Bye-bye to a fan hero: De Ridder joins Celta de Vigo
31 August: Daniël de Ridder had only 35 official
appearances for Ajax-1, but the fact that he's a (Jewish!)
Amsterdammer and a typical Ajax player who genuinely
loves his club made him extremely popular with
the fans. Unfortunately for the right winger, the coaches he
worked with did not rate him as highly. Today Ajax
announced the sale of De Ridder to Spanish Primera
División side Celta de Vigo.
This morning countless football news sources in The
Netherlands (NOS Teletekst, VI.nl, Sportweek), Spain
(newspaper Marca) and England (
Sky Sports) reported that Ajax and Celta had agreed a one
year loan deal including an option for the Spanish outfit to
land De Ridder permanently at season's end. Ajax.nl did
not confirm the news. Now we know why: De Ridder has been
sold. The transfer fee remains undisclosed as usual. He
will sign a two year contract.
Daniël de Ridder (born Amsterdam, 06 March 1984) was
born in the neighborhood of De Pijp, in Amsterdam's
'Old South'. He started playing football for local amateur
side AFC, but was discovered by Ajax scouts at age nine and
entered the Ajax youth system. For many years De Ridder was
generally regarded as one of the brightest
prospects at De Toekomst. A great career seemed ahead for
the stylish right winger, who could also play as a 'number 10'.
De Ridder had the skill, the moves, the swagger and the looks
to become a great Ajacied.
However, when the player reached the age to make
the jump from Young Ajax to the first team, the head-coach of
Ajax-1 (Ronald Koeman) had his doubts. In December 2003
Koeman decided to add a right winger from De
Toekomst to his squad for the winter break friendlies in
Portugal, but much to everyone's surprise he
did not select De Ridder but Tom De Mul, right winger of
Ajax A1 and two years younger than De Ridder.
Due to an unexpectedly high number of injuries De Ridder
did make his unofficial Ajax-1 début after
all, on
07 January 2004 in a friendly at Heracles Almelo.
His official début followed two weeks later,
in the Eredivisie away game at Roda JC on
21 January 2004. Four days earlier than De Mul after
all...
Everyone agreed that De Ridder had a string of
good performances as a starter (9 appearances in
total in his first season), but he dropped back to Young
Ajax after a while. Ironically, the average Dutchman first
got to know Daniël de Ridder after he had disappeared
from the spotlights of the Amsterdam ArenA: on
15 April 2004 Ajax hooligans attacked Young Feyenoord
players after a reserves game at De Toekomst. Feyenoord starlet
Robin van Persie seemed to be the number one target. De
Ridder received tons of praise in the media for bowing
over Van Persie and protecting him with his body.
During the pre-season campaign, in the summer of
2004, Koeman once again opted for De Mul and announced
that he wanted to buy another right winger. On
30 August 2004 the club bought Mauro Rosales. A
disappointed and frustrated Daniël de Ridder was suddenly
third choice for the position of right winger and was told by
Koeman that he had to focus on the position of right
midfielder instead.
De Ridder hardly got a serious chance to
prove himself in the first half of the 2004-2005 season.
Just when the youngster was on the verge of despair
(he almost cried in an emotional interview on AT5
television) Ronald Koeman expressed his faith in him in a
personal talk and offered him an extended and improved deal
until 2007, which De Ridder penned on
22 December 2004.
Remarkably, De Ridder's position hardly improved.
Head-coach Ronald Koeman resigned in February 2005, but his
successor Danny Blind is known as a 'De Mul fan'. De Ridder
played well during the pre-season campaign in the summer of
2005, but when the season started he was told that
he should not count on too many Ajax-1 minutes
and that he was free to look out for a new club. Tottenham
Hotspur and Olympique Marseille were said to be seriously
interested, but - on the day the UEFA transfer window closes
- Celta landed the tremendously popular Ajax
youngster.
Who would ever have thought that the Ajax-1 career
of Daniël de Ridder would end this way,
this early...? His career at the club he
loves never really got started. Daniël de Ridder had
30 appearances in the Dutch Eredivisie (3 goals) and 5 in
UEFA competition (1 goal), in most cases as a substitute. Sadly
enough, his last game in the Ajax jersey was a dramatic
one: De Ridder was red carded for fighting during Young
Ajax - Young RKC Waalwijk, last week.
At Celta de Vigo De Ridder can start with a clean sheet. The
Ajax fans hate to see him go and are secretly hoping that
one day he will return home to prove Koeman and Blind
wrong.
Daniël, good luck at Celta de Vigo. Show
'em what you're capable of. To us you will always be an
Ajacied. (MP)
Source: Ajax.nl
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