#Edwin van der sar retirement age professional#
#Edwin van der sar retirement age free#

#Edwin van der sar retirement age professional#

He ended his career as a professional in 2011, but in 2016, he briefly came out of retirement to participate in a game for the amateur Dutch team VV Noordwijk, for which he had previously played.

He was one of just eight players at the time to have won the competition with more than one club when he won his second Champions League championship there in 2008. He was a custodian who left Ajax in 1999 for Juventus, where he played for two years before making two moves to England, first to Fulham and then to Manchester United in 2005. He is a former Dutch football executive and professional player. He is regarded as a member of the club’s golden generation and was a member of the Ajax team that won the UEFA Champions League in 1995. He was most recently the chief executive of AFC Ajax, where he started his senior playing career in the early 1990s. Throughout his career, especially while playing for Ajax, he occasionally served as a “sweeper-keeper” because of his skill with the ball and ability to sprint off his line. That means places for Darron Gibson, Danny Welbeck and, possibly, Gabriel Obertan, while the fit-again Park Ji-sung may also be in line to play.Van de Sar – a large, athletic, yet slender goalkeeper who excelled at coming off his line to handle crosses due to his height and physique, Van der Sar was regarded as one of the greatest and most complete keepers in football history.Īn intelligent goalkeeper, in addition to his reflexes, excellent positional sense, and shot-stopping abilities, he was also known for his calm composure, longevity, and his ability to organise his defence. With United qualified for the Champions League's knockout phase, Ferguson intends to field the sort of team tomorrow that would be used in the earlier rounds of the Carling Cup. He and Tomasz Kuczszak will fight it out, I am sure of that.' 'He needs big-game experience because he hasn't got that, but Edwin is 39 so there will be an opportunity one day. 'I have said that all along and it does not change the boy has terrific ability,' he said. Foster had an erratic start to the season while Van der Sar was injured but he has remained in Fabio Capello's England plans and Ferguson is not swayed on his opinion that United have England's best goalkeeper on their payroll. He is a very intelligent man, he understands his body better than anyone and will make the right judgment.'įerguson is an admirer of Igor Akinfeev, the CSKA Moscow goalkeeper, but ideally the United manager wants either Kuszczak, or preferably Foster, to show that Van der Sar has a dependable long-term successor. I don't know his plans and when you get to that age and have a young family you wonder whether he does have plans to go back to Holland. Usually, around Christmas time he will outline his plans, how long he can go on, and we will wait for that.

'He has come back from his injury well after missing the start of the season.

However, Ferguson admitted he had 'no indication' whether Van der Sar would continue. Replacing him has not been easy for Holland and Sir Alex Ferguson faces the same dilemma at Old Trafford, with neither of the Dutchman's understudies, Ben Foster and Tomasz Kuszczak, making a substantial case to challenge for his place on a permanent basis.įerguson has adopted a policy of resting Van der Sar in United's more inconsequential games and that means a return for Foster tomorrow, when Besiktas visit Old Trafford in a Champions League tie with little resting on it. However, the lure of being involved in the fourth World Cup of his 20-year career is strong and Van Marwijk is keen to bring in the two-time Champions League winner and two-time European goalkeeper of the year.

#Edwin van der sar retirement age free#

He has told associates that he has said no 'so far' and is enjoying the benefits from having a free schedule when Holland now meet, spending the last international break on holiday with his family in Dubai. He has turned down the first approach but there is a sense that he is open to more talks and willing, at the very least, to discuss the idea. He was playing on that occasion only after a special request from the manager, Bert van Marwijk, because Maarten Stekelenburg and Henk Timmer were both injured, and the Dutch football federation is now hoping that he can be persuaded to return for a second time if there is the promise of playing in South Africa next June. Van der Sar has not played for Holland since winning his 130th cap, against Norway in a World Cup qualifier 13 months ago.