Franklin Edmundo Rijkaard (; born 30 September 1962) is a Dutch former football manager and player who primarily played as a defensive midfielder. He is regarded as one of the greatest midfielders of all time.
Rijkaard played for Ajax, Real Zaragoza and AC Milan. With Ajax, he won five Eredivisie titles and the 1994–1995 Champions League. With AC Milan, he won Serie A titles, as well as the 1988–89 and 1989–90 European Cup (Champions League) titles.
Rijkaard earned 73 caps for the Netherlands national team. He was part of the team that won the 1988 European championship and finished third in the 1992 European championship. He also played in the 1990 and 1994 World Cups.
In his managerial career, he is most well known for his five-year tenure at Barcelona where he won the 2004–05 and 2005–06 La Liga titles, as well as the 2005–06 Champions League, their first since 1992. He has also managed the Netherlands national team, Sparta Rotterdam, Galatasaray and the Saudi Arabia national team.
Playing career
Ajax Rijkaard was born in Amsterdam. His father Herman (1935–2010) was a Surinamese footballer who arrived in the Netherlands along with the father of Ruud Gullit and his mother Neel is Dutch; the two boys grew up playing football together in the city. Rijkaard was just 17 when Ajax coach Leo Beenhakker gave him his senior squad debut on 23 August 1980. He made an immediate impact, scoring the third goal in a 4–2 away victory over Go Ahead Eagles, the first league match in the 1980–81 season. He would play another 23 games for Ajax in his first season, netting four goals. In 1981–82, he won his first league championship with Ajax and went on to successfully defend the title the following season.
Rijkaard stayed at Ajax for seven-and-a-half seasons. During this period, he won the Dutch league championship three times (1981–82, 1982–83, 1984–85) and the Dutch Cup three times (1982–83, 1985–86, 1986–87). In the 1986–87 season, he won the Cup Winners' Cup with Ajax over Lokomotiv Leipzig, winning 1–0.
Sporting and Zaragoza In September 1987, what would have been Rijkaard's third season (1987–88) under Dutchman Johan Cruyff as head coach, Rijkaard stormed off the training field and vowed never to play under him again. He was subsequently signed by Sporting CP, but he signed too late to be eligible to play in any competition. He was immediately loaned out to Real Zaragoza, but upon completing his first season at Zaragoza was signed by AC Milan.
AC Milan Rijkaard played for five seasons at Milan. Playing alongside fellow country-men Marco van Basten and Ruud Gullit, Rijkaard won the European Cup twice (in 1989 against Steaua București and 1990, against Benfica) and the domestic Serie A championship twice. In the 1990 European Cup Final, he scored the only goal to win the cup for Milan.
Return to Ajax After five seasons in Italy, Rijkaard returned to Ajax in 1993. With Louis van Gaal at the helm, Rijkaard and Danny Blind formed the experienced defensive core of the Ajax team that won the first two of three consecutive Dutch championships. Ajax were the unbeaten champions of the Netherlands in the 1994–95 season, and carried that success into Europe. In his final game, Rijkaard won the Champions League with a 1–0 victory over his former club Milan in the 1995 final at the Ernst-Happel-Stadion in Vienna.
International career
In 1981, Rijkaard debuted for the Netherlands national football team during a friendly match against Switzerland. He was part of the Dutch side that won UEFA Euro 1988 with a 2–0 victory in the final against the Soviet Union, playing at centre-back alongside Ronald Koeman.
At UEFA Euro 1992, Rijkaard set up Dennis Bergkamp's only goal of the match in the Netherlands' opening victory against Scotland, and scored the opening goal in a 3–1 victory over Germany in their final first round match, which allowed them to top their group. At the semi-final stage against eventual champions Denmark, after setting up Bergkamp's opening goal, Rijkaard scored a late equalizer for the Netherlands in a 2–2 draw, but the Dutch went out on penalties, despite Rijkaard successfully netting his spot-kick. In the quarter-finals of the 1994 FIFA World Cup, he made his final appearance for the Netherlands in the 3–2 defeat against eventual winners Brazil.
Spitting incident Rijkaard was the cause of an incident with Rudi Völler when West Germany played the Netherlands in the second round of the 1990 FIFA World Cup. Rijkaard was booked for a tackle on Völler and, as Rijkaard took up position for the free kick, he spat in Völler's hair. Völler complained to the referee and was booked as well. From the resulting free kick, Völler then handled the ball and then went to the ground (according to his own account) to avoid a collision with Dutch keeper Hans van Breukelen, while others, notably Rijkaard and van Breukelen, saw Voller's handball and his resulting action as a dive in hopes for a penalty. Van Breukelen was angry at this but Rijkaard, already annoyed by Völler's previous antics, again confronted the West German by twisting his ear and stamping on his foot. Argentine referee Juan Carlos Loustau sent off both Rijkaard and Völler. As he jogged back to the entrance tunnel, Rijkaard again spat in Völler's hair as they left the pitch. Germany won the match 2–1 and eventually went on to win the tournament. The German press nicknamed him "Llama" for his spitting. Rijkaard would later apologise for his behaviour to Völler, who accepted.
