Dirk Marcellis

Dirk Marcellis

Personal information
Height	1.81 m (5 ft 11 in)
Position(s)	Center back/Right back
Team information
Current team	AZ
Number	3
Youth career
	Wittenhorst
	VVV-Venlo
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
2006–2010	PSV	68	(0)
2010–	AZ	51	(0)
International career‡
2005	Netherlands U17	3	(1)
2008–	Netherlands U21	4	(0)
2008–	Netherlands	2	(0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of May 15, 2011 ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of October 11, 2008

Dirk Marcellis (born April 13, 1988, Horst aan de Maas) is a Dutch footballer, currently playing for AZ. His preferred position is centre back, but if needed, he can play on every defensive position. After a non-playing period at PSV Marcellis fought back at AZ and became one of the more reliable defenders in the Eredivisie.

PSV Eindhoven

Despite being short for a central defender, Marcellis worked his way up the ladder at PSV Eindhoven, and eventually played his way in the starting line-up, forming a confident pair with Mexican defender Carlos Salcido. It was then that Marcellis was first really noticed by the bigger audience. He managed himself quite comfortably in the PSV defence, and almost effortlessly replaced the highly-rated Brazilian central defender Alex, who went back to Chelsea after being loaned by PSV for several seasons. On 30 July 2009, Marcellis scored a last-minute goal against Bulgarian side PFC Cherno More Varna to help his team to a 1:0 home win in a third qualifying round game of the UEFA Europa League. He transferred to AZ after they sold their striker Jeremain Lens to PSV.

AZ

At the 21st of May he was involved with the deal with Lens. He goes to PSV and AZ contracted Marcellis. After a non-playing period at PSV Marcellis fought back at AZ and became one more reliable defenders in the league.

International U21 career

After impressing with PSV both in the UEFA Cup against Tottenham Hotspur and Fiorentina, where he played solid games against Dimitar Berbatov and Adrian Mutu, Marcellis caught the eye of not only Dutch football fans but also the Netherlands U-21 coach Foppe de Haan. De Haan was quoted as saying, "Verrek, we hebben weer een echte verdediger", meaning: "Damn, we have a real defender again." De Haan almost immediately included Marcellis in the squad and let him make his debut for the Netherlands U-21. Marcellis didn't disappoint by playing very solidly in defence, game after game. Not only on his preferred place in central defence but at times also as a right back. He was a star on the rise, and the Dutch people recognised his great quality and potential. With the press and public often comparing him with his idol; former Dutch defender Jaap Stam, naming him as the biggest contender to fill the gap that the widely known Stam left in the Dutch defence. However, he has yet to live up to his promise.

2008 Beijing Summer Olympics

He was selected for the Netherlands Olympic squad and was absolute first choice central defender during the entire run-up to the Olympics, where he made a confident impression, seldom making a mistake. He played in all the group games, where the Dutch barely qualified for the quarter finals, coming second on points. He also played the quarter-final against Argentina, where they were eliminated. After the full 90 minutes and extra time had resulted in a 1–1 draw, they surprisingly lost 2–1.

National team

He received his first call-up under national team coach Bert van Marwijk for the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification matches against Norway & Iceland. He made his debut on October 11, 2008, against Iceland.

Career statistics

Template:Football player statistics 1 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2006–07||rowspan="4"|PSV Eindhoven||rowspan="4"|Eredivisie||0||0||0||0||1||0||1||0 |- |2007–08||26||0||1||0||10||0||37||0 |- |2008–09||31||0||0||0||6||0||37||0 |- |2009–10||11||0||3||0||3||1||17||1 |- |2010-11||rowspan="1"|AZ||rowspan="1"|Eredivisie||32||0||3||0||9||0||44||0 Template:Football player statistics 5100||0||7||0||29||1||136||1 Template:Football player statistics end