Marco Van Basten

Van Basten is regarded as one of the greatest striker of all time. He played during 80’s and 90’s scoring 277 goals despite of his career ended soon due to a bad ankle injury. Van Basten was named European Footballer of the Year three times (1988, 1989 and 1992), a record that he shares with Platini and countryman Johan Cruijff. He was voted eight in a poll organised by the French weekly magazine “France Football” to elect the Football Player of the Century. He was called the “Swan of Utrecht” for his fine movements on the pitch.

Early Days

Marco Van Basten was born in Utrecht, Netherlands, on 31 October 1964, starting soon his footballer career at the age of 7 playing with a local team, UVV Utrecht. He grew up with Johan Cruijff myth and he couldn’t know that in a few years, he would play with his idol as team-mate and then coached by him. In fact in 1981 he signed his first great contract with legendary Ajax, only 17-years old, discovered by Ajax's scout.

His beginnings with Ajax

Marco's great potential was immediately recognised by Ajax coach and staff and he was promoted in the first team the following season. In his debut on 3 April 1982 against NEC Nijmegen, he substituted Johan Cruyff and he scored also a goal. During the next season he had more space in the starters and scored nine times in 20 Championship games and four goals in five Dutch Cup appearances. However, 1983-84 season was the most important for the player as he showed his amazing scorer skills placing the ball into the net 29 times in 32 official games and debuting with National team on 7 September 1983 in a match against Iceland.

He became top scorer in the following four seasons (from 1984 to 1987 ), becoming unstoppable for opposing defenders and winning Golden Boot award in 1986 with 37 goals in only 26 games.

In 1987 he won his first European title, the Cup Winners’ Cup scoring also the winning goal in the final against Lokomotive Leipzig.

After four years of stunning performances and goals, some great European clubs as Barcelona and AC Milan wanted to sign him. At the end Marco decided to join to the Italian club, managed by Silvio Berlusconi. He left Amsterdam in 1987 after 172 matches and 152 goals.

AC Milan

The transfer was a real bargain for the Rossoneri as the club paid the striker less than 800.000$. Anyway his first Italian season (1987-88) wasn’t so lucky, even if he scored at his debut against Pisa: he played only 11 games, scoring 3 goals, for a bad ankle injury, spending six months far from the field. He joined again to the team at the end of the season helping the club to win Serie A after nine years, and also the Italian Super Cup. He also joined to the winning Euro ‘88 campaign where he was absolutely decisive. At the end of that season two other great Dutch players, Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard, joined to the club, composing in the following years a spectacular Dutch trio with Van Basten, in a team that will be considered as one of the greatest in football history. 1988-89 season started very well as he won “European Footballer of the Year” award for his amazing European Championship and it ended better as Milan won the European Cup against Steaua Bucarest also thanks to his two goals.

At the end of the year once again he was awarded as European Footballer of the Year by France Football. He ended the season with 33 goals in 47 games, becoming Serie A top scorer with 19 goals and showing finally his great talent. In the season that followed, Van Basten scored again 19 goals in Serie A and won again European title with the club, this time defeating 1-0 Benfica.

In 1991 AC Milan was near to the third consecutive European title but they were eliminated by surprising Olympique Marseille in semi-finals. This has been one of most controversial match of Milan’s history as the team refused to continue the game after a floodlights failure on 87th minute, with Marseille leading 1-0. For this reason FIFA banned the Italian club from any European competition for a year.

So, this was a bad season for the club and Marco who ended it with only 11 goals, and felling out with coach Arrigo Sacchi. For this reason president Berlusconi decided to sack Sacchi, calling Fabio Capello as substitute. With Capello started another amazing winning sequence for the club. In 1991-92 season , Van Basten scored 25 goals, becoming Serie A “Capocannoniere” again and Milan won the title without losing only a game.

That year he won for the third time the Ballon d’Or and also named World Player of the Year by FIFA.
Marco started the next season (1992-93) with an impressive 4-goal matches against Napoli in Serie A and IFK Goteborg (including a stunning bicycle kick), which is still a UEFA Champions League record for the most goals scored by a player in a single match.

Everyone expected another great season for the player as he scored 12 goals in only 3 months but the season ended in a different way: after a contrast during a game against Ancona he suffered for an ankle injury as some years before in Ajax. Van Basten suffered another series of operations and returned to Milan for the final few domestic games before Champions League final that they lost 1-0 against Olympique Marseille, but he wasn’t the great footballer he used to be. Being operated for the fourth time in 1993 Van Basten had the feeling it was the farewell that time. Marco tried fighting the injury another two years but he was forced to end his career on 18 August 1995, during a Trofeo Berlusconi game. Over 70 000 supporters, including crying Fabio Capello, gave him a standing ovation while he was doing his lap of honour.

AC Milan and the World Football lost one of the greatest players of that period.

With National team

Marco Van Basten made his debut with Oranjes on 7 September 1983 in a match against Iceland when he was only 18. Two weeks later he scored also his first goal with Netherland in a match against Belgium. However the great glory moments came at Euro ’88: having skipped most of the season matches for the ankle injury, Van Basten was only a substitute in Holland's team for the tournament held in Germany. In the first match Netherlands played a rather poor football which resulted in a bad defeat with USSR. Dutch coach, Rinus Michels decided to shift Marco to the starting eleven for the next group match against the English squad, taking the right decision. The striker played one of the best matches in his career, scoring a hat-trick and sending England back home.

In the semi-final game against the host Germany, Marco scored the winning goal on 88th minute of the match and thanks to that strike Holland made it through to the final of Euro competition where they met USSR again.

This time Oranjes showed great football and defeated 2:0 the rivals with once again a goal by the “Swan of Utrecht”: this goal is considered as one of the most outstanding goals in the history of football. In 54th minute of the game Marco struck a looping volley at an incredible angle, beating the Russian goalkeeper.

The Dutch team won the first European title of their history. With 5 goals, Van Basten became the top scorer of the Euro '88, and named the best player of the competition.
In 1990 Netherlands were named one of the favourites in the World Cup in Italy. However on the pitch this was completely different. Oranjes did not win a single match and were knocked out of the tournament after the match against the Germans, lost 1-2.
In 1992 Dutchs had to defend their European title and Van Basten was in that period at the top. Holland reached semi-finals but losing against the surprising Denmark after penalty shootout. Van Basten, a penalty specialist, sensationally was the only one to miss his penalty, saved by Peter Schmeichel. This was the last game with Netherlands for this great player.

Coach career

After retirement from football he tried to coach. He took a course with the Royal Netherlands Football Association (KNVB) and his first charge was as assistant to his former team-mate John Van 't Schip with the second team of Ajax in 2003-04. On 29 July 2004, Van Basten had the prestigious charge of new manager of Netherlands national team.
Under his management, Dutch were unbeaten in their World Cup qualification group and through the first round at Germany World Cup 2006 but they were eliminated by Portugal in round of 16. His last tournament was Euro 2008, where the Netherlands team surprised everyone with stunning first round performances but they were beaten by Russia in the quarter finals. On 22 February 2008 he has signed a four-year contract with Ajax.