Frank de Boer

Franciscus de Boer (born 15 May 1970) is a Dutch former professional footballer and current manager.

A former defender, De Boer spent most of his playing career with Ajax, winning five Eredivisie titles, two KNVB Cups, three Super Cups, one UEFA Super Cup, one UEFA Cup, one UEFA Champions League, and one Intercontinental Cup.

De Boer made his debut for the Netherlands in September 1990 against Italy.

He won both the 1991–92 UEFA Cup and 1994–95 UEFA Champions League while at Ajax, in addition to five Eredivisie titles and two KNVB Cups.

De Boer also played for the Netherlands in the 1994 and 1998 FIFA World Cups, and the 1992, 2000 and 2004 UEFA European Championships.

He later spent five years at Barcelona, where he won the 1998–99 La Liga title, followed by short spells at Galatasaray, Rangers, Al-Rayyan and Al-Shamal before retiring.

De Boer is the third-most capped outfield player in the history of the Netherlands national team, with 112 caps.

He captained Oranje to the semi-finals of both the 1998 FIFA World Cup and UEFA Euro 2000.

He is the twin brother of Ronald de Boer, with whom he was a teammate at Ajax, Barcelona, Rangers, Al-Rayyan, Al-Shamal and the Netherlands national team.

After retiring from playing, De Boer went into management with the Ajax youth team and as assistant to Bert van Marwijk with the Netherlands national team.

However, after signing a six-year contract extension with Ajax for the 1998–99 season, he and his twin brother Ronald took successful legal action to have it voided.

Ajax had a verbal agreement that if a lucrative offer for one brother came by, he would be released provided the other stayed.

Ajax, however, apparently backed down on that agreement after floating the club on the stock market and pledging to shareholders that it would hold both of the De Boers and build around them a team to recapture the Champions League.

After winning the 1998–99 La Liga title, they were unable to repeat their earlier triumphs.

He is well-remembered for the arching 60-yard pass which allowed Dennis Bergkamp to score the last-minute goal that eliminated Argentina in the quarter-finals of the 1998 World Cup.

In January 1999, Frank and Ronald de Boer signed for Spanish La Liga club Barcelona for £22 million, joining their former Ajax manager Louis van Gaal at the Camp Nou.

In 2000, Van Gaal was sacked by Barcelona and Frank suffered the ignominy of testing positive for the banned substance nandrolone a year later.

He was suspended but he was reinstated after a successful appeal.

During Euro 2000, hosted in his home country and Belgium, De Boer reached another semi-final with the Dutch team.

De Boer missed an important penalty kick in the first half of the semi-finals against 10-man Italy and another in the penalty shootout, which led to the Netherlands' elimination from the tournament.

De Boer briefly moved to Galatasaray in the summer of 2003 before joining his brother at Rangers in January 2004.

He made his Rangers debut in a 1–0 win away at Partick Thistle, but in his second appearance for the club he missed the decisive penalty in the shootout as Rangers lost to Hibernian in the Scottish League Cup semi-final.

He made a total of 17 appearances for Rangers, scoring two goals against Aberdeen and Dundee.

On 29 March 2003, in a home match against Czech Republic, De Boer became the first Dutch male footballer to gain 100 caps.

The De Boer brothers left Rangers after UEFA Euro 2004 to play the rest of their football careers in Qatar with Al-Rayyan.

He ended his international career after an injury forced him to be replaced in a quarter-final match with Sweden at Euro 2004.

The injury ruled him out from the semi-final match against Portugal, which the Netherlands lost 2–1.

A talented and well-rounded world-class defender, in addition to his defensive skills, De Boer was also known for his pace, technical ability, accurate passing, and leadership, which enabled him to carry the ball out of defence, play it out from the back, or contribute to his team's offensive play by initiating attacks and creating chances for strikers with long balls.

A versatile, intelligent, and elegant left-footed defender, with an ability to read the game and intercept loose balls, he was capable of playing both on the left and in the centre, and was even deployed as a sweeper.

He was also a dangerous set-piece taker, renowned for his accurate bending free kicks from anywhere around the penalty area.

De Boer announced his retirement from football in April 2006.

Having represented his national team 112 times, he was the most capped player in the history of the Netherlands national team, until Edwin van der Sar surpassed him.

In 2007, De Boer took up a coaching role at his former club Ajax where he was in charge of the club's youth sector.

In December 2010, he took over as manager of Ajax and went on to win the Eredivisie title in his first season.

During the 2010 World Cup, he was the assistant of the Netherlands national football team to manager Bert van Marwijk, together with retired player Phillip Cocu.

In 2013, he received the Rinus Michels Award for manager of the year in the Netherlands after leading Ajax to their third successive Eredivisie title.

The following year, he became the first manager to win four consecutive Eredivisie titles.

He then had brief spells managing in Serie A with Internazionale in 2016, Crystal Palace in the Premier League in 2017, and Atlanta United in MLS from 2018 to 2020.

De Boer was appointed head coach of the Netherlands national team in September 2020, but left less than a year later in June 2021 after the team's disappointing Euro 2020 campaign.

De Boer began his career as a left back at Ajax before switching to centre-back, a position he made his own for many years in the national team.