Mark van Bommel
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| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Height | 1.87 m (6 ft 2 in) | ||
| Position(s) | Midfielder | ||
| Team information | |||
Current team | FC Bayern Munich | ||
| Number | 17 | ||
| ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of June 25, 2006 | |||
Mark Peter Gertuda Andreas van Bommel aka Mark van Bommel (born April 22, 1977 in Maasbracht, Netherlands) is a Dutch footballer who currently plays for FC Bayern Munich. He is also the son in law of current Borussia Dortmund coach Bert van Marwijk.
Early career
Van Bommel started his amateur career at local club RKVV Maasbracht before earning a professional contract with Fortuna Sittard in 1992. His other colleagues at Fortuna at that time who would later join PSV Eindhoven alongside him were Wilfred Bouma and Kevin Hofland.
PSV Eindhoven
Van Bommel was signed by PSV in 1999 where he formed a midfield partnership with Swiss international Johann Vogel. He won three Eredivisie titles and two Johan Cruijff Shields with the club. He was also named Dutch Player of the Year in 2001 and 2005.
In his final season with PSV, having assisted the team to the Dutch league title and a Champions League semi-final place, he was expected to join his father-in-law Bert van Marwijk who currently manages the Bundesliga side Borussia Dortmund, but Van Bommel opted to stay at PSV until the end of the 2004/2005 season.
After the Champions League semi-final loss to AC Milan, he was linked with a move to FC Barcelona, Real Madrid and AC Milan. With the Eredivisie title in PSV's hands at the end of April, he confirmed he would join FC Barcelona in May 2005 after the Catalonian club captured La Liga.
FC Barcelona
With Frank Rijkaard as his new coach at Barcelona, Van Bommel played 24 matches scoring twice in his first season, winning the Primera Liga and the UEFA Champions League with players such as Ronaldinho, Samuel Eto'o and Ludovic Giuly.
FC Bayern Munich
On August 26, 2006 Bayern Munich team manager Uli Hoeneß announced van Bommel would be joining the Bavarian side. Media reports speculated that the move was influenced by the ongoing Owen Hargreaves transfer saga, but Hoeneß insisted the club intended to go forward with both players[1]. Bayern Munich paid $7.7million to Barcelona in the deal.
International Career
His debut for the Dutch national team was on October 7, 2000 against Cyprus which was won 4-0. However, for 'Oranje', he did not make an appearance in a major tournament until 2006, with the Dutch national team failing to qualify for the 2002 FIFA World Cup and injury preventing him from playing during Template:Ec2 in Portugal.
Despite the move to FC Barcelona, the Dutch national team manager Marco van Basten was dissatisfied with Van Bommel's defensive performance in the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification match against Romania and was subsequently not selected for the rest of the qualification series.
With many Dutch football observers believing Van Bommel's international career to be over, he was selected back into the Dutch side for the 2006 FIFA World Cup.
In the 2006 World Cup, Van Bommel played in all the games of the Netherlands except against Argentina. His position in the team was as right-half. His duties were mainly to play the anchor role in midfield. He was the first of many players booked in the second-round match against Portugal dubbed 'The Battle of Nuremberg' by the press. After the World Cup Van Bommel was no longer called up for the Euro 2008 qualifiers versus Luxembourg and Belarus. In september 2006 he was added to Van Basten's squad to face Bulgaria; however Van Bommel stated (alongside Ruud van Nistelrooy) to no longer play for Oranje as long as Van Basten is in charge.[1] Van Bommel has won 40 caps and has scored 7 goals for the Dutch national team.
External links
- Official Marc van Bommel website
- Mark van Bommel profile, stats, honours and more on footballdatabase.com
References
- ^ Van Bommel frozen out by Van Basten regime, soccernet.espn.go.com, 1 October 2006
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