Clarence Seedorf

Clarence Seedorf

Seedorf playing for Milan in 2008
Personal information
Full name	Clarence Clyde Seedorf
Height	1.77 m (5 ft 10 in)
Position(s)	Midfielder
Team information
Current team	Milan
Number	10
Youth career
	Ajax
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1992–1995	Ajax	64	(11)
1995–1996	Sampdoria	32	(3)
1996–1999	Real Madrid	120	(15)
1999–2002	Internazionale	64	(8)
2002–	Milan	297	(47)
International career
1994–2008	Netherlands	87	(11)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 11 February 2012

Clarence Clyde Seedorf OON (born 1 April 1976 in Paramaribo, Suriname) is a Dutch professional footballer who currently plays as an attacking midfielder for Serie A club Milan. Seedorf is the first player to have won the Champions League 4 times and with three different clubs - Ajax in 1995, Real Madrid in 1998 and Milan in 2003 and 2007.

Club career

Early career

Seedorf started his career as a right midfielder for Ajax during the early 1990s. He made his professional debut on 29 November 1992 against Groningen at the age of 16 years and 242 days, making him the youngest debutant for Ajax ever. In his early career, he played a role in Ajax's Eredivisie winning years of 1994 and 1995. He was also a key member during Ajax's 1995 UEFA Champions League winning campaign. After making his name in the Ajax side, Seedorf had one season with Sampdoria, scoring three goals.

Real Madrid

Seedorf moved to Real Madrid in 1996, where he was "virtually ever present in the Blancos team for the first three seasons". In his first season he helped that team regain the La Liga title; in his second season (1997–1998), he played a major role in the team's Champions League success, as Real Madrid secured a 1–0 victory over Juventus in the final. It was the second Champions League title of his career. While playing for Real Madrid, Seedorf scored a notable goal against Atlético Madrid.

Seedorf playing against former club Real Madrid. On the left Mesut Özil

At the end of the 1998-1999 season Real Madrid and Juventus wanted to swap Seedorf with the French player Zinedine Zidane, but the deal dind't go through. Zidane had to wait two more years before he could joint Real Madrid. Starting from the summer of 1999, Seedorf's role at Real Madrid became less prominent during the short term of Dutch coach Guus Hiddink at the club, and he was eventually transferred back to Italy during the 1999–2000 season – this time to Internazionale, for a fee about 44 billion Italian lira (about €23M).

Internazionale

Despite helping the team to the Coppa Italia final in 2000, a game that was eventually lost, Seedorf could not help bring any major silverware to the club. However, he will be remembered by many Inter fans for his two goals against Juventus in a 2–2 draw on the 9 March 2002, both of which were superb long-range efforts.

Milan

Seedorf with Milan against Arsenal.

After two years with Internazionale, Seedorf moved to city rivals Milan in 2002, exchanged with Francesco Coco. He won the Coppa Italia with Milan in 2003, which was the first time they had won the competition in twenty-six years. In the same season, Seedorf gained his third Champions League medal, to become the first player to win the Champions League with three different clubs. The all Italian final saw Milan beat Juventus on penalties after a 0–0 draw, despite Seedorf failing to convert his own penalty.

The following season, 2003–2004, Seedorf played a role in the Milan side that won Serie A. It was also Seedorf's fourth national league title win of his career, after his two Dutch title wins with Ajax and his one Spanish win with Madrid.

Seedorf played a major role as Milan reached the Champions League final again in 2005. He started the Istanbul tie against Liverpool in which Milan contrived to lose a 3–0 lead, eventually losing on penalties after a 3–3 draw. Seedorf did not take any of those spot-kicks. Milan also finished runners-up in the Scudetto to Juventus in 2005.

A match-fixing scandal tarnished Serie A and Milan were weakened by the scandal but were allowed to continue in Europe the following season, which led to their best players staying at the club. Seedorf's role as foil to Kaká became increasingly impressive as the pair combined in style to score and supply the goals which drove Milan past Bayern Munich and Manchester United to another Champions League final, again against Liverpool, beating them 2–1 in Athens, with Seedorf collecting his fourth UEFA Champions League medal. In that same year, Seedorf was a part of a Milan squad which won the FIFA Club World Cup, becoming the first European player to win the trophy with three different clubs (Ajax in 1995 and Real Madrid in 1998). He ended up winning the Silver Ball for the competition.

