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Clarence Seedorf

Clarence Seedorf (born April 1, 1976 in Paramaribo, Suriname) is a Dutch-Surinamese football midfielder, who currently plays for Italian Serie A club A.C. Milan and the Netherlands national team. He is the only player to win the UEFA Champions League with three different clubs. He is the older brother of Chedric Seedorf, the uncle of Regilio Seedorf and a cousin of Stefano Seedorf. Clarence Seedorf is known for his powerful shots from long range and ability to use both feet.

Club career

Early career

Seedorf started his career as a right midfielder for Ajax Amsterdam during the early 1990s. He made his professional debut on November 29 1992 against FC Groningen at the age of 16 years and 242 days, making him the youngest debutant for Ajax ever. In his early career, he played a role in Ajax's Eredivisie winning years of 1994 and 1995. He was also a key member during Ajax's 1995 UEFA Champions League winning campaign. His performances during the season saw him move to Sampdoria in the summer of 1995, although he only spent one season there, scoring three goals.

Real Madrid

Seedorf moved to Real Madrid in 1996, helping that team regain the La Liga title in his first season. In his second season, 1997-1998, he played a major role in the team's Champions League success as Real Madrid secured a 1-0 victory over Juventus in the final, in his second Champions League title of his career. While playing for Real Madrid, Seedorf scored a notable goal against Atlético de Madrid, a shot from around 45 yards away. Seedorf's spell at Real Madrid ended when he was transferred back to Italy during the 1999-2000 season - this time to Inter Milan for £13.5m.

Inter Milan

Despite helping the team to the Coppa Italia final in 2000, a game that was eventually lost, Seedorf could not help bring any major silverware to the club. However, he will be remembered by many Inter fans for his two goals against Juventus in a 2-2 draw on the 9th March 2002, both of which were superb long-range efforts.

A.C. Milan

After two years with Inter Milan, Seedorf moved to city rivals A.C. Milan in 2002. He won the Coppa Italia with Milan in 2003, which was the first time they had won the competition in twenty-six years. In the same season, Seedorf gained his third Champions League medal with a third different team, after an all Italian final in which AC Milan beat Juventus on penalties after a 0-0 draw. As a result, Seedorf became the first and only player to have won Champions' League trophies for three different clubs. The following season, 2003–2004, Seedorf played a role in the AC Milan side that won Serie A. It was also Seedorf's fourth national league title win of his career, after his two Dutch title wins with Ajax and his one Spanish win with Real Madrid.

Seedorf played a major role as Milan reached the Champions League final again in 2005. He started the Istanbul tie against Liverpool in which Milan contrived to lose a 3-0 lead, eventually losing on penalties after a 3-3 draw. Seedorf did not take of those spot-kicks. Milan also finished runners-up in the Scudetto to Juventus in 2005.

Another strong season by Milan in 2006, with Seedorf a key figure in most games in partnership with Andrea Pirlo, Kaká and Rino Gattuso, saw the team fall just short of another Champions League final when they were narrowly defeated in the semi-finals by eventual winners Barcelona.

A match-fixing scandal tarnished Serie A and Milan were weakened by the scandal but were allowed to continue in Europe the following season, which led to their best players staying at the club. Seedorf's role as foil to Kaká became increasingly impressive as the pair combined in some style to score and supply the goals which drove Milan past Bayern Munich and Manchester United to another Champions League final, again against Liverpool FC, beating them 2-1 in Athens, with Seedorf collecting his fourth UEFA Champions League medal. In the following season, Seedorf was a part of AC Milan squad which won the FIFA Club World Cup, becoming the first European player to win the trophy with two different clubs (Real Madrid in 1998). He ended up winning the Silver Boot for the competition.

At the end of the 2006-2007 season, Clarence Seedorf was voted best midfielder of the Champions League. He played his 100th game in the Champions League on December 4 against Celtic.

International career

Seedorf has played in Euro 96, the 1998 FIFA World Cup, Euro 2000 and Euro 2004. However, many have suggested that his national career could have been even more impressive if he had not let an argumentative and rebellious streak get the better of him on several occasions. In addition, he has a long history of underperforming during critical moments while playing for the national team. This was one of the reasons why current national team coach Marco van Basten decided to ignore Seedorf when he was appointed coach after Euro 2004. Thus, Seedorf did not play in the World Cup 2006 qualifying series, as well as missing out on the FIFA World Cup itself.

On 12 November 2006, Seedorf was recalled for the first time since June 2004 as a replacement for the injured Wesley Sneijder. He started and played the full 90 minutes in a 1-1 friendly draw against England. In Euro 2008 qualifiers against Romania (0-0 at home) and Slovenia (1-0 away win), Seedorf played 4 and 6 minutes. There were doubts on his position within the national team, as Van Basten favoured players such as Rafael van der Vaart, Wesley Sneijder and Robin van Persie. On 13th May 2008 Seedorf announced that he would not take part in Euro 2008, due to his ongoing conflict with Van Basten.

Career statistics

|- |1992-93||rowspan="3"|Ajax||rowspan="3"|Eredivisie||12||1||colspan="2"|-||3||0||15||1 |- |1993-94||19||4||colspan="2"|-||2||0||21||4 |- |1994-95||34||6||colspan="2"|-||11||0||45||6 |- |1995-96||Sampdoria||Serie A||32||3||2||1||colspan="2"|-||34||4 |- |1996-97||rowspan="4"|Real Madrid||rowspan="4"|La Liga||38||6||colspan="2"|-||colspan="2"|-||38||6 |- |1997-98||36||6||colspan="2"|-||11||0||47||6 |- |1998-99||37||3||colspan="2"|-||8||3||45||6 |- |1999-00||10||0||colspan="2"|-||6||0||16||0 |- |1999-00||rowspan="3"|Internazionale Milano||rowspan="3"|Serie A||20||3||5||2||colspan="2"|-||25||5 |- |2000-01||24||2||4||0||7||3||35||5 |- |2001-02||20||3||2||1||10||0||32||4 |- |2002-03||rowspan="7"|Milan||rowspan="7"|Serie A||29||4||3||2||16||1||48||7 |- |2003-04||29||3||5||0||8||0||42||3 |- |2004-05||32||5||4||1||13||1||49||7 |- |2005-06||36||4||2||1||11||1||49||6 |- |2006-07||32||7||5||0||14||3||51||10 |- |2007-08||32||7||colspan="2"|-||7||2||39||9 |- |2008-09||3||1||||||||||||65||11||colspan="2"|-||16||0||81||11287||41||32||8||86||11||404||60121||15||colspan="2"|-||25||3||146||18472||67||32||8||127||14||631||89 |}