Style of play and reception Regarded as one of the greatest players ever in his position, Rijkaard was a quick, strong, complete and tenacious defensive midfielder, who was praised by pundits throughout his career for his physical and athletic attributes, his work rate, positioning, his acute tactical intelligence and decision-making, as well as his outstanding consistency and ability to read the game. Due to his aggression and versatility, he was also capable of playing as a central or box-to-box midfielder, and even in a defensive role, usually in the centre. Although Rijkaard was known as a strong tackler, he was surprisingly elegant for a player of his size, and also possessed good technique, passing ability, link-up play, and vision, which made him adept at starting attacking plays as a deep-lying playmaker once he won back possession. He was also capable of playing in more advanced roles as an attacking midfielder or second striker. Due to his height and physical strength, he excelled in the air; possessed a powerful shot; and was capable of getting forward and contributing to his team's attacking plays by making late runs into the penalty area. Rijkaard was described by British broadsheet The Daily Telegraph as having been "a stylish player of faultless pedigree". In 2004, Rijkaard was named in the FIFA 100, Pelé's list of the 125 World's Greatest Living Footballers.
Managerial career
Netherlands Rijkaard worked as assistant to Guus Hiddink with the Netherlands national team during the 1998 World Cup; this was his first experience of coaching, as he had taken a break from football after retiring as a player. At the World Cup, the Netherlands lost the semi-final to Brazil on penalties. When Hiddink resigned as manager, Rijkaard was chosen as his replacement, although he was not first choice.
As the Netherlands were joint hosts of UEFA Euro 2000, they did not take part in the qualifiers, playing only friendlies for two years. In Rijkaard's first game, the Netherlands beat Peru 2–0. Between October 1998 and November 1999, they did not win a single game, drawing nine and losing to Morocco and Brazil.
At Euro 2000, the Dutch team topped the group with three wins; 1–0 against the Czech Republic, 3–0 against Denmark and 3–2 against France. In the quarter-final, they beat Yugoslavia 6–1, breaking the record for the biggest win at a European Championship. The Netherlands played some of the best football of the tournament, but lost their semi-final match to ten-man Italy on penalties, having also missed two penalties in regular time; Rijkaard resigned immediately afterwards."Rijkaard quits after semi-final loss" . BBC Sport. 29 June 2000. Retrieved 2 April 2013. It was rumoured that he would move to Italy to coach his former club Milan, but this did not happen.
Sparta Rotterdam During the 2001–02 season, he became manager of Sparta Rotterdam in the Eredivisie, the oldest professional team in the country. Rijkaard said that he enjoyed the down-to-earth atmosphere, although the club was not financially strong."King of cool sits well amid frenzy of Camp Nou" . The Guardian. 19 February 2005. Retrieved 2 April 2013. Under his leadership, Sparta played in the relegation playoff and finished bottom, relegating the club to the second division for the first time in its history.
Rijkaard resigned after their relegation, having received a death threat.
Barcelona
First years Rijkaard was not out of a coaching role for long, and less than a year after leaving Sparta, he was appointed manager of Barcelona for the 2003–04 season, with Albert Roca and Henk ten Cate as assistants. The season would prove to be a watershed for the club, but not without initial instability. Rijkaard arrived at the club as it entered a new phase, having elected a new president in Joan Laporta and a new managerial board, but with fans unhappy that Laporta had let English midfielder David Beckham snub the chance to join the club. For Rijkaard, the team he inherited, with the exception of new superstar signing Ronaldinho (who was the club's second choice after Beckham), also consisted of many underachieving players from the old guard and era that failed to meet the club and its fans' demands to match archrival Real Madrid's success in the early 2000s, having not won a trophy since 1999.
Rijkaard had a disappointing start at Barcelona that saw some sections of the club's fans call for his resignation, and he drew flak from the media when the team lost to Real Madrid in December 2003. Rijkaard's resilience won through and from 2004 onwards, he achieved a massive turnaround, as the team went from strength to strength. Barcelona finished runners-up in La Liga in 2003–04, having been close to the relegation zone at one point in the earlier stages of the season. Rijkaard then took Barcelona to the next level as he phased out the old guard and rebuilt a new-look side around Ronaldinho, with new players like Deco, Samuel Eto'o, Rafael Márquez and Ludovic Giuly, along with the latest promotion of some young players from the previous era trained in the club's youth teams, including Víctor Valdés, Lionel Messi and Andrés Iniesta. He eventually succeeded in turning around the fortunes of the club, with the strong support of Laporta, and within the next couple of years finally managed to win La Liga both in 2004–05 and in 2005–06.
Champions League title and after
Rijkaard became the first Barcelona coach to have won twice at Real Madrid's Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, an achievement which even successful managers like Johan Cruyff, Louis van Gaal and Luis Aragonés were unable to accomplish. His no-nonsense policy on and off the field, and the sparkling football played by his team, won him many plaudits and Rijkaard was among the five nominated coaches for UEFA's Team of the Year 2005. On 8 March 2006, he was also honoured by UEFA for his contributions to the European Cup competition throughout his career as player and manager.. UEFA. 9 March 2006. Retrieved 2 April 2013.