At the end of the 2006–07 season, Seedorf was voted best midfielder of the Champions League. He played his 100th game in the Champions League on 4 December against Celtic.

In Milan, Seedorf has formed a formidable midfield partnership with Gennaro Gattuso and Andrea Pirlo, which began since the 2002–03 season. This midfield trio is still used in the starting line-up, although their form has declined over the last two years. Under the guidance of coach Carlo Ancelotti, their role was to support an attacking midfielder, whether it be Rivaldo, Rui Costa, Kaká, or Ronaldinho.

Seedorf became the foreigner with the most appearances for AC Milan following a game against his former club, Sampdoria, which he scored in. At 395 appearances, he passed Nils Liedholm for this historic milestone. During the Sampdoria game, he also became the ninth highest scoring foreigner for AC Milan at 58 goals.

He won his second Scudetto with Milan in the 2010-11 Serie A season, where he once again played a vital role. No longer a starter, coach Massimiliano Allegri got the best out of Seedorf by using him sparing, but often and usually subbed him on late in games as an impact player where his lack of speed and agility would not detriment his game as much. In this role he thrived and the fans reignited their love for him. He scored four goals and made thirty six appearances in the 2010-11 season, very impressive for a thirty-five year old midfielder.

Seedorf added yet another medal to his trophy cabinet in the first official game of the 2011-12 season where he played the full 90 minutes in a 2-1 comeback win over rivals F.C. Internazionale in the Italian Supercup. He scored the winning goal of Milan's first win of the 2011-12 Serie A campaign.

Seedorf was ranked 7th of the 20 best players of the Champions League, since it started 20 years ago. Although many say that he shoud be ranked much higher than that, because he is the player with the most Champions League titles. The ranking was done by Champions, the official magazine of UEFA.

International career

Seedorf has played in Euro 1996, (where his penalty miss proved decisive in the quarter final shootout defeat to France), the 1998 World Cup, Euro 2000 and Euro 2004.

On 12 November 2006, Seedorf was recalled for the first time since June 2004 as a replacement for the injured Wesley Sneijder. He started and played the full 90 minutes in a 1–1 friendly draw against England. Seedorf won the last of his 87 caps for the Netherlands in 2008. In Euro 2008 qualifiers against Romania (0–0 at home) and Slovenia (1–0 away win), Seedorf played 4 and 6 minutes. There were doubts on his position within the national team, as Marco van Basten favoured younger players such as Rafael van der Vaart, Wesley Sneijder and Robin van Persie. On 13 May 2008, Seedorf announced that he would not take part in Euro 2008, due to his ongoing conflict with Van Basten.

Other work

Seedorf has dabbled in media-related work during recent years. He joined the BBC's team covering the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, working as a television pundit alongside more established broadcasters such as Gary Lineker and Alan Hansen. He also presented a number of features for the BBC coverage, including one about Robben Island. Seedorf was widely praised for his contribution to the BBC's coverage, with a Daily Mail article praising his "classy, informed stints in the BBC studio".

Because of his strong connection with the country Suriname where Seedorf was born, he is involved in many social development projects there. He built his own "Clarence Seedorf Stadium" in the district of Para in Suriname. In this stadium the Para Juniors League of Suriname is being held and the teams of the Suri Profs & Brothers play there regularly. With his Champions for Children Foundation he supports projects for good causes in Suriname. For this Suriname has honoured him to Commandor of the High-Order of the Yellow Star and recently in 2011 the Netherlands also honoured him to Knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau.

On 5 June 2009 Clarence Seedorf announced at a press conference after a meeting with Nelson Mandela that he had become the Nelson Mandela Foundation’s latest Legacy Champion. He joins Patrice Motsepe, Tokyo Sexwale, David Rockefeller, Peggy Dulany and Bill Clinton, who are also members of a select group of philanthropists who are helping to ensure that Mr Mandela’s legacy lives on.

