Daniël Robin Frederick de Ridder (born 6 March 1984) is a Dutch former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

. He played as a winger operating either on the right or left side but would occasionally play a more advanced role. He represented

Ajax Ajax may refer to: Greek mythology and tragedy * Ajax the Great, a Greek mythological hero, son of King Telamon and Periboea * Ajax the Lesser, a Greek mythological hero, son of Oileus, the king of Locris * ''Ajax'' (play), by the ancient Greek ...

Celta Vigo Real Club Celta de Vigo (; ), commonly known as Celta de Vigo or simply Celta, is a Spanish professional football club based in Vigo, Galicia, that competes in La Liga, the top tier of Spanish football. Nicknamed ''Os Celestes'' (The Sky Blues) ...

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...

Wigan Athletic Wigan Athletic Football Club () is an English professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1932, ...

, Hapoel Tel Aviv,

Grasshopper Grasshoppers are a group of insects belonging to the suborder Caelifera. They are among what is possibly the most ancient living group of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago. Grasshopp ...

Heerenveen Heerenveen (, fry, It Hearrenfean ) is a town and municipality in the province of Friesland (Fryslân), in the Northern Netherlands. In 2021, the town had a population of 29,790 (1 January) while the municipality had a population 50,859 (1 July). ...

RKC Waalwijk RKC Waalwijk () is a Dutch professional football club based in Waalwijk, that is currently competing in the Eredivisie. Its name is derived from 'Rooms Katholieke Combinatie' ('Roman Catholic Combination' in Dutch) and was established as a merger ...

and

Cambuur SC Cambuur, also known as Cambuur Leeuwarden, or simply Cambuur, () is a Dutch Association football, football club from the city of Leeuwarden formed on 19 June 1964. They currently play in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football league sy ...

. Since 2016, De Ridder has worked as a pundit for football program ''NOS Eredivisie op Vrijdag''.

Early and personal life

De Ridder was born in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

to a

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

father and a

Jewish-Israeli Israeli Jews or Jewish Israelis ( he, יהודים ישראלים, translit=Yehudim Yisraelim) are Israeli citizens and nationals who are Jewish through either their Jewish ethnicity and/or their adherence to Judaism. The term also include ...

mother. He is

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

and speaks

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

Club career

Ajax

He worked his way up to first-team selection from Ajax's youth department, making his full debut in an away game against

Roda JC Sportvereniging Roda Juliana Combinatie Kerkrade (; Ripuarian: ), also known as Roda JC Kerkrade () or commonly Roda JC or Roda, is a Dutch professional football club based in Kerkrade, Netherlands. Roda JC Kerkrade plays in the Eerste Divisi ...

on 21 January 2004, and scored his first goal against Willem II on 16 May. De Ridder was a regular throughout the second half of the campaign, starting nine games and appearing a further six times as a substitute. De Ridder made his

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

debut in September 2004, coming on as a 69th-minute substitute in a 4–0 defeat at

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), also known as FC Bayern (), Bayern Munich, or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional men's football team, which pla ...

. In December 2004, he was offered an improved contract until June 2007. Part of the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

side that reached the second qualifying round of the UEFA European Under-19 Championship in 2002–03, De Ridder stepped up to the U21s as the 2006 UEFA European Championship qualifying campaign kicked off. De Ridder was told prior to the 2005–2006 season that there would be no room for him in the squad and he could expect little playing time if he decided to stay.

Celta Vigo

De Ridder joined

Celta de Vigo Real Club Celta de Vigo (; ), commonly known as Celta de Vigo or simply Celta, is a Spanish professional football club based in Vigo, Galicia, that competes in La Liga, the top tier of Spanish football. Nicknamed ''Os Celestes'' (The Sky Blues ...

permanently on 31 August 2005. On 25 September 2005, De Ridder made his official debut for Celta when they beat

Sevilla Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spain, Spanish autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the Guadalquivir, River Gua ...

, allowing the Galician club to temporarily top

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men's ...

. On 3 April 2006, De Ridder scored his first official goal for Celta against

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), known simply as Atleti in the Spanish-speaking world and commonly referred to at international level as Atlético Madrid, is a Spanish profess ...

