Aron Winter (born 1 March 1967) is a Dutch former professional football

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

and manager for

Suriname Suriname (; srn, Sranankondre or ), officially the Republic of Suriname ( nl, Republiek Suriname , srn, Ripolik fu Sranan), is a country on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the nor ...

. He has played for Ajax and

Sparta Rotterdam Sparta Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club based in Rotterdam. Established on 1 April 1888, Sparta Rotterdam is the oldest professional football team in the Netherlands. Sparta currently compete in the Eredivisie, the top flight ...

in the Netherlands, for Italian sides

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and

Inter Milan Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Inter i ...

, and for the Netherlands national team.

Club career

Ajax

Winter began his career with amateur club VV Unicum in

Lelystad Lelystad () is a municipality and a city in the centre of the Netherlands, and it is the capital of the province of Flevoland. The city, built on reclaimed land, was founded in 1967 and was named after Cornelis Lely, who engineered the Afsluitdi ...

, moved on to SV Lelystad, and the same year joined Ajax at the age of 19. His first game for Ajax was a match against

FC Utrecht Football Club Utrecht () is a Dutch professional football club based in Utrecht. The club competes in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football, and plays its home matches at the Stadion Galgenwaard. The club was formed in 1970 as a merg ...

on 6 April 1986, which Ajax won 3–0. Winter won two

KNVB Cup The KNVB Beker (; en, KNVB Cup), branded as the TOTO KNVB Beker for sponsorship reasons, is a competition in the Netherlands organized by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) since 1898. It was based on the format of the English FA Cup. Ou ...

s (1987 and 1988), the

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is ...

title (1990), the European Cup Winners' Cup (1987) and the UEFA Cup (1992).

Lazio

In 1992, he moved to the Roman team

, playing his first match against Sampdoria on 6 September, which Lazio tied 3–3.

Inter Milan

In 1996, Winter joined

, with whom he won the UEFA Cup in 1998. He had also played in the previous year's final, with the game going to penalties. However, Winter missed his penalty as Inter lost to

Schalke Fußballclub Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 e. V., commonly known as FC Schalke 04 (), Schalke 04 (), or abbreviated as S04 (), is a professional German football and multi-sports club originally from the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, North ...

Ajax return and Sparta Rotterdam loan

Winter left Inter for his former club Ajax in 1999. In 2001, he was loaned out to

. He played 32 games for Sparta Rotterdam and scored one goal before returning to Ajax to finish his career, and where he chose to retire in 2003.

International career

Winter was a member of the Dutch national team that won the 1988 European Football Championship, but made no appearances during the final tournament. He played in 1990 Italy World Cup where the Netherlands lost in 1/8 finals game against Germany. In the

1994 FIFA World Cup The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the country. The United States ...

, he scored a goal against

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

in the quarter-finals, making him the only player of Indian descent ever to score in a World Cup. He was also selected for the Dutch national team for

Euro 96 The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by European nations and organised by UEFA. It took place in England from 8 to 30 ...

, as well as the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France. Winter placed in Rijkaard's Euro 2000 squad. Having represented his national team 84 times, scoring 6 goals, Winter is currently the twelfth most capped player for the Dutch national team.

Style of play

Normally a central or holding midfielder, Winter was a hard-working and physical, yet elegant and classy team player of both quantity and quality. Owing to his development in the Ajax youth system, which was heavily influenced by the Dutch '' total football'' tactical philosophy, Winter was a versatile and well–rounded midfielder, who was capable of assisting his team both defensively and offensively, as well as creatively, courtesy of his physical, technical, and tactical qualities. Among his range of skills, he possessed significant stamina, acceleration, physicality, a good positional sense, intelligence, vision, passing, technique, and excellent striking ability from distance, as well as an ability to make late runs into the penalty box. Beyond his playing ability, he was known for his strong character, personality, consistency, composed playing style, correct behaviour, and leadership qualities, which made him a respected figure among his clubs' fans and teammates. In Italy, his best role was considered to be that of a left–sided central, offensive–minded box-to-box midfielder, known as the ''

mezzala A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

'' role in Italian football jargon, although he was also capable of playing on the right in a three–player midfield in a 4–3–3, a role in which he was often used during his time at Lazio. He would often start matches out wide before moving into the centre of the pitch. Moreover, he was also deployed on either the right or left flank, as a wide midfielder, wing-back, or full-back, in particular during his time with Inter; however these were not his favoured positions, and Italian pundits did not consider him to be as well–suited to these roles due to his less convincing performances. Winter was also occasionally used to great effect as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

under manager Guus Hiddink with the Dutch national team, with Elko Born of '' Bleacher Report'' even ranking him as the eight–best Dutch central defender of all time in 2014.