Career statistics

As of 11 February 2012

Template:Football player club statistics 1 Template:Football player club statistics 2 |- |1992–93||rowspan="3"|Ajax||rowspan="3"|Eredivisie||12||1||3||0||3||0||18||1 |- |1993–94||19||4||2||0||2||0||23||4 |- |1994–95||34||6||||||11||0||45||6 Template:Football player club statistics 2 |- |1995–96||Sampdoria||Serie A||32||3||2||1||colspan="2"|-||34||4 Template:Football player club statistics 2 |- |1996–97||rowspan="4"|Real Madrid||rowspan="4"|La Liga||38||6||4||0||colspan="2"|-||42||6 |- |1997–98||35||6||2||1||11||0||48||7 |- |1998–99||37||3||5||1||10||3||52||7 |- |1999–00||10||0||0||0||6||0||16||0 Template:Football player club statistics 2 |- |1999–00||rowspan="3"|Internazionale||rowspan="3"|Serie A||20||3||5||2||0||0||25||5 |- |2000–01||24||2||4||0||7||3||35||5 |- |2001–02||20||3||2||1||10||0||32||4 |- |2002–03||rowspan="10"|Milan||rowspan="10"|Serie A||29||4||3||2||16||1||48||7 |- |2003–04||29||3||5||0||8||0||42||3 |- |2004–05||32||5||4||1||13||1||49||7 |- |2005–06||36||4||2||1||11||1||49||6 |- |2006–07||32||7||5||0||14||3||51||10 |- |2007–08||32||7||0||0||7||2||39||9 |- |2008–09||33||6||1||0||7||0||41||6 |- |2009–10||29||5||0||0||8||1||37||6 |- |2010–11||30||4||0||0||6||0||36||4 |- |2011–12||15||3||3||1||5||0||23||4 Template:Football player club statistics 365||11||5||0||16||0||86||11 Template:Football player club statistics 4393||59||36||9||112||12||541||80 Template:Football player club statistics 4120||15||11||2||27||3||158||20 Template:Football player club statistics 5578||85||52||11||155||15||785||111 |}

Template:Football player national team statistics |- |1994||1||1 |- |1995||7||3 |- |1996||11||2 |- |1997||7||0 |- |1998||12||1 |- |1999||7||0 |- |2000||10||2 |- |2001||4||1 |- |2002||2||1 |- |2003||7||0 |- |2004||9||0 |- |2005||0||0 |- |2006||1||0 |- |2007||8||0 |- |2008||1||0 |- !Total||87||11 |}

Honours

Club

Ajax

• Eredivisie (2): 1993–94, 1994–95
• KNVB Cup (1): 1993
• Johan Cruijff-schaal (2): 1993, 1994
• UEFA Champions League (1): 1995

Real Madrid

• La Liga (1): 1996–97
• Supercopa de España (1): 1997
• UEFA Champions League (1): 1998
• Intercontinental Cup (1): 1998

Milan

• Serie A (2): 2003–04, 2010–11
• Coppa Italia (1): 2002–03
• Supercoppa Italiana (2): 2004, 2011
• UEFA Champions League (2): 2003, 2007
• UEFA Super Cup (2): 2003, 2007
• FIFA Club World Cup (1): 2007

Individual

• Dutch Talent of the Year (2): 1993, 1994
• FIFA 100
• UEFA Best Midfielder Award (2): 1997–1998, 2006–07
• FIFA Club World Cup Silver Ball (1): 2007
• UEFA Team of the Year (2): 2002, 2007
• Real Madrid Team of the Century: 2008
• Commander of the Honorary Order of the Yellow Star of Suriname: 2007
• Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau of the Netherlands: 2011
• L'Equipe's all-time European Cup dream team
• Nelson Mandela Leagacy Champion

External links

• Clarence Seedorf official website
• Clarence Seedorf at Wereld van Oranje (archived) (in Dutch)