. Throughout the second half of the campaign he was a regular for Celta, but they were relegated to the

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commercially known as LaLiga SmartBank for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spanish football league system. Administrated by the Lig ...

at the end of the 2006–07 season.

Birmingham City

De Ridder signed for

on a free transfer on 3 July 2007. He made his

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

debut on 12 August 2007 as a substitute in the opening match of the season against

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

, but injured his ankle within minutes of coming on and was unable to complete the match. Though starting the

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

defeat at

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. T ...

, he was not considered fit enough for League games until after the October international break, when he made a substitute appearance against

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

. He was a key player in Birmingham's 3–2 win against

on 27 October 2007 in which he made his full home debut. De Ridder's last game for the club was in January 2008 in the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

, manager

Alex McLeish Alexander McLeish (born 21 January 1959) is a Scottish professional football manager and former player. He played as a defender for Aberdeen during their 1980s glory years, making nearly 500 League appearances for the club, and won 77 caps for ...

considering him better suited to a style of play which placed more emphasis on passing than did Birmingham's. His contract was cancelled by mutual consent at the end of the season.

Wigan Athletic

He joined

the next day on a free transfer and signed a three-year deal. De Ridder got his first assist against

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East End ...

coming off the bench and swinging in an 89th-minute corner for a dramatic Titus Bramble equalizer. He was released by Wigan at the end of the 2010–11 season.

Loan to Hapoel Tel Aviv

De Ridder moved to Israel and signed for Hapoel Tel Aviv on loan until the end of the season on 20 January 2010 after failing to make an appearance for Wigan Athletic in the 2009–10 season. Hapoel Tel Aviv were surprised to learn that De Ridder did not have an

Israeli passport The Israeli passport ( he, דַּרְכּוֹן יִשְׂרְאֵלִי, ''Darkon Yisre'eli''; ar, جواز سفر إسرائيلي) is a passport issued to Israeli citizens to enable them to travel outside Israel, and entitles the bearer to th ...

since the age of 3 and would have to register him as a foreigner. The club then approached the Interior Ministry to check what allowances could be made to register De Ridder as an Israeli since he is

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...

ish. During his time with Hapoel, De Ridder scored a crucial goal against

Bnei Yehuda Tel Aviv F.C. Bnei Yehuda Tel Aviv F.C. ( he, מועדון כדורגל בני יהודה תל אביב, ''Moadon Kaduregel Bnei Yehuda Tel Aviv''), commonly referred to as Bnei Yehuda (), is an Israeli football club from the Hatikva Quarter of the city of Te ...

in the 46th minute (which won the game for Hapoel). He also scored the third goal against F.C. Ashdod, a game which Hapoel won 4–0. He won the Israeli Cup and the Israeli Championship with Hapoel Tel Aviv in 2010.

Grasshopper Club Zürich

On 9 July 2011, De Ridder signed a two-year contract with

Grasshopper Club Zürich Grasshopper Club Zürich, commonly referred to as simply GC, GCZ, or Grasshoppers, is a multisports club based in Zürich, Switzerland. The oldest and best known department of the club is its football team. With 27 titles, Grasshopper holds the ...

. Through his first 11 games for the club, De Ridder assisted two

Swiss Super League The Swiss Super League (known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a Swiss professional league in the top tier of the Swiss football league system and has been played in its current format since the 2003–04 season ...

goals.

International career

Ever-present in the qualification games of the Netherlands U-21 team along with

Klaas-Jan Huntelaar Dirk Jan Klaas "Klaas-Jan" Huntelaar (; born 12 August 1983) is a Dutch former professional footballer who played as a striker. Huntelaar played for PSV, De Graafschap, AGOVV Apeldoorn, Heerenveen, Ajax, Real Madrid and Milan, before joining S ...

, De Ridder entered the finals as the most experienced member of the Netherlands' U-21 squad with 18 caps. He scored the decisive goal in the match against

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

which ensured qualification for the semifinals. The Netherlands went on to win the

UEFA U-21 Championship 2006 2006 UEFA European Under-21 Championship was the 15th staging of UEFA's European Under-21 Championship. In December 2005, Portugal was selected to host the finals of the competition, which took place from 23 May–4 June 2006. The tournament was w ...

