Maarten Stekelenburg

Maarten Stekelenburg

Personal information
Full name	Maarten Stekelenburg
Height	1.97 m (6 ft 5+1⁄2 in)
Position(s)	Goalkeeper
Team information
Current team	Ajax
Number	1
Youth career
	Zandvoort'75
	Schoten
1997–2001	Ajax
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
2001–	Ajax	165	(0)
International career‡
2004–	Netherlands	34	(0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 21:53, 11 July 2010 (UTC) ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 19:30, 10 July 2010 (UTC)

Maarten Stekelenburg (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈmaːrtən ˈsteɪkələnˌbʏrx]; born 22 September 1982 in Haarlem) is a professional Dutch football goalkeeper who currently plays for Ajax and the Netherlands national football team.

Stekelenburg is product of the renowned Ajax youth system, where he followed in the footsteps of Edwin van der Sar. Besides being Van der Sar's replacement at Ajax, he has also replaced him in the Dutch national team, with whom he reached the final of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Club career

Ajax

Stekelenburg began his career at Zandvoort '75 before joining VV Schoten, which he left for Ajax when he was 15 years old. He made his official debut for Ajax on 24 February 2002, in a game against NAC Breda. At the start of the 2002–03 season he won his first prize when Ajax won the Johan Cruijff-schaal. In 2004 he and Ajax won the Eredivisie championship, having played 10 matches that season.

He became the first goalkeeper at Ajax in the 2005–06 season. In 2006 he won his first KNVB Cup. At the start of the 2006–07 season he won his second Johan Cruijff-schaal, which he helped his team defend the next season, and later on in 2006–07, he won his second KNVB Cup.

Stekelenburg was named Ajax "Player of the Year" for the 2007–08 season, succeeding Wesley Sneijder. During the 2008–09 season, he lost his place in the goal to Kenneth Vermeer due to injuries and weak performances. He re-established himself as the first-choice keeper under new manager Martin Jol.

International career

Stekelenburg made his international debut for the Netherlands on 3 September 2004 against Liechtenstein, whom they beat 3–0.

2006 FIFA World Cup

He was called up by then manager Marco van Basten for the squad of the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, but he did not play any game during this tournament as Edwin van der Sar was first choice.

Stekelenburg playing for the Netherlands

Euro 2008

Despite his international debut in 2004, Stekelenburg was called up to Marco van Basten's Euro 2008 squad to play as understudy to Edwin van der Sar. He took part in the Group C match against Romania on 17 June. With Netherlands already having qualified for the quarter finals, coach Marco van Basten fielded a second-string side, to give players like Stekelenburg a game.

In a September 2008 friendly match against Australia, Stekelenburg was sent off after 44 minutes into the first half for fouling Joshua Kennedy. Stekelenburg is the first goalkeeper of the Dutch national side ever to receive a red card.

2010 FIFA World Cup

Since the retirement of Edwin van der Sar from the national team, Stekelenburg has been the first-choice keeper under manager Bert van Marwijk. Stekelenburg was included in the preliminary squad for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. On 27 May 2010, van Marwijk announced that he would be part of the final squad of 23 participating in the competition. Stekelenburg helped the Netherlands reach the final of the competition against Spain, conceding only 5 goals in the process. Despite making a number of notable saves in the final, he ended up on the losing side, conceding the only goal of the game to Andres Iniesta in the 116th minute of the match.

Statistics

Maarten Stekelenburg

As of 12 April 2010

Template:Football player statistics 1 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2002–03||rowspan="9"|AFC Ajax||rowspan="9"|Eredivisie||9||0||-||-||3||0||12||0 |- |2003–04||10||0||-||-||1||0||11||0 |- |2004–05||11||0||-||-||4||0||15||0 |- |2005–06||27||0||-||-||6||0||33||0 |- |2006–07||32||0||3||0||9||0||44||0 |- |2007–08||31||0||-||-||2||0||33||0 |- |2008–09||12||0||5||0||2||0||19||0 |- |2009–10||33||0||-||-||8||0||41||0 |- |2010–11||0||0||-||-||1||0||1||0 |- Template:Football player statistics 5165||0||8||0||36||0||209||0 |}

Honours

Ajax

• Eredivisie: 2003-04
• KNVB Cup: 2006, 2007, 2010
• Johan Cruijff Shield: 2003, 2007

External links

• Maarten Stekelenburg – FIFA competition record (archived)
• Official Ajax profile
• Template:Nl icon Wereld van oranje.nl Profile
• National Football Teams