Managerial career

After three years as assistant coach for the Ajax first academy team, Winter signed a three-year contract with Canadian side

Toronto FC Toronto Football Club (commonly known as Toronto FC or TFC) is a Canadian professional soccer club based in Toronto. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home matches at BM ...

on 6 January 2011. Winter brought former colleague Bob de Klerk from Ajax to be his assistant coach, while

Paul Mariner Paul Mariner (22 May 1953 – 9 July 2021) was an English football player and coach. A centre forward during his playing days, Mariner began his career with Chorley. He became a professional player in 1973 with Plymouth Argyle, where he scored ...

was also brought in the same day as Director of Player Development. After a disappointing season opener against

Vancouver Whitecaps Vancouver Whitecaps Football Club is a Canadian professional soccer team based in Vancouver. They compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The MLS iteration of the club was established on March ...

that ended in a 4–2 away defeat on 19 March, Winter won his first game as Toronto's head coach the following week against Portland Timbers 2–0 in Toronto. Winter won his first trophy with Toronto in early July as Toronto defeated Vancouver 3–2 on aggregate to capture its third consecutive Canadian Championship, thereby earning a berth in the 2011–12 CONCACAF Champions League. Winter then guided Toronto to the Champions League semifinals, the first time a Canadian club had progressed that far in the competition. Toronto eventually lost 7–3 on aggregate to Santos Laguna. However, Toronto began the 2012 MLS season with nine straight losses, the worst start to a season in the history of the MLS. Toronto won its tenth match 1–0 versus Philadelphia on 26 May 2012, but it was not enough to save Winter's job, as the club announced on 7 June 2012 that he would be replaced by the director of player development,

. On 6 September 2022, Winter was announced as the interim coach for

. Winter succeeds Stanley Menzo, who was at the helm of the team for seven months before leaving to work at Beijing Guoan. Winter is set to coach Natio in a friendly against

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the coun ...

and a potential second opponent.

Personal life

Winter was born in

Paramaribo Paramaribo (; ; nicknamed Par'bo) is the capital and largest city of Suriname, located on the banks of the Suriname River in the Paramaribo District. Paramaribo has a population of roughly 241,000 people (2012 census), almost half of Suriname's po ...

. His cousin Ricardo Winter was also a former football player/manager who headed the Suriname national football team.Aron Winter adviseert Surinaams elftal, Nation Suriname, October 24, 2009
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Managerial statistics

Honours

Player

Ajax *

: 1989–90 *

: 1986–87 * European Cup Winners' Cup: 1986–87 * UEFA Cup: 1991–92 Inter Milan *UEFA Cup: 1997–98 Netherlands *

UEFA European Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations ( UEFA). The competition is conte ...

: 1988 Individual * Dutch Young Player of the Year: 1986

Manager

Toronto FC * Canadian Championship:

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrates ...

, 2012 Ajax (as assistant manager) *Eredivisie: 2018–19 *KNVB Cup: 2018–19

Career statistics

Club

:Source:

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Winter, Aron 1967 births Living people Sportspeople from Paramaribo Surinamese people of Indian descent Surinamese emigrants to the Netherlands Dutch people of Indian descent Sportspeople of Indian descent Dutch footballers Dutch expatriate footballers Netherlands international footballers AFC Ajax players S.S. Lazio players Inter Milan players Sparta Rotterdam players Eredivisie players Serie A players Expatriate footballers in Italy Expatriate soccer managers in Canada Association football midfielders UEFA Euro 1988 players 1990 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 1992 players 1994 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 1996 players 1998 FIFA World Cup players UEFA Euro 2000 players UEFA European Championship-winning players AFC Ajax non-playing staff Jong Ajax managers Toronto FC coaches UEFA Cup winning players Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Italy Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Canada Dutch football managers