. In 2007 De Ridder was called up by Jong Oranje coach

Foppe de Haan Foppe Geert de Haan (, born 26 June 1943) is a Dutch association football, football coach. He is known for his long association with Friesland, Frisian club SC Heerenveen. De Haan was the manager of the Tuvalu national football team during 2011 ...

to be part of his squad for the 2007 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship held in the Netherlands. De Ridder participated in their first round group match against

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

(1–0 win) and after the match against

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

(2–1 win) they secured a semifinal spot and qualification for the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

. In the semifinals against

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

(1–1, 13–12 after 32

penalty kick A penalty shot or penalty kick is a play used in several sports whereby a goal is attempted during untimed play. Depending on the sport, when a player commits certain types of penalties, the opposition is awarded a penalty shot or kick attempt. ...

s) De Ridder scored and missed one of the penalty kicks. In the final against

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

(4–1), De Ridder provided the pass from which

Otman Bakkal Otman Bakkal (born 27 February 1985) is a Dutch retired international footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. He began his career at PSV, and was loaned to Den Bosch, Eindhoven, Twente and Feyenoord. After making a permanent move to ...

made it 1–0. In the second half De Ridder created the opportunity for

Ryan Babel Ryan may refer to: People and fictional characters *Ryan (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) *Ryan (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name) Places Australia * Division of Ryan, an elector ...

to put the Netherlands 2–0 up, and in the 87th minute

Luigi Bruins Luigi Bruins (born 9 March 1987) is a Dutch professional association football, footballer who plays as an Midfielder#Attacking midfielder, attacking midfielder for VV Smitshoek. After being declined by Feyenoord at the age of six, the Rotterdam ...

scored a tap-in from a De Ridder move to make it 4–1. The Netherlands won the

UEFA U-21 Championship 2007 The UEFA European Under-21 Championship 2007 were held from 10 June 2007 to 23 June 2007. It was the 16th staging of UEFA's European Under-21 Championship. Summary For the first time, a host nation was chosen ahead of the competition – the Neth ...

Honours

Ajax *

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 c ...

: 2003–04 *

Dutch Super Cup The Johan Cruyff Shield (, ) is a football trophy in the Netherlands named after Dutch footballer Johan Cruyff, also often referred to as the Dutch Super Cup. The winner is decided in one match only, played by the winner of the national footba ...

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

Hapoel Tel Aviv *

Israeli Premier League The Israeli Premier League ( he, ליגת העל, ''Ligat Ha`Al'', ), is a professional association football league which operates as the highest division of the Israeli Football League – the state's league of Israel. The league is contested b ...

: 2009–10 *

Israel State Cup The Israel State Cup ( he, גביע המדינה, ''Gvia HaMedina''), is a knockout cup competition in Israeli football, run by the Israel Football Association (IFA). The State Cup was first held in 1928 as the People's Cup. Because it involve ...

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

Netherlands U21 *

UEFA European Under-21 Championship The UEFA European Under-21 Championship, the UEFA Under-21 Championship or simply the Euro Under-21, is a biennial football competition contested by the European men's under-21 national teams of the UEFA member associations. Since 1992, the compe ...

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

Individual *Talent of the Year (NOS Award): 2004

References

External links

Voetbal International profile
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ridder, Daniel de 1984 births Living people Dutch footballers Netherlands under-21 international footballers AFC Ajax players RC Celta de Vigo players De Ridder, Daniel De Ridder, Daniel Hapoel Tel Aviv F.C. players Grasshopper Club Zürich players SC Heerenveen players RKC Waalwijk players SC Cambuur players Eredivisie players La Liga players Premier League players Israeli Premier League players Jewish Dutch sportspeople Dutch Jews Dutch expatriate footballers De Ridder, Daniel Expatriate footballers in Spain Expatriate footballers in Switzerland Footballers from Amsterdam Dutch people of Israeli descent Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Spain Dutch expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Association football wingers Jewish footballers