EDWIN VAN DER SAR

'Edwin van der Sar' (born 29 October 1970 in Voorhout) is a professional Dutch footballer who plays as a Goalkeeper. He is captain of the Dutch national team and plays club football for Manchester United in the English Premier League. He was a member of the 2006-07 PFA Team of the Year.

Contents

Club career

Early career

Moving to the Premiership

International career

Honours

Club

Ajax

Fulham

Manchester United

Individual

Personal life

References

External links

Club career

Early career

Van der Sar began his career at Foreholte (Voorhout's local football team), then moving to VV Noordwijk, where he was spotted by Ajax. After going through the ranks of Ajax's youth system, he enjoyed a long and successful Ajax career, winning the UEFA Champions League in 1995, as well as many other awards (including the UEFA Cup in 1992). In total, he made 226 appearances for Ajax. He was named Best European Goalkeeper in 1993 and 1995.
He went on to play for Juventus, eventually losing his place to Gianluigi Buffon, which he called a betrayal, and "not a nice ending" of his career there. In total, he made 66 appearances for the Italian club. So far, he remains the first and only non-Italian to play in goal for Juve^[2].

Moving to the Premiership

His move to the premiership took him first to Fulham in 2001, reportedly for around £7.7 million. Initially signing a four year contract, he notched up 127 appearances for Fulham in his spell.

He later moved to Premiership club Manchester United on 1 June 2005 for a reported fee of £2 million, although the exact transfer fee was undisclosed. Van der Sar was signed to solve goalkeeper woes at Manchester United who had had a string of unsuccessful number 1s. Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson considers him the best goalkeeper Manchester United had since Peter Schmeichel.^[3] He renewed his original two year contract in December 2006, signing for a further year to keep him at the club till the end of the 2007-08 season.
Sir Alex Ferguson has publicly stated he sees no reason why van der Sar cannot continue to play for this time (at the end he will be nearing 38), saying: "Edwin's fit, lean and hungry and he can play for another two years, easy."
Van der Sar is nicknamed the Jolly Green Giant because of his height (197 cm or 6'6) and his green goalkeeper's kit at Manchester United.^[4]
On 4 February 2007, playing in a match against Tottenham Hotspur, van der Sar broke his nose in a collision with the Irish striker Robbie Keane.^[5]
On 5 May 2007 in a game for Manchester United against Manchester City he saved a penalty kick from Darius Vassell. That kept United ahead after Cristiano Ronaldo' s goal again from a penalty kick gave them the lead at the first half. Later, United's win confirmed their 9th league title.
On 5 August 2007, he helped Manchester United win their 16th FA Community Shield in club history, saving all three consecutive shots in a shootout after Manchester United and Chelsea played to a 1-1 draw at the end of regular time. He stopped the shots of Claudio Pizarro, Frank Lampard and Shaun Wright-Phillips.^[6]

International career

Van der Sar made his international debut on 7 June 1995 against Belarus. He has been in goal for all three recent eliminations from major competitions by penalties: Euro 96, 1998 FIFA World Cup and Euro 2000.
During the penalty shootout at the end of the Euro 2004 quarter-final against Sweden, van der Sar saved a penalty from Olof Mellberg.
Prior to the 2006 World Cup group match against Ivory Coast, van der Sar had not conceded a goal in 10 consecutive non-friendly matches and kept a clean sheet for 1,013 minutes, an all-time European record.
Van der Sar has represented the Dutch national team 118 times, which makes him Holland's most capped player. That also puts him in the top sixty most capped players of all time. As captain of the Netherlands, he broke Frank de Boer's record in the 2006 World Cup second round match against Portugal.
In spite of the disappointment of this Second Round loss, he confirmed that he will continue to play for the national team during the Euro 2008 qualifiers and the jointly hosted finals in Austria and Switzerland if Netherlands qualify, though he missed the Netherlands' 0-0 draw with Romania on 25 March 2007 due to a calf injury.

Honours

Club

Ajax

★ Eredivisie: 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998

★ KNVB Cup: 1993, 1998, 1999

★ UEFA Champions League: 1995

★ UEFA Cup: 1992

★ European Super Cup: 1995

★ Intercontinental Cup: 1995

Fulham

★ UEFA Intertoto Cup: 2002

Manchester United

★ FA Premier League: 2007

★ English League Cup: 2006

★ Community Shield: 2007

Individual

★ Best European Goalkeeper: 1993, 1995

Personal life

Van der Sar is married to Anne-Marie van Kesteren. The wedding ceremony took place at the Beurs van Berlage, the doorstep of Hotel Krasnapolsky, in Amsterdam, on 20 May 2006. Ruud van Nistelrooy was amongst those attending the ceremony.
The couple have two children: a son, Joe, and a daughter, Lynn. Joe was on pitch with his father celebrating with after he saved one penalty as the Netherlands beat Sweden 5-4 on penalties in the Quarter-finals of Euro 2004.

References

1. Edwin Van Der Sar Football Profile
2. Player profiles: Edwin van der Sar
3. Van der Sar pen new one-year deal at United
4. Sar celebrates record caps with special boots
5. Van der Sar eyeing swift return
6. {{cite web |date=2007-09-05 |url=http://www.manutd.com/default.sps?pagegid={B4CEE8FA-9A47-47BC-B069-3F7A2F35DB70}&newsid=449978 |title=Reds Lift Community Shield |publisher=ManUtd.com |accessdate=2007-09-05 }}

External links

★ Edwin van der Sar Official website at Icons.com

★ Profile and career stats

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