attacking midfielder or second striker. Due to his height and physical strength, he excelled in the air; possessed a powerful shot; and was capable of getting forward and contributing to his team's attacking plays by making late runs into the penalty area. Rijkaard was described by British broadsheet The Daily Telegraph as having been "a stylish player of faultless pedigree". In 2004, Rijkaard was named in the FIFA 100, Pelé's list of the 125 World's Greatest Living Footballers.

Netherlands

Rijkaard worked as assistant to Guus Hiddink with the Netherlands national team during the 1998 World Cup; this was his first experience of coaching, as he had taken a break from football after retiring as a player. At the World Cup, the Netherlands lost the semi-final to Brazil on penalties. When Hiddink resigned as manager, Rijkaard was chosen as his replacement, although he was not first choice. As the Netherlands were joint hosts of UEFA Euro 2000, they did not take part in the qualifiers, playing only friendlies for two years. In Rijkaard's first game, the Netherlands beat Peru 2–0. Between October 1998 and November 1999, they did not win a single game, drawing nine and losing to Morocco and Brazil. At Euro 2000, the Dutch team topped the group with three wins; 1–0 against the Czech Republic, 3–0 against Denmark and 3–2 against France. In the quarter-final, they beat Yugoslavia 6–1, breaking the record for the biggest win at a European Championship. The Netherlands played some of the best football of the tournament, but lost their semi-final match to ten-man Italy on penalties, having also missed two penalties in regular time; Rijkaard resigned immediately afterwards. It was rumoured that he would move to Italy to coach his former club Milan, but this did not happen.

Sparta Rotterdam

During the 2001–02 season, he became manager of Sparta Rotterdam in the Eredivisie, the oldest professional team in the country. Rijkaard said that he enjoyed…